Quote:
Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan
It's not a response. It's how they've been operating for decades. The Alabama board of education banned teaching yoga and meditation in schools in 1993.
Their House just passed a bill to lift the ban so long as no one uses Sanskrit, ESPECIALLY Namaste. Because Alabama school children will all immediately renounce Jesus if they hear "uttanasana" instead of "chair pose."
We'll see if it passes their Senate.
Banning and boycotting things they don't like is in their DNA. They've just rebranded to "cancel culture" efforts to call out their own bad behavior. |
As I've agreed, Cancel Culture started with Focus on the Family in the 70s.
But the the liberal (classical definition) argument against banning free expression always succeeded because the left and center were defenders of free speech. Now, the tables are flipped. When DeSantis bans critical race theory, and real liberals like me would call him out as violating free speech principles, he's immune to the critique. He can criticize progressives for seeking to squelch or preclude speech in various other forms.
Nevermind that his is govt action, whereas what the left is doing is using free speech to ban other speech it doesn't like. That argument will go nowhere with the broader public.
Additionally, in the past, the right wingers involved in cancellation were private individuals setting up boycotts (Brent Bozell) or govt actors of limited power and public stature (school boards). Now, because cancellation has become fun for everyone and is by its very nature a public act (getting mobs of people to shame others), politicians like DeSantis can cleverly get in on the game with zero risk. It's a can't lose posture for him and every other politician who'll plagiarize this political move.
This doesn't end well, and the blame lies with the millions of people out there who look at cancellation - done by either the right or left - and think it's acceptable, or worse, lie about it not existing.
