For the record, I don’t want anyone cancelled, not really.
I believe in accountability, in taking responsibility for our actions, but the idea of wholesale cancellation, of ruining people’s lives for a misstep, a poor turn of phrase, heck, even sometimes, just the perception of a poor turn of phrase…
It turns my stomach.
There are people who ought to be cancelled. Weinstein, obviously. Every motherfucker at Cornell involved in that Jane Doe shit.
Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, Vivek Ramaswamy, etc., etc., Republicans, etc.
These people have committed actual crimes, and show zero remorse for their godawful behaviour.
But in most cases, reaching out, education, is better than condemnation. Condemnation tends to make people defensive and push people into doubling down. It’s a tool to radicalize, mostly unintentionally, against the very people that condemned them in the first place.
It’s a bit like the way the Conservative Party in Canada deals with health care and education. The system’s not perfect, obviously, nothing is. But instead of looking at the problems and working with the healthcare industry or teachers to find solutions and common ground, they just break everything, and then go, see, it’s broken, damn those nurses and doctors and teachers, none of whom set the policies that created the break.
No one, and that means absolutely no one, ever, in history, is perfect.
Utopias are stupid and unreasonable.
Aim for improvement, not perfection. Aim for understanding, not condemnation. There is no joy in Whoville if they burn the Grinch at the stake.
His heart will not grow three sizes if it’s on fire.
Anyway, save the condemnation for the truly evil and the truly remorseless; their ouster from our society is key to our survival as a species. For everyone else…
Education and evolution. Understanding. Patience. Perspective.
Otherwise, all you’ve done is reveal your own myopia. Your own desire for the dehumanization of your perceived enemies.
And who really wants that? Is that going to solve our problems?
Or sow greater division?
Remember: kindness and empathy, understanding and compassion, are not some lefty plot or bleeding heart nonsense. They are not irrational.
They are the heart of logic. After all, what could be more logical that working together, helping each other, and taking the time to create greater understanding?
How could that possibly make the world a worse place?
Logically, it could only be better.
Target: 1700 words
Written: 1450 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth, Chris Hadfield
Comics: The Walking Dead 45-48
Music: Hell's Ditch, The Pogues