Virtual President – Cancel Culture (No More Ceding Territory)

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Imagine you’re a Jew living in 1930’s Germany.  The Weimar Republic has just elected Adolf Hitler to power. The Reichstag fires are still freshly burning, with sweeping changes being made to the law in real time.  It’s not long before you see your neighbors’ businesses being smashed, their windows broken, in what’s since come to be known as the Night of the Long Knives, or Krystalnacht.  Those who lost everything in the Gestapo raids are forced to band together and live in the ghetto, being branded with a mark that identifies them as belonging to a particular group, demonized as outcasts by the mainstream population – your fellow countrymen.

It’s quite clear at this point, you are no longer welcome in your own home, despite your good and honest standing.  You were a model citizen, but that no longer seems to matter.

The Nazis then turn to you and declare that they are paving the way for a pure and virtuous Germany.  One without people like you.  They won’t kill you, or do direct violence to you – not yet, at least – they’ll just make sure your life is miserable enough that you’ll up and leave voluntarily.  They make all sorts of justifications for their behavior, like how damaging your property isn’t all that bad, since your ancestors only acquired it through illegitimate means to begin with.  That you aren’t a native to this land with deep roots like them.  They tell you, “This is OUR country, and if you don’t like it, go form your own.  Here, we’ll even help you pack.”

Seeing the writing on the wall, and not wanting to cause trouble, you figure the easiest thing to do is just gather up your belongings and go.  So you move to neighboring Czechoslovakia.  It’s a steep learning curve, having to figure everything out from the bottom up: new language, new culture, new locations, new customs, etc.  But at least it’s safe and quiet and peaceful here, and you can rest easy, knowing that you won’t be harassed or abused anymore.

Just as you’re beginning to settle into your new life and make friends, you come to learn that the Nazis have invaded and now occupy Czechoslovakia.  You were sure you’d be safe here, but maybe there was some long-standing conflict between the two nations you just weren’t aware of, so you decide to travel even further to France.  Theirs is an ancient culture, with a rich tradition, booming economy, and wonderfully civilized people.  Unlike the Czechs, the French were a major commercial and military player during the Middle Ages and all the way up through the Napoleonic Wars.  So you figure, this time, there’s no way the Nazis will bother you. 

That bastion of liberty known has France has got your back.

Some months later, you come to find your faith in this new system was sorely misplaced as France surrenders and falls to the Third Reich.  What’s most-surprising is how little resistance they put up and how quickly it all collapsed.

No matter.  Perhaps you had the French wrong and they grew fat and lazy during good times, such that now they’re really just a bunch of weaklings who capitulate when the going gets tough.  This time, you move to London, sothat there’s an entire body of water between you and the jackals at your heel.  Finally, you think, here is a place I’ll find respite and can begin to build something for myself under the flag of the empire upon which the sun never sets.

It doesn’t take long, however, until the sirens blare and you’re hiding in the tubes beneath the city as German bombers rain hellfire from above.  What else can you do?  Maybe a channel wasn’t enough, so you’ll move to America and put an entire ocean between you instead.  Yet who’s to say you’ll be safe there either?  At this point, it seems like no matter how far you run, this is an enemy that is intent on pursuing you to the ends of the Earth with the express goal of wiping you out.  By now, you surmise that perhaps it would have been better if, instead of ceding territory time and time again, you instead stood your ground and fought back, eliminating the problem once and for all when it was still small, and confined to just your backyard.

Recently, we all witnessed famed actress Gina Carano get fired from her job.  Her offense?  Asking her fellow citizens not to demonize one another, because humanity watched the same thing happen in World War II, and we all know how that ended.

I wish I were joking, but it really was that petty.

She is far from the only one.  Everyday, new stories come out about people’s lives, reputations, careers, and families being destroyed because a vicious mob of hate-filled thugs terrified those in power into silencing anyone whom they happened to dislike.  Ironically, the people who had Gina Carano removed are the very same people she warned about; and in canceling her, they proved her right.

Since then, the hashtag #CancelDisney+ has been trending on social media as an expression of outrage at this flagrant injustice.  And she has partnered with Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro to star in a new movie.

