They are going to erase me
By John Meng, Publisher/Editor Most Americans no longer believe in the First Amendment. You cannot voice your opinion without someone being offended or shouting you down. The Cancel Culture mob is destroying our monuments which remind us of our history, our religion, the battles we fought, and the sacrifices made to get where we are today. They employ harsh public shaming, economic boycotts and fear tactics to force major corporations and sports leagues to kowtow. The very fabric of our American society and our unique history are being erased.
I might be next.
While there is no single organized group to point to, the term ‘Cancel Culture’ which has so ignominiously thrust itself into our American vernacular generally refers to the popular practice ‘canceling’ public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered offensive. Cancel culture tactics are most often seen on social media in the form of group shaming, but there are vast radical elements which are physically tearing down historical monuments, attacking Federal buildings, and defiling national landmarks.
Journalist George Packer, who is best known for his writings for The New Yorker and The Atlantic about U.S. foreign policy, called the Cancel Culture “a mechanism where a chorus of voices, amplified on social media, tries to silence a point of view that they find offensive by trying to damage or destroy the reputation of the person who has given offense.”
In social media, opinion pieces and books, conservatives continue to denounce the “‘growing intolerance” for opposing viewpoints and the destruction of lives and careers. However, the liberal left remains silent. To my knowledge, not one liberal politician has denounced the violence or spoke in defense of our American heritage or the Constitution.
A Politico/Morning Consult poll released two weeks ago showed 44 percent of Americans disapprove of the Cancel Culture, while 32 percent approve and the remaining 24 percent had no opinion or didn’t know what it was.
This statistic is frightening. If this poll is correct, nearly two-thirds of Americans either approve of censorship on a scale never before seen in this country, or they had no opinion.
These are dangerous times. But we’ve seen them before.
In 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) deliberately destroyed and stole priceless artifacts that represented the cultural heritages found in Iraq, Syria and Libya.
From 1966 to 1977, Chinese dictator Mao Tse Tung launched his so-called cultural revolution to purge all remnants of capitalism and traditional elements from Chinese society.
In the 1930s, Adolph Hitler’s Sturmabteilung, aka Brown Shirts, were infamous for their thuggish criminal violence and intimidation against Hitler’s political rivals.
Today’s Cancel Culture mob in America is using the exact same tactics. And if you speak out against them or voice an opinion that is contrary to their ideas, they will shout you down, attempt to publicly humiliate you and smear your reputation.
Are we witnessing the coming of the thought police? Has the cancel culture mob simply traded in their Brown Shirts for black face masks?
In Jackson County, we are thankfully somewhat insulated from the anarchy that we see in the large metropolitan areas, such as Seattle, Chicago, Detroit and others. But, don’t be fooled. The Cancel Culture is out there and probably closer than you think. Just as COVID-19 spread throughout Texas as well as our county, so too has an insidious disease which attempts to mute anything and everything that is not politically correct.
Goya Foods, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States, located in Brookshire, Texas – a mere 73 miles from Jackson County – was the recent target of the leftist Cancel Culture mob which launched a nationwide boycott of Goya products because Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue had the shameless audacity to appear at a White House event and praise President Trump. Oh, the outrage!
So, yes, I will be erased. I have a voice and I’m willing to exercise my First Amendment rights. Therefore, according to the Cancel Culture mob, I must be silenced. I cannot be allowed to publicly speak a differing viewpoint.
But we all have voices. The Silent Majority cannot afford to be silent any longer. Let your voices be heard. Write Letters to the Editor to this newspaper. Post your opinions on-line and don’t be afraid to share your opinion with your representatives in local, state and federal government.
They need to hear from us. They need to know we will support them when they speak out on our behalf, support American values and defend the Constitution. Our voices need to be louder than the mob. Speak out…before all of our voices are canceled.