Select Page

What is Cancel Culture?

by | Jan 5, 2021 | Social Justice, Secular Issues

The Cancel Culture is a collective attempt to harm the reputation, livelihood, and social presence of people, products, TV shows, celebrities, employees, etc., for violating a particular ideological standard. Cancel Culture warriors will use ridicule, dox (publishing personal info about someone), attempt to have their bank accounts removed, get people fired from jobs, and get others not to support a person, product, or company socially and financially. It can be an oppressive means of attempted control of others. Cancel Culture

The idea of canceling a person or product has been around for a long time. Both conservatives and non-conservatives have used it in the form of boycotting. But, lately, social media has given rise to a kind of unaccountable mob rule that punishes the guilty for all sorts of moral violations. They will ridicule, threaten, and even try and get the offending party fired from their jobs.  Cancelling can occur for not being on the right side of such topics as…

  1. Black Lives Matter – A leftist, anti-family, pro-marxism ideology
  2. Critical Race Theory – Examining society as it relates to race and power.
  3. Gender Identity – A person’s sense of his or her own gender regardless of biology
  4. Intersectionality – How discrimination and privilege manifest in a person’s social framework
  5. LGBTQ – An acronym symbolizing many sexual deviations
  6. Race/Racism – Discrimination or privilege based on a person’s skin color.
  7. Sexism – Discrimination of privilege based on a person’s sexual orientation
  8. Socialism – Increased governmental oversight with a decrease of personal freedom
  9. Transsexuality – The surgical alteration to change a person’s birth-sex
  10. White Privilege – The inherent privilege in society due to being white

In today’s world, the standard that delineates what is acceptable and what is not is a liberal, pro-LGBTQ, pro-abortion, anti-racism, and anti-Trump attitude. If you don’t agree with the leftist agenda, you can lose your reputation, popularity, or even your job. In my opinion, the Cancel Culture of the left is a hypocritical attitude of intolerance while demanding tolerance. Its depths and tentacles are varied and deeply interwoven into today’s society. It is causing a restriction on free speech.

“A new Cato national survey finds that self-censorship is on the rise in the United States. Nearly two-thirds—62%—of Americans say the political climate these days prevents them from saying things they believe because others might find them offensive. The share of Americans who self-censor has risen several points since 2017 when 58% of Americans agreed with this statement…Nearly a third (32%) of employed Americans say they personally are worried about missing out on career opportunities or losing their job if their political opinions became known” https://www.cato.org/publications/survey-reports/poll-62-americans-say-they-have-political-views-theyre-afraid-share#introduction

The liberal, self-righteous, online, brown-shirt, social police will take to Twitter, Facebook, chat forums, etc., to denounce and attack people who, for example, say anything bad about transgenderism, homosexuality, gender identity, LGBTQ, or have been deemed racist, or even support the “wrong” political candidate. It is cancel culture run amuck. Conservativism, biblically-based morals, and non-politically correct attitudes are not welcome! But, I digress. Please consider the following examples of condemnation by the left. (quoted from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54374824)

  • Pepsi: Criticised for a controversial ad that appropriated global protest movements including Black Lives Matter
  • Equinox: The gym club brand faced a backlash after it emerged that its owner was holding a Trump fund-raiser
  • Starbucks: Was targeted for telling employees not to wear Black Lives Matter T-shirts and badges
  • Nike: Released a shoe with the original US flag. The flag has only 13 stars and comes from a time when slavery was legal
  • Uncle Ben’s: Changed its name and branding after criticism over racial stereotyping

Examples of being Cancelled

There are countless examples of people, products, and companies being canceled for not adhering to a politically correct position, for saying something that has been deemed inappropriate, or for an offense that occurred decades ago and then is recently discovered, etc.

Is this fair? Well, that’s part of the discussion. With the increasingly left-leaning morality found in societies worldwide, what is considered fair is arbitrary and changing. What is considered acceptable today might not be tomorrow and vice versa. Who knows what people become guilty of years from now for things they’ve done in earnest today.