Of course, she was lucky enough to have many people run to defend her; yet how many of you listening to this have gone through something similar and aren’t so lucky?  How many of you are just ordinary citizens who can’t fight back because you’re not rich celebs with wide-reaching audiences of loyal fans?  You are on your own when the mob comes for you.  When they show up at your door, your school, your business, your house of worship, when they flood your inbox and your DMs with verbal abuse and threats of violence.  When they cut off your bank account or make it impossible to find employment again, because rumors travel quickly and the internet is forever.

It’s perfectly understandable how anyone under those conditions would feel pressured into compliance with such odds stacked against them.  To say: “It’s not worth it.  I’ll just concede and tell you whatever you want to hear.  I’ll do whatever you want me to do.  I’ll even turn upon those closest to me, like Winston Smith from 1984.  Just leave me alone, I want to live in peace.”

In the same week, Twitter banned Project Veritas from its platform for allegedly violating their Terms of Service in regards to posting personal information.  Seems reasonable enough on its surface, right?  Except that the personal information in question were statements made by Facebook Vice-President Guy Rosen on how Facebook freezes comments that their algorithms deem hate speech.  Again, seems pretty reasonable at first.  Who wouldn’t stop hate online?  That is, until you begin to ask who determines what is hateful and what isn’t?  How easy would it be to point such a weapon at your political opposition and use it as justification to have them silenced and removed?  If it’s so noble and honest, then Guy Rosen has nothing to fear from this statement being released, right?  He should stand by his words, shouldn’t he?  After all, it’s no secret to anyone that Big Tech tends to lean left.  Except that Guy Rosen, and the other heads of the media-political complex, probably know that such an honest confession from their own mouths would confirm what we all suspected, and that it will be received quite poorly by the general public who doesn’t share their worldview.

So of course they’ll take the risk and ban someone like James O’Keefe in the hopes that our memories are short and we’ll forget about him in a month.  That our anger will burn out.  That our willpower will subside.  They are counting on this, because they know how to manipulate what you think and feel.  They’ve poured billions of dollars into researching all the various tricks of human psychology and physiology. 

And if you can’t be made to get over it and comply, they’ll make sure you’re the next one gone.

Much like with Gina Carano, those who removed James O’Keefe and Project Veritas ironically proved the very point he was trying to make about censorship and targeted suppression.

Those who’ve been paying attention have seen this play out time and time again on social media, in Hollywood, and across our country and our culture.  Anyone dissenting from a narrow agenda must be quietly removed.  Anyone who is not ideologically pure must be silenced.  Those who oppose the powers-that-be must be erased from history in Stalin-esque fashion.  Their social media accounts suspended.  Their bank accounts frozen.  They must be made into social pariahs.  Let the mob ridicule and humiliate them, and then feast upon their corpses, and defecate on their graves.  Let them be shouted out of the city and out of our hearts like Emmanuel Goldstein in our daily Two Minutes of Hate by the “good and honest and virtuous and patriotic” among us. That is the tone and tenor of the media-political complex.  A vicious monster, an insatiable cancer, that will use you before ultimately turning on you without any sense of loyalty or self-awareness. It can never be satisfied, for it is lust of pure power incarnate. 

And moreover, what are you going to do about it?  What can you do about it?

Not much, as an individual, which is why many of you will cave to it in the end, and cower in fear before this machination of chaotic evil.  Except that will not stop it.  It will only make it stronger.  It doesn’t matter if you agree with them today, they will eat their own if it means advancing up the ladder of power.

Many alternative platforms have been proposed as a fallback point – and assuredly, they have their place and purpose as a means of surviving in the short term.  Of living to fight another day.  However, given how much time, money, and effort it takes to set up these networks, these sites, these businesses, it’s unreasonable to have to ask the average person to take all that upon themselves.  To do all that, on top of the normal struggles of day-to-day living.  You have a hard enough time as it is without having to worry that everything you built for yourself and your family will end tomorrow because you said the wrong thing in a Tweet taken out of context that’s been seen by a million eyes while you were asleep and helpless to defend yourself.

Worse still, you can’t even predict what “the wrong thing” will be tomorrow, because it’s completely arbitrary.  Chaos and lawlessness presently reign.

Your fear is indeed understandable and relatable.

That said, constantly retreating is no longer the answer.  We’ve been running from this long enough.  It’s time to finally take a stand.  Every time you leave a platform or a job, everytime you alter your speech to reflect a more politically-correct way of speaking, everytime you give into the brushback pitches of rumormilling, propaganda and race-baiting, everytime you backpedal and apologize, having done nothing wrong, you are ceding ground to the enemy.  You are running from an adversary that will track you down to the ends of the Earth and hunt you far and wide.  They will not rest.  They will not be satisfied.  Because they absolutely hate you.  They will find you and destroy you, because it is in their nature to do so.

