{"id":4571,"date":"2026-08-14T12:09:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=4571"},"modified":"2026-08-14T12:09:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:09:01","slug":"cancel-culture-and-the-mark-of-cain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=4571","title":{"rendered":"Cancel Culture and the Mark of Cain"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Life was already ugly, but a lot simpler, in humanity\u2019s second generation. Abel paid the price his brother exacted, but at least without advance insult to his reputation. When Cain canceled his brother, it was mano a mano<\/em>. Today, he\u2019d have declared war on Facebook, dragged him through the mud on X, and his followers would have done the rest.<\/p>

Read more If Democrats Walk Like Socialists And Talk Like Socialists, Maybe They\u2019re Socialists<\/a><\/p>\n

Political correctness and wokeness paved the way to \u201ccancel culture,\u201d a modern construction of the social media-age, that visits exponentially greater and more immediate damage — social ostracism and even threats of harm — upon a perceived villain than ever previously available. Proponents of the practice see it as a way to enforce accountability. But if you\u2019re on the century side of 50, it\u2019s not your father\u2019s boycott. Nor is it a critique or a pointed op-ed. It is typically a campaign of hostile publicity, sometimes sadistic in its reach — into employment, finances, and even relationships, in addition to \u201cmere\u201d reputation — its practitioners seem obsessed with revenge. Schadenfreude is their addiction.<\/p>\n

\u2018Twas always thus: public shaming was never meant to rehabilitate the offenders. Stocks and pillories were to demoralize, disgrace, and humiliate. Just as important, they provided a dramatic deterrent to others who might entertain engaging in similar behavior. \u201cGet with our program or this is your fate\u201d was the clear message to the passerby. The internet is today\u2019s village green, social media platforms the market square. Canceling, doxing, and swatting are the cruel devices of modern social torture.<\/p>\n

A legion of victims lay in cancel culture\u2019s wake. Inevitably, the onslaught prompted a response, as surely as danger invites rescue and assault invites defense. Neither side of the political aisle is chaste, alas; that is, for every JR Rowling there has been a Dylan Mulvaney. If anything, the anti-Bud Lite campaign was more effective than any of the left.<\/p>\n

But cancel culture took a particularly disgraceful turn when it gained heft by way of institutional collusion. They crossed a bright red line when government actors did the bidding of political partisans to \u201cpersuade\u201d media outlets and social media platforms to suppress the speech of anyone opposing the approved narrative. An optimist might posit that history will one day decide that publishing the Twitter Files was the turning point in an American reawakening. While much was made in Twitter\u2019s defense about it not being a government actor, thus ostensibly free to stifle without technically censoring, free speech is in our DNA, and we don\u2019t surrender based on legalities. Studying the American tableau — even merely absorbing its most consequential moments by cultural osmosis — informs any objective observer that we find that stifling speech is unethical. For now, nonetheless, the campaign marches on, albeit with less government coercion.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/figure>\nA moment\u2019s reflection, as well as a careful review of headlines, would tell us that news stories have subsided about Antifa\u2019s bomb-throwers — sometimes literally — disrupting conservative speakers on America\u2019s college campuses. Have the anti-free-speech zealots lost some of their moxie? Or have conservative speakers thrown in the towel on attempting to air their views in light of the clear and present danger to their well-being, exemplified by the assassination of Charlie Kirk?<\/p>\n

Neither, as it turns out.<\/p>\n

In fact, deplatforming remains the rage on campuses throughout the land. If anything, statistics — yes, statistics are actually kept on such things — demonstrate that 2026 has seen an uptick in the reprehensible activity. Likely reasons for less coverage of the suppression include normalization and fatigue: \u201cDog Bites Man\u201d isn\u2019t news; and not to be macabre, but the story \u201chas been done to death.\u201d I suspect a closer examination of the reasons behind the diminished coverage would reveal that the establishment left was getting jittery, probably after learning through surveys and focus groups that normal people don\u2019t respond kindly to video of wanton lunatics shouting down speakers.<\/p>\n

If the optimists\u2019 reawakening doesn\u2019t come, though, it shouldn\u2019t surprise. Where one side sees civility as a construct of anachronistic rules that must be broken, the other too often observes those rules to the point of legalism. In several installments in this space, I have tried my best to be one of the optimists, imploring, cheerleading, and then forecasting an inevitable victory of the sane. Instinctively, we know that the proper response movements and actors that seek to diminish, quelch, and censor speech, is: \u201cCancel this!\u201d<\/p>

Read more \u2018MAGA Barbie\u2019 And The Subaru Magoos<\/a><\/p>\n

Executing the instinct-informed response, however, can be difficult for many of us. In comments, readers of this publication have conveyed skepticism, hinting that my positive pronouncements ring more pollyannish than true. And I cringe. A liberal friend from 40 years ago — back when we were permitted to have friends across the political spectrum — told me that his side of the political divide would eventually prevail because mine is \u201cpathologically polite.\u201d Earlier, in a fit of exaggeration, he called me a \u201cparagon of virtue\u201d and \u201cour department\u2019s moral compass,\u201d all while predicting that our arrogantly dishonest colleagues would outlast us both. Again, I cringe. He was correct on the job front. The jury remains out on the bigger picture.<\/p>\n

A smart editor recently pointed out to me that politeness and forbearance are not required when dealing with people who want to kill you. Tempering that truth with the biblical admonition not to repay evil with evil requires wisdom. It is worth noting that the Apostle Paul did not prescribe a blanket pacifism; in the following verse, he urged us to live peaceably with all men \u201cif it is possible.\u201d Self-preservation and vengeance are different animals. We\u2019re obliged to the former and the latter belongs to the Lord.<\/p>\n

If not politeness and forbearance, what is required of us when dealing with those who want to kill us? Vigilance? Courage? Boldness? Yes, but how? It is one thing to pledge a persistent refusal to be silenced, but when the opposition bangs drums, steals the microphone, shuts down traffic to prevent an audience from forming, it seems more a precious thought than a pledge.<\/p>\n

When beastly behavior brings no consequences, it will continue and accelerate. Our gut says, \u201cFight back!\u201d But our rational minds balk at violent response. Fight? Surely, we are not yet to that place \u201cin the course of human events [where] it becomes necessary\u2026.\u201d To fight, then, absent an attack on Fort Sumter, must mean something else, for, surely, neither revolution nor civil war is upon us. It is imperative that we understand that the instant battle is spiritual.<\/p>\n

From time to time, I wear a tee-shirt that bears a line from a song, \u201cThis is how I fight my battles.\u201d The tee-shirt has prompted several strangers around town to ask me, \u201cOkay, how?\u201d My response is always the same: \u201cFrom my knees.\u201d In this, I\u2019m in good company. Read Washington, Adams, Madison, Lincoln. Each called upon the people to pray in times of war. Read Eisenhower\u2019s \u201cOrder of the Day\u201d on the eve of D-Day. Hell, read Patton. They all understood what — actually, Who — is needed in a time of great conflict. We need to join them. And if we\u2019re canceled for doing it, let us wear that like a badge of divine protection, like the mark of Cain.<\/p>\n

Paul O\u2019Brien, a retired California lawyer, lives — and sometimes writes — in Eagle, Idaho.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>

Read more The Mohammunist Manifesto\u2014The Promise of \u2018Transitional Phase\u2019 Slaughter<\/a><\/p>\n

Image: Public Domain<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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