Cancel Culture is dangerous

Cancel culture is potentially dangerous because of the damage it can cause – as you’ve seen above. It can curtail free speech and the free exercise of religion. It can hinder, restrict, and penalize people and companies and ruin people’s lives. Why? Because the cancel culture warriors find someone or something guilty of violating leftist, progressive ideology dealing with LGBTQ, socialism, ‘marriage equality,’ abortion, etc. Of course, Christian ideals are not allowed, and the result is…

  1. Denial of free speech for people with whom cancel culture warriors disagree
  2. Denial of respect for those with whom they disagree
  3. Denial of open dialogue and cross-examination
  4. Denial of logical discourse
  5. Denial that they might be wrong about their views
  6. Affirm punishing others for not holding the “right” view
  7. Affirm that the ends justify the means to silence opposition
  8. Affirm that they are the ones who are in the moral right
  9. Find people guilty of racism, intolerance, bigotry, etc. and punish them
  10. Dox a person – exposing their private information online in an attempt to harm them socially, financially, and sometimes even physically.

Those in the cancel culture cannot logically or philosophically establish a means by which their view is the right one. They assume they have the ideological high ground, and all who oppose them must be silenced. But, on what they based their moral standard? Are they in contact with some universal principle? Or, the go with whatever a society’s momentum is at the time? People are certainly entitled to their opinions, but if you’re going to punish others for violating those opinions, then that’s wrong. Ultimately, we answer to God, not to those who hold to politically correct ideology. They are guilty of progressive group-think. Essentially, they are brainwashed and are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18).

What are Christians to do in the face of cancel culture?

Christians are obligated to fight unrighteousness in all of its forms. Sometimes this means risking their lives or even their livelihood. For the most part, the only thing that will happen to most Christians is ridicule – at least in Western societies. But that is changing. Penalizing and persecuting Christians for their biblical views is on the rise. So, what do we do? It’s simple.

  1. Pray (Eph. 6:18)
  2. Be courteous (Col. 4:5-6; 1 Tim. 2:24-25)
  3. Love your neighbor (Matt. 22:39; Lev. 19:18)
  4. Love them by speaking the truth, even if they don’t (1 Cor. 13:6; 2 Cor. 13:8)
  5. Quote scripture, when necessary, even if they don’t affirm it (Isaiah 55:11)
  6. Be prepared to support your views with logic and documentation (1 Pet. 3:15)
  7. Be prepared to be hated (Luke 21:17; John 17:14; )

I am a public figure and have faced many forms of persecution online and in real life. They include death threats, lawsuit threats, being swatted, being followed in my car on more than one occasion, odd occurrences in the night outside my house, etc. I’ve survived it. This is what it means to stand up for righteousness. So what if people complain and call you names? Just respond with kindness and patience and when the opportunity arises, speak the truth in love.  Trust God through it all. However, for those who might face losing a job for holding to biblical positions and conservative ideas, you must weigh the options and be wise. After all, there is “A time to be silent and a time to speak” (Ecc. 3:7)

Cancel the Cancel Culture

Cancel CultureThe intolerance of the progressives with their pressure to harm people’s reputation and financial status with whom they disagree is bigoted, intolerant, and oppressive. It needs to stop. It restricts free speech and the free exercise of religion. We need to recognize that people have different ideas and that it’s okay to disagree. But, we must disagreement with civility, not with violence, and not with cancel culture practice.

Those who claim the moral high ground as a justification for their condemnation and persecution must defend what they believe is right and wrong. How do they know their beliefs are actually right and not just opinions? Of course, this is a crucial question, and I would love to interview a cancel culture warrior and find out his or her attempted justification of moral superiority. Having dealt with this issue with countless people, I can tell you they have nothing to ground their pulpits of universal moral right or wrong.  Aside from presupposing the Christian Trinity’s truth (this is another discussion), there is no way anyone can ultimately justify any moral claim as being the right one to which all people ought to submit.  They don’t have any universal basis of moral and ideological righteousness. So, they invent their own and hold you guilty if you don’t correspond to their ideology.

Grounding Truth and Morals in God

But we Christians do have a basis for grounding universal truth and morals. The Christian, Trinitarian God, is the necessary precondition for moral absolutes. Since he is the universal being, the creator of the universe, and all of us, He reveals what is right and wrong out of His won character. That is the universal standard by which we must obey, and it is codified in the Bible. We can ground our moral right and wrong. The cancel culture cannot. Therefore, it is ultimately subjective, self-refuting, self-serving, and arbitrary. It must be canceled.

SUPPORT CARM

Thank you for your interest in supporting CARM. We greatly appreciate your consideration!

SCHOOLS USER LOGIN

If you have any issues, please call the office at 385-246-1048 or email us at [email protected].

MATT SLICK LIVE RADIO

Call in with your questions at:

877-207-2276

3-4 p.m. PST; 4-5 p.m. MST;
6-7 p.m. EST

You May Also Like…