Cancel culture is a large group movement to “cancel” someone who has not properly fit themselves into the politically correct box we all are supposed to live in. For example, while still in office, President Donald Trump was cut out of social media and even digitally removed from the original Home Alone movie.

Cancel culture, in all of its many facets is wrong. It’s not who we, as humans should attempt to be. By silencing opposing viewpoints we cannot learn from one another. This is especially concerning as a teacher and historian. Further, cancel culture is anti-love and anti-hope. Peace, patience, goodness, kindness and self-control are all not reflected in the cancel culture movement. Which is no surprise, given the anti-Christian bent of current American culture.

“All cultures cancel” though according to the New York Times, so it’s perfectly okay. The only difference, they say, is that now we are canceling people for different reasons. We used to “cancel” people for committing crimes or perhaps being Jewish. Now, it’s for something else, so no biggie. Kinda like Bismarck City Attorney Janelle Combs’ statement, “the ends justifies the means… slavery was moral… as was Hitler.” So, today it’s fine to cancel a person. Hey, those other guys did it.

This week in North Dakota a free speech supporter was removed from the House of Representatives because of he was simply accused of unpleasant speech. As we are now discovering, the things he supposedly said were just made up or ridiculously taken out of context. Of course, this should come as no surprise. The man in question is a conservative Christian, so according to politically correct cancel culture, it’s okay to cancel him, steal his job and unjustly attack his family on the nightly news.

The New York Times also informs us that most effective time to cancel someone is just as they are gaining notoriety. Which fits perfectly, with the attacks on a freedom loving, small town, Christian man who refused to squeeze his tall frame into the PC box, and had just gained attention for his work as a legislator.

That conservative Christians are the ones standing up for everyone’s inalienable rights is ignored. Must be a coincidence, maybe. It can’t be that the humans that profess loving one another are good. It must be that the mobs screaming, fake crying and tearing society apart are the ones we should follow. Right?

Well perhaps for many this is all fine and dandy… for now, but ask yourself, your friends and family, “Who will be cancel cultured next?”

You see, authoritarian control requires a bad guy. For example:

Cancel culture is supposed to unite us against a common enemy. It’s supposed to distract us from the motives pushing for new laws stripping away more freedoms. It is simply the most current name for an old trick.

There has to be a group to blame. There has to be a reason for increased laws and decreased freedoms. Every move away from freedom in history has one. If you haven’t noticed, the most common “bad guy” source is religious people. It doesn’t matter much though, who the “bad guys” are. Look closely and you’ll see that it wasn’t only Jewish people murdered in WWII. Nor was it only Bishops that Duterte said to kill.

Anyone who stands against those in pursuit of unnatural power are included in the canceling, re-education, concentration camps or out right murders. So dear friends and family, citizens and “elected leaders”, please be watchful of where you are pointing “that thing” called cancel culture.

When we twist and subvert laws we destroy the system that has fostered freedom and equality on a broad scale for centuries. We in North Dakota are steadily moving toward something like a monarch system, where those in power can turn on anyone they choose. Where the governor is king and his minions are granted power in each of their little fiefdoms. Where one DUI for you could mean a lost job, but seven DUI’s for the governor’s friend has no effect.

Where would you rather your children live? In a world of cancel culture, where everyone is afraid, slavery is discussed as moral and laws mean nothing for those in power or in a world where regular people stand together for freedom for all? Isn’t a society where we can discuss wrongs and learn from them and where laws are equally enforced a better option?