Here we go again. Another day and another example of the new censorship spreading due to progressive thought police.
The publisher of a book about cancel culture by Julie Burchill has cancelled it after the writer was accused of Islamophobia on Twitter. Little, Brown said that Burchill comments were "not defensible from a moral or intellectual standpoint" and "crossed a line with regard to race and religion."
Cancel culture and mob rule of the politically correct woke are taking over. Intolerance to ideas by progressive ideology coupled with a desire to seek retribution by ostracizing those not sharing those views has become a threat to democracy and freedom of speech. According to Robert King, presently serving as the United States Department of Education assistant secretary of postsecondary education, cancel culture is "dangerous to our democracy when administrators cave to the mob." The tradition of vigorous debate and discussion, at the core of American values is being silenced by those who do not agree with you and is stifling freedom of speech.
"Those who cancel ideas, and burn books, end up canceling people and burning them as well" stated Reed Rubinstein, Lead General Counsel for the US Department of Education in his introductory remarks in an online Dept of Ed event titled "What is to Be Done? Confronting a Culture of Censorship on Campus."
Academic freedom based on the Bill of Rights which provides for freedom of speech is being challenged. The emerging prominence of social progressives shuts out not only conservative voices but an academic's ability to express his or her opinions.
Kristina Arriaga, Commissioner to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom showed how laws become inefficient and useless if not culturally supported. We are told being a dissenter is actually a threat to the tribe, a threat to our way of life. It was reported that 63% of Americans are afraid to speak their mind. Polarization is growing stronger. It is a vital human right to speak out. No one can take what is in our minds and hearts away from us. "Silencing is not good" emphasized Arriaga, the human rights expert.
The first night of Hanukkah Ivanka Trump posted a family photo to say "Happy Chanukah from our family to yours!" In response, the tweet received hundreds of vicious, threatening comments.
The hateful comments on the Hanukkah tweet are one recent example of the vitriol, Ivanka has received from strangers on social media.
A Tennessee lawyer was forced from his position by a state board because a lawyer he was investigating called him an "anti-Muslim bigot."
A meme against Joe Biden roused a complaint against a veteran elementary principal who was then removed by the school board. Postings on her private social media, including support for the police and Republican candidates were reasons given to force her resignation.
A former Supervisor of Special Education in Pennsylvania said she was forced to resign after reposting criticism of Black Lives Matter on Facebook for ignoring black conservatives, black unborn babies, and black police officers.
"The animosity against ‘Israel’ on campus, used to mask animosity against Jewishness did not cease, even as the classroom was replaced with the Zoom call," wrote Blake Flayton in "The Hate that Can't Be Contained" for Tablet. His article contains a long list of incidents against Jewish students in leading universities from the East Coast to the West.
In response to US university professors and students' harassment, the US Department of Education recently initiated a hotline to report abuse and seek assistance. The new hotline freespeech@ed.gov is open to emails for reporting abuse on campus.
Cancel culture mobs have taken down statues of Southern Civil War leaders along Monument Avenue and vandalized General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, VA. In Boston, Abraham Lincoln was a victim of the politically correct ideology.
Rewriting history by removing "offending" books from library shelves and scrubbing names from buildings has already occurred. Thomas Wolfe's "You Can't Go Home Again" is no longer available in a Massachusetts library. Flannery O'Connor, Mark Twain, and others are being banned. American literature is being lost to political correctness.
In 1949, English novelist George Orwell published 1984, as a dystopian social science fiction novel. Orwell developed in his work the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, repression in society, and the role of truth and fact in politics.
The Ministry of Truth in 1984 controls information - news, education, entertainment, and the arts. By correcting historical records to agree with Big Brother's pronouncements the Party is able to manipulate what is seen to be true.
Barricade the streets. Defund the police. Let mobs rule and governments cave under pressure.
Daily it appears we are taking another step towards 1984 being a prophetic vision and not a work of fiction.
Will the media and social media manipulate what we are allowed to see and say?
Will the new US administration hold off threats to free speech and democracy?