AMERICA — WHERE DID YOU GO?
What happened to this country and the freedoms that defined it? Particularly, freedom of speech. Currently it is worse that the McCarthy “communist” scandal of the 1950s and we obviously have not learned from history. But that was government controlled — now there is no single entity that makes the decision that destroys a person’s life. I recently read that a banjo player in a popular band was forced to apologize and take a leave of absence because he said he liked a book. Let me repeat that: his “crime” was that he tweeted to his 9,000 followers that he liked a book! The book was about Antifa — but its subject matter is irrelevant. That same book was also banned from a large bookstore chain in Portland because its union members objected to it. This is modern day book burning. This sounds like something from the USSR in the 1950s.
The Cancel Culture has completely taken control over our speech; say the wrong thing and they will destroy your life. It doesn’t matter when you say it either. I also recently read of a woman hired as the editor of a Teen Vogue, but she never was allowed to start because her soon-to-be employees objected to things she had posted in 2011 when she was in high school! Get that? Something she said as a teen disqualified her for her job years later — years after maturing, education, and working experience. Also, she had already publicly apologized for her statements in 2019 but apparently that wasn’t good enough for her staff either. Seems like business owners/executives have ceded management decisions to their employees and mob rule. No backbone to stand up for what is right exists anymore. Find an old comment that can qualify as racist or the like and you can ruin a person’s life. Any misstatement or mistake as a youth suffices. This power we have vested in the new speech police has taken control over our lives. Teachers are afraid of their classes and discussions of current issues. Comedians are afraid to work — especially on college campuses (if they are even allowed to appear, as controversial figures are now commonly banned). No one is safe anymore. Can anyone honestly say they never said anything they later regretted? Nothing our enemies could hope to do to our democracy could be as damaging as what we have done to ourselves. How did this happen? How did it get this bad? More importantly, what can we do to change it? I wish I knew because I fear for my children. Be careful Comrades. Your life may be the next one ruined.
