Tag: Cancel Culture

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We are all sinners. This is one Christian teaching I have admired as it humbles, or it should humble, Christians when they are tempted to judge other people. Pope, Prince and Pauper — we are all sinners. It is the great equalizer. Christians would be wise to keep this teaching in mind instead of throwing their moral superiority around to influence public thinking. Unfortunately they rarely do. Instead they divide the world into two camps — Christians and everybody else. Moral people versus heathens. This type of American Christian enjoys pointing out everyone else sins and, because heathens continue to sin, these Christians are committed to making sinners lives as miserable as possible.

This divisive thinking among American Christians can be seen on a daily basis but a particularly vivid example of it occurred the other in the Florida Legislature. Republicans there passed a law saying that they don’t have to treat anyone if they disagree with them on moral grounds. The intention, as I understand it, is to enable doctors to refuse treatment of patients who they find morally dubious.

I am confused because aren’t these same Republicans and Christians complaining about cancel culture. They want to be able to be disagree on subjects like transgender treatment for children without fear of retribution from trans activists who would view this as transphobic. Since their stated goal is an open society where anyone can speak their mind freely without fear, its particularly annoying that whenever they get control of a legislature they try to cancel the groups that fails their morality tests. A morality test that is pretty much focused on people Christians view as sexually deviant. They aren’t complaining about treating robbers, rapists, adulterers and con men. Their focus is on doctors being forced to treat gay and trans people.

I didn’t know they were being forced to now. This is the first I heard of it. I would think if this is a widespread problem that the outrage machine at Fox News would have spread the news far and wide. Are any doctors in Florida complaining about being forced to take on Drag Queens and Trans patients? Don’t doctors have a pretty easy way of taking on patients they approve of without making much of a scene. If I call a doctor for an appointment and the receptionist catches my gay lisp, they can just say the doctor isn’t taking new patients and I wouldn’t be the least bit suspicious to hear that. It happens all the time. There is no need to get into a conversation about morality much less a law suit. As with many issues that the Republican Party take on, this isn’t a problem. It is a show tune song to please their constituents and not because there is a problem. Florida Republicans have made a mountain out of no hill. It does give the illusion of movement and that is all these legislators want.

Another big problem with this startling ill-considered law is it is so broadly written that non-Christians can use it too. This will be its undoing. What is to stop a Gay Doctor from saying I believe that Christian Republicans are evil and I refuse to take them on as patients. What happens if there is a mass casualty event and the police bring in the wounded gunman, can a doctor decline to treat him because he disapproves of murder? Would Emergency Rooms across Florida have to staff a cross section of faiths, sexual identities and political persuasions to accommodate all the different political and religious passions that inspire disapproval? Where exactly does this end?

What we have here is a solution to something that isn’t even a problem. Nothing will change. Doctors will carry on doing what doctors do without having any patients forced on them. Nobody will see the difference because nothing needed to change. There will be legal battles because, of course, this is what it is all about. Republicans want somebody to challenge this law so they can point how unreasonable their political opponents are because, of course, some Trans Activists will take the bait and bring suit.

It is a lot of fuss for nothing. Most doctors will treat any patient they have without question. If a person wants a gender reassignment, I am pretty certain that most Christian doctors aren’t experts in that particular field and will have to refer them to another doctor any way. Most gay people want a doctor they feel they can talk freely to and will choose someone who is sympathetic to them.

If there is a problem then I suggest these Christian doctors remember the teaching that we are all sinners. Every patient that a doctor treats has sinned and is going to continue sinning every day for the rest of their lives. They will sin because they are human. In the mean time, a body is a body. If you have the power to make someone feel better why not do it? What would Jesus do?

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Should somebody be allowed to say anything they want even if it is offensive to other people in the community or, more importantly, is offensive to people within a hearing distance of the speech? I am Free Speech absolutist. Say whatever you want. There is, however, a down side to speaking your mind freely. Someone who hears you is free to think you are an asshole. If they think you are an asshole, they can boycott your business and encourage others to boycott your business as well. I am perfectly fine with Free Speech practiced in this way.

