Random Thoughts on the Cancel Culture

Canceling? Let's see. Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. Dr. Seuss. The Jeep Cherokee. Abraham Lincoln and George Washingto, among others. Who knows what or who is next? Is Planter's Mr. Peanut next? Will one of my neighbors be required to get rid of her vanity license plate which reads, "Mrs. Peanut?" I'm struck by several things in all of this. The people doing the canceling seem very ignorant. They don't know what they are doing. They have little or no capacity to think, at least not for themeselves. I am reminded of lemmings, although I call most of them bobble heads. Do they really know what they are doing? I think not. I wonder if any of the cancel crowd has ever heard of Krystalnacht? I'd wager not. I'm equally certain they are unaware of the "canceling" done by authoritarian/totalitarian governments. The first step toward controling people is controling their ideas or at least the ideas to which they are exposed. Books burned or banned; the same with newspapers and other media. Authors banish, imprisoned, or worse. I'd like to confront one of the cancel crowd and ask how he/she is different from Robespierre (who?), Hitler, Lenin/Stalin, Mao, etc. I think I know the response. "But that's different." It always is, isn't it? I realize no books have been banned by the government; there is no government censorship. But having corporations bend their knees to a small, but vocal minority doesn't seem too far from it. Why is so much of corporate American falling in line with the cancel culture? It can't really be that those leading US businesses really believe this garbage, e.g., that there is something wrong with a Mr. Potato Head, can it? Are they that cowardly, fearful of the mob, especially considering the mob is very small percentage of the population? For that matter, look at the professional sports organizations, particularly the NFL and NBA. I'm sure there are some good people among the players. But isn't their superficial pandering to the mob apparent? If Mrs. Potato Head, Dr. Seuss, the Jeep Cherokee, etc. are so offensive, why can we still find retailers, such as Amazon, that continue to sell tee shirts with the likenesses of Mao Zedong and Che Guevara on them? It's not OK to reflect "Mr." or "Mrs.," but it's all right to display the images of mass murderers? How long until we are done with this? One of my buddies, speaking of us, cynically suggested "until we die." I wonder. How long will it be before we no longer allow the stupid people to dictate the rules, how we live? I'm not confident that it will end any time soon. Look at how our schools hve been run, ridiculous program after ridiculous program for decades now. Will the majority finally have had enough and say "Stop!"? Again, I'm not encouraged. Look how easily they have been manipulated by the hypocrisy and inconsistencies of our government officials, so-called "experts," and the sycophantic media during the CoVid year. They are being bought off, "bread and circuses," again with "CoVid Relief" bills. "Follow the science," they are told, when most people don't understand the essence of "science."