{"id":5771,"date":"2021-02-12T22:06:57","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T22:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jaysondbradley\/?p=5771"},"modified":"2021-02-12T22:44:45","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T22:44:45","slug":"cancel-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jaysondbradley\/2021\/02\/cancel-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"No. You\u2019re Not Getting \u201cCanceled\u201d for Being a Conservative"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Disney announced the firing of actress Gina Carano over an Instagram post the company called \u201cabhorrent.\u201d The post ended up being the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back and read,<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause history is edited, most people today don\u2019t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This firing fed into the right\u2019s narrative that conservatives and Christians are being marginalized and demonized in the U.S. But is that true? Hardly.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s examine some reasons why this problem is a made-up non-issue.<\/p>\n

1. Christians and conservatives have their own cancel culture<\/h2>\n

On February 26, 2011, John Piper responded to a teaser video for Rob Bell\u2019s upcoming book Love Wins<\/em> with a tweet that rocked the evangelical community. The tweet simply read \u201cFarewell Rob Bell\u201d and included a link to a Gospel Coalition article <\/a>about Rob\u2019s upcoming book. The impact on Rob\u2019s ministry was felt immediately.<\/p>\n

Christians began calling Rob a universalist, which meant that he needed to be yeeted from the evangelical community as quickly as possible. But here\u2019s the thing . . . the nobody had read the book, and neither had John Piper. All they had seen was a video teasing some of the questions Rob would address.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve watched fellow Christians organize boycotts against Disney<\/a> for affirming gay rights. They\u2019ve boycotted businesses<\/a> that encouraged employees to wish others happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas.<\/p>\n

We all saw the entire Republican apparatus turn against John McCain for blocking Trump\u2019s dismantling of Obamacare. Today, the people who used to applaud the late McCain\u2019s service to the country, both as a war hero and as a politician, loathe him for deciding to follow his conscience. You could say the same thing of Mitt Romney, who has been \u201ccanceled\u201d for daring to speak his contrary opinions about the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

When celebrities say things that conservatives don\u2019t like, they use the exact same cancel behavior. Remember when The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks) spoke out against George Bush? How about when Kathy Griffin released an untasteful photo of her holding Trump\u2019s severed head? And thankfully, Taylor Swift was too big of a star to suffer any significant consequences for speaking out against Trump in 2018\u2014but the right still tried to cancel her, too.<\/p>\n

I mean, come on. We watched a group of \u201cpatriots\u201d erect gallows to hang members of our government (including the conservative vice president) because they didn\u2019t like them. That\u2019s about as \u201ccanceled\u201d as you can get.<\/p>\n

2. Cancelable offenses are neither \u2018Christian\u2019 nor \u2018conservative<\/h2>\n

Please show me someone who has been canceled for pushing for smaller government, championing free-market capitalism, or calling for fiscal responsibility. No one is being canceled for loving God, loving their neighbor, or sharing the gospel.<\/p>\n

People are experiencing real-life accountability and consequences for pushing baseless conspiracy theories, denying science, promoting hate and violence, and showing insensitivity to others. If you want to claim those are conservative or Christian values, that\u2019s on you. The plain truth is that people are experiencing consequences for being cruel because they\u2019ve embraced the idea that being sensitive to others is \u201cpolitically correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

When a lot of the people who share the same ideological identity are being \u201ccanceled\u201d for being boorish bullies and putting others at risk with their anti-science, anti-factual nonsense, it might be time to ask, \u201cWhy do I belong to a movement that\u2019s churning out so much craziness?\u201d<\/p>\n

3. You either value free-market capitalism, or you don\u2019t<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s boil this down to the basic facts. When the Christian group One Million Moms calls for a boycott of Hallmark<\/a> because they can\u2019t abide the very existence of LGBTQ storylines in Hallmark Christmas movies, they\u2019re trying to use economic means to coerce Hallmark to do what they want. They are hoping Hallmark\u2019s bottom line will take such a dramatic hit that they\u2019ll capitulate and drop the content OMM doesn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

You see, the people crying about \u201ccancel culture\u201d support using free-market means to achieve ideological ends when it suits them. But when a company like Disney lets Gina Carano go, it\u2019s the same thing. They have decided\u2014due mainly to public response\u2014that they don\u2019t want her to represent their brand.<\/p>\n

Disney didn\u2019t let Carano go over one Instagram post. She\u2019d raised ire recently by mocking transgender pronouns, mask-wearing, and disparaging Black Lives Matter. When the outrage around her posts became too much, Disney and Lucasfilm decided they weren\u2019t going to jeopardize an extremely popular franchise by associating it with such an unpopular figure.<\/p>\n

I completely understand that you might associate Carano\u2019s firing with your political identity. But you have to admit that you\u2019re not mad about people pressuring companies. You\u2019re furious that there seem to be more people who oppose your views than support them. You\u2019d be happy if you could pressure companies to align with your opinions, but you hold the minority opinion\u2014and the market responds to potential cost and opportunity.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t capitalism super?<\/p>\n

Seeing through the fa\u00e7ade<\/h2>\n

Right now, there is an explosive and angry little contingent of American citizens who wield a lot of influence. This is the reason Republicans are still so sycophantic when it comes to Donald Trump even after he\u2019s out of office. They\u2019re scared to death to let go of the reins on this frothy little faction. This base will remain active and weaponized for as long as they feel victimized and annoyed.<\/p>\n

To that end, the \u201ccancel culture\u201d mythos is the gift that keeps on giving. It ensures that these people feel marginalized and unheard. It feeds into larger narratives about Christian persecution. It guarantees that they\u2019ll keep acting out in ways that get them \u201ccanceled,\u201d perpetuating the trope.<\/p>\n

These people need<\/em> an oppression narrative; it\u2019s the only glue holding this nuclear reactor together. Without it, the energy (anger) dissipates, and it becomes unusable. But like we saw at the Capitol on January 6, it\u2019s becoming too unstable to control.<\/p>\n

Eventually, this \u201ccancel culture\u201d narrative will lead to more violence. Maybe it\u2019s time to admit it isn\u2019t real\u2014or at least that you\u2019re only mad when you can\u2019t get it to work for you.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Disney announced the firing of actress Gina Carano over an Instagram post the company called \u201cabhorrent.\u201d The post ended up being the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back and read, \u201cBecause history is edited, most people today don\u2019t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3080,"featured_media":5774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-issues"],"yoast_head":"\nNo. You\u2019re Not Getting \u201cCanceled\u201d for Being a Conservative<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  Disney announced the firing of actress Gina Carano over an Instagram post the company called \u201cabhorrent.\u201d The post ended up being the straw that\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jaysondbradley\/2021\/02\/cancel-culture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No. You\u2019re Not Getting \u201cCanceled\u201d for Being a Conservative\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Disney announced the firing of actress Gina Carano over an Instagram post the company called \u201cabhorrent.\u201d The post ended up being the straw that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jaysondbradley\/2021\/02\/cancel-culture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Honest to God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-12T22:06:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-12T22:44:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/832\/2021\/02\/You\u2019re-Not-Getting-\u201cCanceled\u201d-for-Being-a-Conservative.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"491\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jayson D. 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