A lot of Free Speech advocates are critical of what they see as Cancel Culture. They think that they can say anything about Trans People, as an example, without consequence. They think that good people just speaking their mind are losing jobs because Cancel Culture advocates disagrees with what they are saying and fight back. So what? What is wrong with trying to stop someone who disagrees with you. It certainly is their right to disagree and to organize against you.

But, then, Cancel Culture is stifling free speech. Only if you agree to shut up about it. This is what is so great about Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais. They continue to speak their minds freely even though there are people who passionately disagree with them. So far, both comedians are still in business even though they are being heavily criticized for what they are saying. Now, if you think that what you are saying is going to stop people from attending your shows or hiring you at comedy clubs, you are at choice. Stop saying what you are saying or continue to face the wrath. But, I’m afraid, you are also a really a bad advocate of Free Speech because you don’t like what people are saying about you because you practiced your right to Free Speech. That’s just not the way Free Speech works. Free Speech means saying what you want even though you know you are going to make people angry and still deciding to say it anyway. Complaining about Cancel Culture, however, makes you look incredibly lame.

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I am pretty much a free speech absolutist. Protecting idiots from free speech seems like a hopeless task. If some grifter is telling you to drink Clorox to prevent you from catching a disease, then I am pretty sure some day you will hear that message or a similar one and drink the Clorox. Besides the impossibility of protecting idiots, I also want to know what people are saying no matter how horrible or wrong it is. Not hearing bull shit, on the other hand, gives me the illusion that everyone in the world is in alignment with me. The ugly truth keeps me more in tune with what is actually going on.

However, this, oddly enough, still keeps me at odds with the people who endlessly whine about the horrors of cancel culture. Nobody has stopped them from talking. Yes banning incorrect and hostile speech is limiting speech. I agree. On the other hand, it clearly isn’t stopping free speech because these cancelled people or their supporters are writing incessantly about the dangers of cancel culture. The most prominent cancelled person in the world is Donald Trump. He still is talking. Journalists still are talking about what Trump says. Trump supporters still are hearing his commands. So, then, how has banning him from the Twitter cancelled him.

What people who are afraid of cancel culture are really saying is that there shouldn’t be any consequence to free speech. For example, they don’t want to be called racist or for people to boycott their businesses or for them to be removed from Twitter because of what they have said. But, isn’t that a fundamental part of free speech? You say something and then I get to react to what you say. What the anti-cancel culturers really want is to be free to say anything they want without repercussions. This is not free speech.

Cancel culture, for me, at least, has created a much more pleasant environment in which to talk. I can’t remember the last time I heard the casual use of racial or ethnic epithets. There was a time in the not so distance past when people said them openly and fearlessly. When I was 17, in the 1974, I took the El train in Chicago with my grandfather. At each stop, he would announce in a loud booming voice the ethnic group who resided near the stop. His designations were horrifyingly politically incorrect. I was mortified but nobody else seem particularly bothered by his narration and that is because there were no repercussions for the person saying them.

People wanted to be nice. I wanted to be nice. Besides, the people who used racial epithets were in every other way nice people, nothing I would say to them would change their mind. Why get into an argument with someone, particularly people who might have power over me, people like relatives or teachers or bosses, when if I can just ignore it and it kind of goes away. Until the next time. The lies we tell ourselves to keep our mouths shut.

Today people are much more careful. Most people, and that includes many people who might like to use racial epithets, know that if they use derogatory language they face consequences. Apparently, it is unpleasant to be called a racist and better to keep one’s mouth shut in order to avoid be called one. Good. I am absolutely fine with that. Let them censor themselves.

You see they are smart enough, or most of them are, to censor themselves. This means they are smart enough to know when they have slipped into racism or a topic that might be considered racist and therefore modulate their behavior accordingly. A new norm has been created about how people should talk with each other. One I much prefer because it saves me from having to hear the rubbish that comes out of their mouths. It also proves, although I suspect that they wouldn’t admit it, they do know what racism is and what is not. They are not some innocent lamb wandering into a field full of cancel culture wolves. They fully understand the situation.

In the meantime, please stop talking about how you are being cancelled. You are absolutely free to say anything you want but, now you are also aware that I don’t have to listen to your bullshit without you hearing my response. The choice is yours.