Cancel Culture Won’t Work in the Real World

I want to read controversial things

Do you know what we are lacking nowadays?

Someone with a different opinion. Not just that, but someone willing to share it. Someone with balls — actually you don’t need balls. Guts! That's what you need — guts. Someone who will stick their neck above the parapet and take that social media hurricane — which we know will come for them — right in the face.

A fair assumption would be that people on here want to gain followers and reads and engagement with their posts — I’m telling you, and promising, that I will be one if you do this.

I no longer reside on Twitter or Facebook. No matter. Every second article online or in the paper — yes, paper — keeps me up to date on the latest career to fall victim to cancel culture.

Sometimes correctly, but oftentimes very unfairly.

Like Winston Marshall. Feeling the need to quit his successful band due to the backlash of him praising an author of a book that was critical of the far-left. This was conveniently taken to be his approval of the far-right. It is just non-sensical.

Yet, in quitting, he felt he was better placed to speak out against the insecure keyboard warriors. This is a win for humanity.

We need more like this. People like Christopher Hitchens.

I would pay top dollar to hear him speak on today’s polarising issues. It is a shame he is no longer with us.

One of his greatest actions, going against the grain, was his unmasking of Mother Theresa and how effusively she dealt with convenient financial donors— If anyone said anything bad about her when I was in school, I am convinced that they would have been put up for expulsion.

But deep down or down deep, everyone knows he is right. That’s the thing about common sense, despite it not being common, most can recognize it when it slaps you in the face.

And, to a lesser extent, Joe Rogan. Say what you want about the guy and his wacky beliefs — here's looking at your covid vaccine — the most refreshing thing is that he is not afraid to air them. It’s not his fault if people aren’t able to decipher what to believe. Just enjoy his honest take and make of it what you will — while he can still offer it.

For people who don’t get why Rogan is popular. It’s simple: he is honest and authentic. Feel free to be both in your writing, it will help your cause.

And what about words themselves? Language and how we use it also fall into this gripe. I always wondered why cursing is frowned upon, particularly as it is so ubiquitous in everyday life.

Similarly, dark humor is presented as dying a slow death because of the Twitter mob’s rush to feel offended at every turn. But here’s the thing. Dark humor is necessary, needed, and still presents itself in all workplaces in some form or another and will continue to do so.

It is an effective human way of coping with challenges.

Despite striking a somewhat downbeat tone, I am optimistic that dictates from a few keyboard warriors will not make much of a dent in the real world. Because those propagating for such control of language and free speech — I can confidently state — do not get out there that much anyway.