Lenny Bruce Tried to Teach Us Something About Free Speech

“Today’s comedian has a cross to bear that he built himself.
A comedian of the older generation did an act and he told the audience...
'THIS IS MY ACT!
Today’s comic is not doing an act.
The audience assumes he’s telling the truth.
What is truth today may be a damn lie next week.”

Lenny Bruce

 Propaganda Dictionary: "Cancel Culture"

https://www.propastop.org/eng/

The term “cancel culture” refers to a phenomenon prevalent in the first half of 2020 that is an online action that calls for mass condemnation / boycott / stigmatization of individuals, consequently losing their status, influence and position in society.

 Often people fall victim to “canceling” because of their views, opinions or even mere misused words. Such an action seeks to give the impression that “good” activists are fighting “evil”, even though it is nothing more than ordinary cyberbullying.

 “Canceling” a person is part of a larger concept of “online stigmatization”, which includes, for example, doxing, the act of publicly revealing previously private personal information about an individual or organization.

 Laura Vilbiks, a political science student at the University of Tartu, has written about the culture of canceling. She formulated three main problems of the cancel culture:

1. Public stigmatization on social media has had quite a social impact and has turned so many previously respected people to be despised and go underground.
2. Unlike normal boycotting, canceling seeks the complete expulsion of a person from society without giving them a second chance.
3. People who share their opinions in public are constantly under increased scrutiny and can easily be subjected to an attack of shaming.



The Smothers Brothers Cancelation

"The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen. "

Tommy Smothers

Also called call-out culture or outrage culture, the attacks typically start with one or two individuals volubly expressing their ire over whatever issue is upsetting them. These responses are then released onto social media (again, frequently Twitter) where they are amplified exponentially by others responding, not to the original issue necessarily, but rather to the outrage of the initial attacker.

The “canceling” occurs when the level of outrage against the alleged offender rises to the point where that person’s life and reputation are actually harmed. This is a frequent problem for celebrities, whose mistakes and utterances from decades ago are dredged up and thrown back in their faces, causing fans to stop supporting them and their projects.

That’s one of the biggest problems with cancel culture: Those who practice it see themselves as “progressive activists” who are taking the fight straight to the people and cramming it down their throats. They believe that this kind of activity is the only way to enact change right now and that’s where the sticking point is. The disenfranchised, tired of being stepped on, want an entire culture to accommodate them immediately. They see social media as a tool to force their point of view on a society that hasn’t come to terms yet with those views.

 The Dixie Chicks Controversy

I feel the president is ignoring the opinion of many in the U.S.
and alienating the rest of the world.
My comments were made in frustration,
and one of the privileges of being an American
is you are free to voice your own point of view.

Natalie Maines (The Dixie Chicks)

Like the term “progressive activism” that came before it, the word “WOKE”, in cancel culture vernacular, has come to connote something completely different from what it appears to mean. In the progressive movement being "WOKE" has taken on the completely opposite meaning of being spiritually "Awakened".

People who profess to be "WOKE" proclaim to know the "TRUTH". They see things only as black or white, positive or negative, good or evil. They demand not just the right speak, but they also demand full and complete acquiescence to whatever they say. Not satisfied with that, they hypocritically maintain it is their sovereign right to silence (or cancel) anyone who does not agree with they have to say and what they have to say is often no more than the echoed cries of a frenzied mob.

People who are"AWAKE" on the other hand, realize that they do not know the TRUTH. They have only an opinion that comes from perspective, not facts. They do not see things only in black or white, but in shades of grey and often they are able to perceive the artifical colorization of propaganda that has been politically photoshopped into an argument. Those who are AWAKE not only advocate for the right of all people to be able to speak, but they uphold the right of of people to be able to hear others speak as well.



  What did J.K. Rowling actually say?



“I can’t understand the vitriol directed at her.
I can understand the heat of an argument,
but I find this age of accusation and the need to condemn irrational.
I find the level of hatred that people express about views that differ from theirs,
and the violence of language towards others, disturbing.”

Ralph Fiennes regarding the attacks on J. K. Rowling 

Calling cancel culture “activism” is to overlook some very salient points. Humiliation is not a driver of social change; it is a method of keeping people in line with society’s values, whatever they may be. In order for it to work, that society has to be in agreement about what is acceptable and what is not. And we’re simply not in agreement yet.

Additionally, what is the issue of agenda, i.e. what is the motivation behind calling-out individuals? It is very easy to hide behind a cloak of “progressive activism” in order to cover up the fact that all you’re really doing is bullying someone whose beliefs differ from yours.

And then there are the overlooked and underhanded benefits of launching a call-out campaign. Those who initiate the first strikes against the target individual, gain tremendous notoriety for their efforts. Their posts are looked at, followed, shared, and commented on; their websites and Twitter handles gain huge followings, which benefit them materially in addition to boosting their influence. They are inciting the online mobs to shame and even ruin the lives of those deemed to have committed thought crimes. This is gaslighting and it is propaganda.

Cancel culture is real and it’s a dangerous threat to a society that once prided itself on free speech and common civility.



Why did the Roman Empire, the greatest civilizing force there has ever been fall ?
It was because it became infected at every level,
by the negative liberty of Christianity.
The Roman people started thinking of their personal salvation,
rather than their collective strength.
Once the poison of individualism has spread among the people,
Rome's fate was sealed.
The collective collapsed.
The Dark Ages came upon the West.
Once the cohesion of the people has gone, everything fails.”

 Steve Madison