Mediaboss Marketing

CLEVELAND, Ohio - There was a time, I think, when people not only knew what they stood for and why, but they basically understood what drove people on the other side of the political and philosophical spectrum. They might not agree, but at least they generally knew why they didnt agree.

In that way, the world made a certain amount of sense to us all.

But more and more, that seems not to be the case. We are an ever-increasing mystery to each other. This does not bode well for the chances of us reinstituting a cohesive society a shared goal of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness even if we have different ideas on how to get there.

For one example, I spent much of the last four years answering questions from my liberal friends that went something like this:

How can you defend such a (pick your disparaging description) as (pick your orange-themed insult) to be your president?

Sometimes the questioners were combative and demeaning, deserving of neither time nor geniality. But often enough they were earnestly attempting to understand how I, a person they liked, could vote for such a man. I would try to explain that I separated the boorish human being from the policies I preferred over what I considered to be a catastrophic alternative and was generally met only with sad, perplexed looks and a shake of the head.

For my part, Ive had questions too, and now that liberals seem to be in charge of everything, its as good a time as any to ask them.

The questions arent focused on one person, as had been the case from the other side during the recent quadrennial. Not that Im a Joe Biden fan but most of these issues predate him. And besides, I know that the only reason he is president today is that hes not Donald Trump.

My confusion stems from cancel culture, which is nothing new. But although it has become the province of the left, I have a hard time putting the liberals I know and respect together with it. To paraphrase the most famous thing that Mark Twain didnt say, everyone complains about cancel culture but nobody does anything about it.

And my question is, why not?

Who really supports the excesses of cancel culture? And if most on the left dont, then how and why has it amassed such power?

The urge to ridicule is strong, but lets keep it respectful and earnest, because Id truly like to know the thinking.

Bari Weiss, a former columnist and editor for The New York Times who resigned last summer after her own brush with cancel culture, earlier this month wrote a powerful indictment of the movement, and a call to action in opposing it. You can find it at tinyurl.com/baricol, and it is well worth reading

Weiss left after an outcry from her Times colleagues forced the ouster of editorial page editor James Bennet for the sin of publishing an op-ed by U.S. Senator Tom Cotton that called for using military force against recent rioters, which they said made them feel in danger. In her recent piece, she offers a partial list of those who have been punished by what she calls the illiberal left because of public wrongthink:

They are feminists who believe there are biological differences between men and women. Journalists who believe their job is to tell the truth about the world, even when its inconvenient. Doctors whose only creed is science. Lawyers who will not compromise on the principle of equal treatment under the law. Professors who seek the freedom to write and research without fear of being smeared. In short, they are centrists, libertarians, liberals and progressives who do not ascribe to every single aspect of the new far-left orthodoxy.

And instead of rebuttals, they are met with vengeful efforts to silence or punish.

Examples are everywhere:

A Rutland, Vermont, school principal named Tiffany Riley was fired last year because she made the following and similar statements on her personal Facebook page: While I want to get behind BLM, I do not think people should be made to feel they have to choose Black race over human race.

A UCLA lecturer named William Peris was investigated and condemned by the university for showing a film clip and reading Martin Luther King Jr.s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, in a virtual class on the history of racism, because both included the N word.

Actress Gina Carano was fired from her role in the Disney hit series The Mandalorian, and her action figure withdrawn, because she commented on social media that she thought there was fraud in the recent presidential election, and was skeptical about wearing masks during the pandemic.

In Burbank, California, middle and high school English teachers were warned not to use To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and other classic novels because of concerns over racist passages in the books.

And J.K. Rowling, author of the beloved Harry Potter books, has come under fire in recent months from several actors from the Harry Potter movies and many others, who have branded her transphobic, and a TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist).

Among her sins were her defense of a British government worker who lost her job for saying that people cannot change their biological sex, and for making fun of a headline on the environmental website devex, that used the term people who menstruate instead of women.

Dress however you please, Rowling responded in a tweet. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult wholl have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?

That seems a logical response to me, but that didnt stop her from being savaged by the woke mob and a host of former friends.

There are dozens hundreds of other examples, and more every day.

If your politics are progressive, does any of that make sense to you? If so, Id love to know why. And if not, why arent you calling your fellow progressives out on it? Is it just that youre afraid of being canceled yourself?

As Bari Weiss wrote, It is our duty to resist the crowd in this age of mob thinking. It is our duty to speak truth in an age of lies. It is our duty to think freely in an age of conformity Keeping the spirit of liberty alive in an age of creeping illiberalism is nothing less than our moral obligation.

Strong words, but is anyone listening?

Ted Diadiun is a member of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

To reach Ted Diadiun: tdiadiun@cleveland.com

Have something to say about this topic?

* Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication.

* Email general questions, comments or corrections regarding this opinion article to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com.

Read more:
Why are progressives allowing cancel culture free rein? Ted Diadiun - cleveland.com