Cancel Culture

 

OPINION — For several months now I’ve been answering questions about why my column no longer appears in the Mason County News, the first paper that ever ran it, back in September 1997. Pretty much all my readers are still able to get my column in the Brady Standard, the Junction Eagle, Texas Mohair Weekly in Rocksprings, or at SanAngeloLIVE! online. And the Mason folks can now hear it on KHLB radio on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but it seems there are rumors about why MCN no longer runs it. So, to clear the air, I decided to address the issue here, and put it to rest.

Gerry Gamel, the editor of the Mason paper, told me he had gotten complaints about some of my columns, and I don’t doubt it for a minute. With all the liberal folks moving in to Mason the past few years, I would have been devastated if he hadn’t. And since Gerry didn’t want complaints, he told me if I didn’t stop irritating the snowflakes, he would stop running the column.

Several years ago I decided I would write what I wanted to write here, regardless of what my editors thought about it. Everything in the column is my opinion, after all, and in the real world, we often encounter opinions with which we disagree. And unlike many columnists, I write for my readers, not my editors. And the great majority of my readers didn’t complain. Some of them actually agreed with me.

So I told Gerry thanks, but the column would not change because of the three people in Mason who kicked up a fuss (actually, I believe there were two, but I’m being benevolent). The whole thing reminds me of the San Francisco board of Supervisors member who got tired of his kids whining for Happy Meal toys at McDonald’s. Instead of dealing with his kids, as a normal parent would, he managed to pass a law which forbade McDonald’s from offering free toys.

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Above: The Grinch who stole your Happy Meal. 

This is the liberal way of dealing with anything that offends them. Instead of being an adult, and just ignoring things they don’t like, liberals typically demand that no one else should have access to those things, either. An entire culture has sprung up in recent years, ‘cancelling’ whatever or whoever the left doesn’t like. As William F. Buckley once said, ‘A liberal is someone who claims to be open to hearing opposing points of view, and then is offended to find there are opposing points of view.’ Libs are basically six-foot two-year-olds.

True to his word, Gerry cancelled my column. I think it was a mistake for the paper, but it wasn’t my call. The easy thing for him to do would have been to keep running the column, since he’s had to deal with far more complaints for cancelling it, if the cards, letters, texts, phone calls, and other correspondence I’ve received is anywhere near accurate. Also for the record, Gerry and I are not enemies. We just disagree on everything except air. Well, maybe that, too.

But cancel culture requires total obedience according to the ‘soup of the day’ standards, which change faster than a politician’s position on just about anything. Anyone not on board with the left’s position on climate change, plastic straws, cow flatulence, carbon emissions, or Hitler is automatically the enemy, and subject to the liberal version of the two-year-old’s temper tantrum. And no, reason is neither welcomed nor tolerated.

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Above: Adolf Hitler

The social justice warriors leave no stone unturned in their quest to find new and ever more inane issues at which to be offended. The goal is total destruction of everything, beginning with the family unit, which is the basic building block of society. When a man can claim to be a woman, and everyone is expected to nod and smile and accept such a ludicrous assertion, it’s obvious that truth and logic have been completely abandoned. But it’s a self-defeating position when the same people who argue that gender is only a social construct also argue that toxic masculinity is a problem in our society. The least masculine culture in history is claiming we’re too masculine. It’s absurd.

And since I’ve probably managed to offend some more people with this column, I’ll go ahead and point out that there’s no such thing as ‘toxic masculinity.’ Masculinity is absolutely necessary for life to continue on the planet. It’s exactly as essential as femininity. Many may disagree. They’re wrong.

When a man hits a woman, or abandons his family, or leaves a woman to raise his child(ren) alone, that isn’t toxic masculinity, it’s cowardice. Masculinity requires men to act like men, and that means protecting women and children, especially their own, and that means staying home and being a husband/father. The biggest societal issue we have in America today is that too many men aren’t masculine enough. If that offends you, you’re part of the problem.

And if this is the last time my column runs in your local paper, it probably means too many liberals have moved into your community and brought cancel culture with them. It’s a cancer, and if we don’t make a stand and demand that the whiny snowflakes grow up and start acting like adults, America is doomed.

Y’all have a nice day now, hear?

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wDougL, Tue, 09/01/2020 - 12:59

... agree! Btw Kendal, great column, two thumbs up for this one! (... can't use emoticons, for some reason the website won't accept them, strange decision by the website gurus in this day and age...)

"Instead of being an adult, and just ignoring things they don’t like, liberals typically demand that no one else should have access to those things, either."

