You’re Not the Boss of Me!
Intimidation leads to silence. Silence to submission. Submission to tyranny.
I knew something was amiss about ten years ago. During an online discussion the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) came up. ALEC, according to their website, is “America's largest nonpartisan organization of state legislators dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism.” While non-partisan, there is no doubt ALEC leans conservative. They aim to be “a forum for stakeholders to exchange ideas and develop real, state-based solutions to encourage growth, preserve economic security and protect hardworking taxpayers.”
Now, there is nothing un-American or illegal about advocating for the free market, encouraging economic growth, or resisting over-regulation. It is not against the law to look out for taxpayer interests. But ALEC has supported initiatives the left dislikes, and this makes them a target. I happened to know the CEO back then. She is a wonderful person who wants only the best for America. What struck me, therefore, was not that my online friend disliked ALEC. No, it was that they were intent on destroying ALEC. They had no desire to debate ALEC’s ideas. No siree. Their strategy was to intimidate ALEC’s donors into withdrawing their funding so that ALEC would go bankrupt and be silenced.
I asked my online friend if they thought this was an acceptable tactic in a free society. They were adamant it was. In fact, they felt they had an obligation to do the same to any organization that pushed ideas they did not agree with. I was shocked. No quarter was given. Debate was out, destruction in.
Things have gotten worse since then, and we are all now familiar with cancel culture. Yet the act of purging people from public debate is only the beginning. When free expression ends, tyranny takes over. I fear that if we do not stand up to these purveyors of purge-as-politics, our country is lost.
A republic needs free debate to survive. Ideas are floated into the arena, people form opinions about them, and they debate. Good ideas are adopted; bad ones die. That is how it is supposed to work. The penchant for purge, however, interferes with that process, perverting the free market of ideas. Bad ideas prevail not because they are accepted, but because anyone who dares to speak out against them is silenced. Often their careers are ruined, their reputations destroyed, and their families threatened. Over time, others decide speaking up is no longer worth the risk. Intimidation leads to silence.
Yet, in a free society, everything is up for debate. Even rights enshrined in the Constitution. There is a process, right there in the document, to update our understanding of them. Free discussion is vital to uniting the citizenry and, as the phrase goes, “getting buy-in.” Our ability to participate in free and open debate is one of the things that makes us part of “we the people.”
Unfortunately, it seems, we are raising a generation of citizens who do not believe that.
Recently while watching online videos, I stumbled across Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life. She deserves great credit for calmly dealing with some of the worst examples of this phenomenon. In one video an angry student tries to shout her down. She is incensed Hawkins would dare advocate for a position this student does not agree with. “It’s disgusting” she yells, “and you should be damned ashamed of yourself, and I don’t believe that, and I’m not going to [stop] fight[ing] until people like you do not have a place to come on here on my campus…and spew your f**king lies” (watch it here). The video is disturbing on many levels. The most important being the student’s deeply held belief that anyone who disagrees with her should be silenced.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5: 22-23)
Name the issue, and you can see the tactic at work. From guns to abortion, from religion to affirmative action, COVID to the 2020 election, the left has declared that some opinions shall not be spoken.
I offer here a few opinions that are not illegal to express. No one should be denied employment, promotion, or any rights whatsoever for holding these, or any other, views. Yet expressing them could get a person in trouble at school, work, or especially on social media:
Life begins at conception; therefore, it is wrong to abort a child except to save the mother’s life.
Freedom to express one’s religious beliefs should not be limited to private spaces.
A free person has the right to defend themselves, including with firearms.
Men and women are different, and, legally speaking, people are either male or female.
Speech is not violence. Any idea, short of threats, can be spoken freely in a free society.
Equality of outcome is the wrong goal. Equality of opportunity is the right goal.
Law and government policy should be colorblind.
Schools and workplaces should be meritocracies.
All people are responsible and accountable for their personal behavior.
Beyond a social safety net, wealth redistribution is not a function of government.
Everyone should work, if they are able, to support themselves and their families.
Language is free. No one gets to dictate what others must say or how they must say it.
Immigrants should assimilate. We are a melting pot.
Borders mean something. The people have the right to set immigration policy.
We should not intervene in wars and conflicts that do not directly impact our national security.
This is just a partial list, but you get the point.
The current debate regarding “trans rights” illustrates just how far off course we are. Trans rights groups aggressively silence those who do not buy their ideology. Even the most conscientious and thoughtful discussion is out of bounds for them. Brilliant people like Jordan Peterson, JK Rowling, and Abigail Shrier are routinely attacked for daring to challenge the orthodoxy. They can continue to speak because they have massive followings. The less powerful, however, are easier to shut down, as Dr. Robert Wintemute, a Professor of Human Rights Law at Kings College in London, recently found out when angry trans activists shut down his talk at McGill University in Canada. What shocked him most was the activists demand that there be “no debate.” They stormed his discussion forum, violently ending the event. He later sarcastically thanked the activists for “giving me first-hand experience of that intimidation," they are known for. "Probably the majority of women in this country disagree with some of transgender demands but they refuse to say so because they will be seen as intolerant” (CBC News).
Exactly. Everyone is intimidated into silence.
Cancelling, however, is just the beginning. Intimidation leads to silence, which leads to submission. Without opposing voices, radical ideas are put into practice. For example, on a recent job application I had to indicate whether I identified as a “cisgender man” or something else. This is not an agreed upon form of language, or an accepted gender construct, yet there it is. Or, how about the ubiquitous Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training we are all subject to? Did we agree this ideology would be taught in our schools and workplaces? No, we did not. Or how about transwomen being sent to women’s prisons? Or federal funding of “gender affirming” surgery? Or aspiring academics having to submit “diversity statements” when applying for a job? Or student’s being kicked out of class for refusing to agree that the US is “systemically racist?” The list goes on and on. These ideas, unchallenged by the intimidated, have become law, regulation, and rule across the country.
The consequences are real. Take the case of James Damore, fired from Google for his “good-faith effort to discuss differences between men and women in tech” (WSJ). Or Mozilla co-founder and CEO Brendan Eich, forced to resign “after furious attacks… over his $1,000 contribution to support a… gay-marriage ban in California” (FoxNews). Just today Fox featured a video detailing how cancel culture intimidates college professors. They must buy into the DEI agenda or face losing their jobs or chance of advancement. “Is it worth risking my career…over speaking my mind or offering my viewpoint?” asks one of the professors. The answer, of course, for many, is no.
Here is our challenge, though. We do not have a law about kindness. We are not legally bound to be gentle, or exhibit self-control. We cannot be forced to love one another, nor to seek peace and joy, nor practice forbearance. Yet these things are what we should all be taught to strive for. Cancelling someone, shutting down speeches, rioting, threatening those with whom you disagree with violence or destruction, these are not kind, nor loving, ways to behave. We must remember that the goal is a society of respect – of goodness.
It is time we reject cancel culture and intimidation. We must return to the days when we instilled in our youth a respect for the ideas of others. We must all practice kindness, love, and forbearance. If we do not resist the trend away from these things, very soon the intimidation will be complete, with silence as the result. When debate ends, people without authority will assume it. The rest, cowering, will go along.
That is not democracy, it is tyranny.
100% agree.
Appreciate this post
Jesus you’re an asshole. Silence on friends right? The state Republican legislatures are the ones bringing up the topic. It’s a non-issue political football. One which takes a complete lack of morality and no fathom of ethical behavior to engage in order to try to regulate. Fuck you man you and your ilk are the causation of our third world shit hole status