You'll Never Learn if You Don't Listen

Do you know who said to "it's time to get over 'cancel culture' back in 2019?

President Obama.

Surprised? If so, then you aren't reading the right sources and the info you're getting is dividing you further from the reality of moderate liberals who make up the majority of the Democratic Party. The last topic started on this, I rebutted this as a mainstream approved movement with sources from scientists, academics, and public figures on both the left and the right who'd signed a letter condemning it.

Rick wrote: I learned that cancel culture isn't as accepted as I may have thought on the left.

Of course it isn't. I'm betting the problem is the sources you are watching (CNN, MSNBC?) to get a perspective on "the left" are the far left, not the majority of which the moderates comprise. I have been begging people to consider other viewpoints and debate, rather than simply using this forum as an outlet to vent and bash the "other side."

This country is roughly evenly split between Dems, Unaffiliated, and Republican voters, and the vast majority of those are centrists/moderates. The cable and television news stations are focused on ratings, viewer numbers, and clicks - they go for the outrageous, sensationalist, and emotionally manipulating stories. Like Tucker Carlson's recent brouhaha in which he framed what is a serious topic that needs to be discussed - our military's [lack of] readiness to take on China, Russia, and Iran - and instead framed it as a gender issue that stupidly had our military responding highly inappropriately.

STOP WATCHING TV NEWS. Everyone. Right now. I'm serious. We can't fix our problems if all we do is keep getting angry with each other and squabbling over crap after they push everyone's emotional buttons.

I used to try to go to multiple sources on each side in order to get different perspectives, but I've learned that this is do-able only if you can devote all of your time to analyzing every piece in detail and steeling yourself against the propaganda (because it will sneak into your subconscious and affect you no matter how hard you try otherwise). It's exhausting and I don't have the bandwidth, I'm guessing neither do you. Instead, find and read only highly trusted individuals (not even entire news organizations, because there are good and bad at each) who follow the facts, are nonpartisan or bipartisan in their criticisms. Don't try to take in bad info just to be "balanced" - garbage in, garbage out as the old adage says - only follow solid, credible information sources.

My point is this; those of you who only want to have your ideology reinforced every day and don't want to have your views challenged by the other side, you really should make attempts to change that habit. That's why I'm here and have no interest in a place like Pinecam where everybody thinks like me. There's still not enough people on the left willing to debate here imo, but I do appreciate those who are here. This country has never been so divided in my lifetime and if we don't start learning why, our children's futures will not be very bright.

Absolutely! You know why everyone at PC thinks the same? They let one side be mean and nasty to the other side without repercussion, and ran off anyone with a differing viewpoint. Who wants to be subjected to constant abuse online?

That's why I'm a hard ass about personal insults here in the Courthouse. This is for debating and discussing the issues, not each other. I will not bend on that because I refuse to let this turn into a shit-show like the rest of the internet where politics are allowed. Try to keep best intentions about others in mind when replying to a member here rather than taking your anger out about the extremists in either party on those here who do not fit the profile of extreme left or right with what they post.

Americans tune in to ‘cancel culture’ — and don't like what they see
As Donald Trump seizes on it and elite journalists obsess over it, a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows significant concern about the practice.
By RYAN LIZZA | 07/22/2020

Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming. A plurality (46%) of Americans believe that cancel culture “has gone too far.” About a quarter of Americans — many of whom are perhaps blissfully offline — said they didn’t know or had no opinion on the matter. When they are removed from the results, a clear majority — across almost every demographic category — says that cancel culture has gone too far.

Age is one of the most reliable predictors of one’s views. Members of Generation Z are the most sympathetic to punishing people or institutions over offensive views, followed closely by Millennials, while GenXers and Baby Boomers have the strongest antipathy towards it. Cancel culture is driven by younger voters.

The debate over cancel culture, in Nwanevu’s view, is more about power. One person’s online mob is another person’s vehicle to hold someone accountable.

“What we’re seeing described as cancel culture isn’t so much a new kind of behavior but a new set of actors in our political discourse who get to say what isn’t ok — young people, African Americans, transgender people,” he said. “They now have the power to have their voices heard. Everyone thinks there are lines. The question is where are those lines and who gets to draw them.”

Bill Maher: Cancel culture and woke mobs need to be stopped
by Matt Moore | 3 weeks ago

Is There Still Room for Debate?
By Andrew Sullivan, NY Mag | JUNE 12, 2020

Americans have always been good at policing uniformity by and among themselves. The puritanical streak of shaming and stigmatizing and threatening runs deep. This is the country of extraordinary political and cultural freedom, but it is also the country of religious fanaticism, moral panics, and crusades against vice. It’s the country of The Scarlet Letter and Prohibition and the Hollywood blacklist and the Lavender Scare.

The new orthodoxy — what the writer Wesley Yang has described as the “successor ideology” to liberalism — seems to be rooted in what journalist Wesley Lowery calls “moral clarity.”

Who do you think is more extremist: Biden or Sanders?

That should give you your answer.