Too Good To Be True
Written by Nick Caraway
It seemed too good to be true. I’d like to think if we are anything around here it is fair. Late last week there were numerous reports circulating around the interwebs and one of them was a so-called fundraising letter from Ted Cruz complaining about the “cancel culture” and “socialist travel agenda” forcing him to return from his trip to Mexico.
As it turns out, snopes.com came back and said that letter was false. Apparently, someone made it up as a brilliant example of satire. Of course, the problem is two-fold. First, satire is becoming way too realistic these days. People were fooled because Cruz would be dumb enough to treat this recent scandal as a fund-raising opportunity.
Kudos to JJ and Jefe for not jumping on that piece of satire as truth. We may not be nice all the time, but at least we are fair. The second point is the one that sticks in my craw. Cancel culture. Calling out that jackass is not cancel culture. It’s public shaming. I’m not even sure there is such a thing as cancel culture but there has been public shaming around for centuries at least.
We can ignore the fact that AOC and Beto did more for Texas even though they don’t hold elected office in Texas. No one is really giving John Cornyn a hard time because no one really knows what he did or didn’t do behind the scenes. Any mother is an expert on shaming and Cruz just got another lesson. You can’t abandon your neighbors and not suffer any blowback.
Nick
And in the name of fairness, Fled Ted questioned Merrick Garland about his commitment to not, should he be confirmed, use his job as A.G, to attack political opponents.
1Like the previous A.G.
Eric Holder.
It must be remembered that Cruz is NOT a Texan. He is a carpetbagger like those who raped the south after the civil war. He has no connection to Texas other than his support from his fellow republicans.
2I’m inclined to see “cancel culture” right there with the “Deep State.” It’s something that would be a convenient club with which to hit opponents if it were true, so conservatives (AKA Republicans) treat it as though it were, and the rest of us are supposed to follow along.
3“Cancel Culture” is a term for “Accountability” coined by people who don’t want to be held to it.
4“Cancel culture” used to be known as “consequences of your actions.” They seem to think that just because they have a right to do stupid stuff, there should be no consequences for said stupid stuff. Apparently, consequences are for Democrats. GQP is never having to say you’re sorry (to steal a line from a saccharine book and movie of the last century).
5any time you hear someone whining from the starboard side about “cancel culture” just respond with these two words: “Colin Kaepernick.”
6If that’s not enough, two more words: “Dixie Chicks.”
That should be enough to end the whinefest.
el largarto @6 to your two excellent examples we could add a few hundred more. But end the QOP whine fest? Nevuh gonna happen. After $carah Palin opened their “I’m the victim here” crusade that became the standard torch leading the charge of hypocrisy, the QOP has zero shame, none. When Boofy Kavanaugh claimed he was the ‘victim’ all shame in their game vanished.
7Oh, cancel culture is real. Don’t pretend it isn’t.
It’s also primarily a tool of the left.
Twitter seems the vector.
Sorry.
8From my HOA on 2/12 – when the daily high was about 29 deg – came an email about the weather and a careful reminder:
“In the event that you have a tree that needs to be replaced, please be sure that it is replaced with the appropriate size tree as required by the deed restrictions.”
9The difficulty Ormond is how we define anything. What is the difference between cancel culture and public shaming? Do people pounce on others on Twitter? Sure, I think the young people call it ratio. Is that being cancelled? I suppose anyone can make any argument they want.
I find the Dixie Chicks to be a perfect example. They made a statement that their fans thought was outrageous. So, they stopped buying their music. Was that their fans “cancelling” them? I guess. I simply call it a predictable response on the free market of ideas.
Mattress Mac is a fairly notorious conservative but he never says anything publicly about politics. He knows better. You alienate a good portion of your customer base either way you go. His free speech isn’t limited at all. He just knows there are practical costs of your speech that have nothing to do with the freedom to speak it or do it.
In a similar way, Cruz didn’t have to return. No one forced him to return. He was shamed into it. It’s public shaming. Cancel culture is a deliberately trumped (pardon the pun) up name designed to inflame. Now, if we want to argue that public shaming has gone too far that’s a fair argument. If we want to suggest that it happens more from the left currently that’s fine too. However, Gary Hart and Al Franken would beg to differ about it being a primary province of the left. I’d say it simply represents a shift in predominant thinking. Maybe that’s a good thing and maybe it’s a bad thing.
10But where WAS Cornyn last week? I heard that he was at Mar a Lago playing golf with Trump. Can that be true? Cruz in Cancun and Cornyn in Florida? More needs to be knows about his whereabouts.
11treehugger, if Cornyn was anywhere near Texas he would have made sure to have pictures of him handing out food or bottles of water at a food bank published widely. Or maybe tossing rolls of paper towels to people. In any case he’d spend at least 3 minutes to appear like a human capable of empathy.
So it’s a safe bet he was somewhere warm and safe, cozy with he fellow wealthy and powerful.
12Don’t forget Clarence Thomas and his “high tech lynching” complaint about Anita Hill. Even farther back, after losing the California gubernatorial election “you won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” Unfortunately, we still did.
Self-pity ain’t pretty.
13Others on the “cancel culture” list … Kathy Griffith (from the D-list); The Public Theater’s staging of Julius Ceasar with a Trump-like Ceasar; and any number of critics who seek to talk with students at Evangelical colleges and universities.
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