Over on the Facebook, a high school teacher of mine posted the following quote:
“Every totalitarian system has used the tactic of coercing people to affirm the regime’s agenda, even when they disagree. Forcing people to mouth politically correct dogmas that they know are false is designed to break their spirit and their resistance.” Nancy Pearcey
I often see this man’s posts and would love to respond to almost every one of them with a re-write of it. But this one got me, and I responded.
I wrote that the quote could be rewritten to be:
Substitute “Political correctness” with “Faith in Jesus” [and re-read it.]
I then wrote: I can agree with your statement [that political correctness] is designed to break the spirit and resistance, but I bet you that you cannot agree with mine.
He did not respond. But another man did and we ended up having a lovely conversation.
After our long conversation, he still didn’t respond to me, but to the other gentleman on the thread. He wrote:
“Certainly when you go to the extreme left or right you have different forms of political correctness. What scares me is the disappearance of the classical liberal who would agree with the conservative on the importance of free thought and expression. What the political left is doing in enabling the “woke” crowd and “cancel culture” to point that people are now afraid to say what they think. This is particularly alarming on college campuses where you now have only one accepted way of political and cultural thought that is allowed. For instance, in a recent survey of college professors 75% of professors who were conservatives have experienced discrimination or persecution for their beliefs. The documentary by Adam Corrola (an atheist liberal) and Dennis Praeger (a conservative practicing Jew) called “No Safe Spaces” is excellent in its discussion of these issues. The Wall Street Journal has also had some excellent op eds on this point. The really bad thing is that the left doesn’t realize that by enabling the Woke crowd and Cancel Culture that both will come for them in short order. In fact they have already started with attacks on Democratic offices and protests against Biden-Harris. Sometimes political parties should be very careful about what they wish for because they just might get it.“
His response was as if he picked up his same script that he forced down our throats as students and inserted some new references and plopped it on Facebook. It’s disingenuous at best.
The cancel culture bullshit isn’t strictly radical left ideology. From this source, it was coined by black people on Twitter.
Little to no actual thought is put into kvetching about cancel culture. Think about it. In the Christian culture that I was raised in, one is free to think about faith anyway he likes. Just don’t think Jesus isn’t God who died for your sins or you will get cancelled to hell.
Who started Cancel Culture again?
Adam and Eve were free in a perfect place but once they disobeyed they were cancelled, and every human after them would be cancelled if they don’t follow the theology of Jesus’s death, resurrection and ascension.
So was it the Jews?
Or was it the Nazis when they murdered six million Jews, and people of cultures like disabled people, homosexuals, poles, slavs, black Germans, or Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Political correctness is a cultural phenomenon used by several spots on the political spectrum. Some would argue that if you’re not a Trump supporter, you’re not a “real republican.” Or by the church, if you’re not an evangelical Christian, you’re not a “real Christian.” I grew up in an area where Catholics were cultural ignorant and therefore canceled. Maybe that’s why I married a Catholic.
What a rebel!
The terms used to describe one’s enemies are the exact terms that the enemy uses to describe his enemies. It’s like a dog licking its wounds. It might make the dog feel better, but to hear it is absolutely nauseating. If you can’t point out the fallacies in one’s own “world view” or world views, you’re in for a world of self deception and external dissent.
Pointing fingers is a way to make one’s insecurities feel less oppressive. Endlessly finding ways to put down your enemy is a way to bolster one’s fallacious ideas. I do it here. Openly. I know I’m insecure about not knowing everything. I will never know everything. It’s as impossible as a true comprehension of infinity.
If I have a perceived enemy, it could be said it’s people who believe differently than I do. But once I get to know them deeply and spiritually, it removes enemy status, and it makes me love them, but the insecurities are what drives yet another post on this blog.
Self-awareness of hypocrisies are the beginning to a road of discovery. People like my high school teacher want you to stop at, “I told you so, so don’t dig any further. You won’t find truth there.”
When we stop using buzzwords to define our enemies, we might just find common ground. When we stop using language we’ve used for decades, we might have a fighting chance to get along. To see those who we perceive as inferior as pretty damn cool.
Le Café Wittypoots 