Posted on 03/30/2021 4:39:17 PM PDT by Starman417
In high school I had a girlfriend whose parents were distributors for Amway, a multi level marketing company that sold lots of consumer products. I don’t know if it was part of the company mission, but they wouldn’t sell Proctor & Gamble products. Apparently her parents thought the company’s logo — a crescent man-in-moon and 13 stars — was a symbol of Satanism. The “boycott” was toothless but the company eventually changed their logo to letters but later brought the moon back and won a lawsuit against some Amway distributors along the way.
In college, I met some demonstrators in the student union urging a boycott of Campbell’s Soup for the unfair treatment of farmworkers in Central America. After watching their movie I jumped onboard for a few weeks until I decided I probably wasn’t having much impact.
Years later I remember reading about teachers down in Georgia wanting to ban Harry Potter from schools because of the witchcraft!
All of this came to mind recently after I read a few pieces suggesting that conservatives were hypocrites for decrying “cancel culture”. They’re not entirely wrong. Cancel culture is nothing new, and conservatives have engaged in it too…
But here’s the thing, it’s actually different now. Much different. For two reasons.
The first reason today’s cancel culture is different is that with technology, nothing ever dies. When I was a young adult I did lots of things that were stupid, some of which I’m not proud of and others that simply demonstrated how it’s possible to have a brain without actually using it. But none of those foibles or follies follows me around because there is no record of them other than in my head. In earlier times people could learn from their own foolishness, learn from their mistakes and go on to be model citizens or at least strive to be, knowing that a broken promise here or an unkind word there wouldn’t haunt them forever. Today that’s no longer true. Today, because of the ubiquity of cell phones and the Internet, nothing stays hidden and nothing ever dies.Today, there is no forgiveness nor forgetting. From this day forward not only will every American have to live a pristine life, they will have to do so not only while navigating the rapidly changing currents of today’s mores, they will at the same time have to anticipate what will be acceptable in the future and live accordingly. And it’s not just people. It’s books, pancake syrup, children’s games, Halloween costumes and more. Things that have been part of Americana for a century are now deemed racist, sexist or somehow otherwise unacceptable because they don’t comport with today’s values. That’s simply an impossible standard for anyone to live up to whoever they are.
The second reason cancel culture is different today is because of social media platforms. For good or (mostly) bad, social media is where a majority of Americans get their information. Between YouTube, Facebook and Twitter Americans get far more of their information / news from social media sources than they do from traditional news sources. The social media platforms have become America’s public square. They grew and found extraordinary success and riches by pitching themselves as a place for Americans to express themselves, share ideas and communicated with one another.
But once they vanquished all foes, once they became exactly what they purported to want to become, America’s public square, they started shutting down the speech of those with whom they disagreed.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
No.
Get a job.
If you guillotine Mr Potatohead what is cut off?
POTATUS should be fried not sliced.
Robespierre is a great analogy for where this is going to eventually end up.
When you’re not posting clickbait, how about a donation?
An early ping for next month.
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Thank you and Echo that No
And next, Humblegunner, please add,”and don’t be wasting our time with the commercials “. So i can skip ahead and not add my $.02 comment.
And to all else,
Donate. For real.
The largest and most beautiful ocean-going yacht I’ve ever seen was the Amway yacht. It was docked in the Baltimore Harbor and I motored by boat along side it to get closer look. Really awesome!
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