Nowhere is safe from them, so you might as well stand and fight.  Speak out.  Speak back.  Take back your power, or at least make it that much harder for them to take it from the next person.  If you go down, be sure to take ten of them with you.  Do not capitulate.  Do not surrender.  Do not let them dictate your speech.  Do not self-censor!  They love it when you do that, because it means less work for them.  It means they’ve got you so scared, they don’t have to lift a finger.  You’ll go through all that hassle for them.

It doesn’t matter what you say, they’ll demonize you anyway.  They’ll censor and suppress you anyway, so you might as well speak the truth and shame the devil; and let everyone see you do it, too.  Worst case scenario, you’ll be an inspiration for the people who follow you.  A model of courage to be replicated and studied.  History will remember your name.

The powers-that-be want you to remove yourself from their platforms so that they can have full control with no one standing in their way.  Don’t let them.  Plant your feet and make them kick you off before you go elsewhere.  They’ll try to shadowban you.  Keep making content and link it through word of mouth.  Bypass their algorithms the way people used to before computers were invented.  If our ancestors could smuggle booze and refugees, surely you can find a way to reach people with your ideas.  You just have to get creative.  Find allies.  Win friends and learn how to influence people.

They want you to shut down your business and stop producing content.  To take away your livelihood so you’ll be weak and pliant – an obedient little slave.  Don’t give in.  Stay strong and continue to live the way you want.  Live free, or else you’re already dead inside.

They wish to oust you from your homes and terrorize your families.  Steel yourselves against the coming storm.  Stand your ground and tell them: “Over my dead body!”  And then make them put you in the ground before you cede one inch of yours.  There’s a reason their weapon of choice is rhetoric and not guns.  Half of them would run at the mere sight of a water pistol.  Take comfort in knowing that, although we are presently in a state of civil war; if things ever devolved into an uncivil war, ours is the side with all the guns and we could take them in the end.  They know it and we know it.  That is why they operate the way they do, pouring poison into your ears.  They want you to curb your own speech as they appropriate and bastardize your language, stripping it of words whose meanings have been known and understood since beyond living memory.  

Why would you just hand them over without putting up at least some kind of fight?

Dark and malevolent forces of chaos wish to tell you that up is down, 2 + 2 = 5, and that every instance of the word “black” invokes racism, as though there were no such thing as colors.  They wish to tell you there are no differences between people while insisting that you respect them for being different.  They will commit themselves to ruining your life for acknowledging basic facts that have been true since before humans walked the face of this Earth; and we continue to let them all get away with it without opposition, and somehow, we think this makes us virtuous?  

In reality, it only makes us cowards and capitulators.

I know that it’s a lot to ask, as you are only one person.  But I am right there with you, and we are lions among lambs.  I have no doubt those same forces will try and come for me one day, and I pray that I will have the strength and courage, along with your support, to stand tall when my number finally gets called.  In that moment, I would ask that you say to me what I am saying to you now: 

“Do not do it for yourself, but for the people who come after you.  For the ones you’ll leave behind.  For the ones who will remain in suffering if you leave.  Stand until the last possible moment; and in so-doing, embolden the next person to action and make them stronger by your example.  Do it because you have to, and because no one else can or will; and because if you don’t, then evil grows while goodness withers and decays, until eventually, there is no one left to stand in evil’s way.”

Our Founders penned these immortal words: “We pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”  Our ancestors fought tyrannical empires and paid for it in bloodshed.  What do we pledge in this modern culture war that costs us little by comparison?

We lay down our arms at the first sign of trouble.  We tuck our tails.  We turn away.  We cut and run.  We hide.  We feed our adversaries ammunition and resources and tools to grow stronger while we grow weaker everyday.  And we die a thousand deaths along the way.

No more ceding territory.  That was that all-too-American attitude, which won every war from the Revolution to World War II, and it’s that same spirit we must now embody.  Take back your words, your platforms, your property, your rights, your institutions … take it all back from these petty, abusive demons.  And say to them, now and forevermore: “From my cold dead hands!”

No more ceding territory!  It’s time to reclaim what we’ve lost.