Reminds me of the many pulpit pounding, snake oil salesmen who rail against legal adult entertainment.

https://sanangelolive.com/news/live-thought/2015-02-10/bishop-sis-addresses-movie-premiere-fifty-shades-grey

The Religious Alliance Against Pornography (RAAP) is an organization which has aligned themselves with various religious factions within the country, to work towards their mission in achieving a "culture free from pornography", as they cite everything from "broken homes" to "human trafficking" as the result of consenting adults taking a trip to the Love Shack.

Like the radical Left, this Conservative organization wants to define "offensive", and influence legislation using their definitions to beat the public over the head with their version of "morality". They point their fingers at pornography, as the Left does with Lego policemen, as the cause of all which ails them, and a cause which should damn well ail you, too.

Cancel culture is nothing new. There'll always be some charlatan or social justice leech, clinging to their assertions that your tastes and personal opinions are offending Jesus or some millennial basement dweller, and make a case for why they and their imperious leaders know what's best for you.

Common sense used to be based in reason, however, the liberal left grounds their common sense in emotion. I.e; Transgender speaker at the DNC is a self-described “Black-Vietnamese, transgender nonbinary/gender transcendent mermaid Queen-King currently living out their ever-evolving truths in Winston, Salem,” according to their Wake Forest University staff bio. Now if you can't wrap your mind around this person, I'm sorry, They self description, you totally lack common sense.

"Black-Vietnamese, transgender nonbinary/gender transcendent mermaid Queen-King currently living out their ever-evolving truths in Winston, Salem."

Morten Lindberg anticipated this in his work almost 30 years ago.

k40cal, Wed, 09/02/2020 - 08:57

Well said! We seem to have too many people that believe the network news and "socially acceptable" magazines - even in Texas. Even in our schools. It's scary for our future.

Thank you for standing with estranged fathers who have taken responsibility for their lives and for their children by taking them out of the country, "custody laws" be damned. Too much wrong in this country is due to people standing aside like eunuchs while injustice is done to children, as we continue to see with the movement to normalize pedophilia.

Stay strong, brothers, and defy the wicked.

Keep writing!!! I may not always agree but, I feel everyone has a right to their opinion. Though I have agreed with most of what you say. People need to stop and take off their blinders and look at what our country has become. We were a great nation that let everyone have their beliefs. Now we’re made to feel ashamed of our great nation, our beliefs, and should hide all of it so as to not offend others. Well for me and my family we’re not politically correct. Not going to change either. I judge people by how they treat me. Not by their income, color, race, religion, or political beliefs. Being a good person is all I care about. And just because you don’t share my opinion is of no consequence. I won’t shove mine down your throat and you have the same consideration for mine. And one more thing..... take your feelings off your shoulders and stop getting butt hurt every time someone disagrees.
Keep going, love reading your articles.

MjNS, Sun, 09/06/2020 - 15:47

Since when was that man not pure evil? Or are y'all part of the idiot pack that says the holocaust didn't happen?

The Leftist lapdogs have some masochistic need to suffer vicariously through everything ''Hitleresque".

Hilarious case in point . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfMSpzU5KtQ

Mainstream media and these radical Leftist politicians should really be taken to task, for preying on mentally retarded individuals.

MjNS, Sun, 09/06/2020 - 15:51

that closed mind a bit, your stupidity is showing. Until you can prove them wrong, let people be whatever the hell they want to be. If they are not hurting anyone, live and let live.

"When a man can claim to be a woman, and everyone is expected to nod and smile and accept such a ludicrous assertion, it’s obvious that truth and logic have been completely abandoned."

...but (according to you) "letting people be whatever the hell they want to be" should be an inalienable right, inherent to every individual -- Hitler and his supporters too.

You ran with the assertion that Hitler is "pure Evil", and those who disagree are part of an "idiot pack" -- entirely subjective, unlike gender, which is, in fact, biologically unmalleable.

MjNS, Tue, 09/08/2020 - 16:44

I said let people be what they want to be AS LONG AS THEY ARE NOT HURTING ANYONE. Hitler caused just a lil bit o damage to millions...
If biologists are still searching for answers as to what makes us male and female, and they are, I am waiting for the results before saying who gets to be male and who gets to be female.

Many advocating for transgenderism most certainly are hurting people in their march to castrate and subdue American society, and in that process seem unconcerned about the inevitable backlash they earn, even as the effects of these causes mount ever higher, waiting to burst forth.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-transgender-custody-battle-james-luna-younger

Just as we are seeing with the COVID-19 fiasco, even science is being politicized, and the implications of that are darker than most comprehend.

Thank you for mentioning Wm. Buckley. one of the greatest conservative speakers of his time. Your article is spot on. Kudos.

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