CANCELLING AUTHORS

Why This Should Concern Everyone

Journalism

Cancel culture came to journalism long before we had a word for it.  It began by discrimination in schools and newsrooms against those who had a conservative viewpoint.  Principled journalism (reporting the facts) gave way to opinion-based news, which not only included a “slant” on how you should understand the news, but also on what news you could hear.  An example of the skew came years ago when, justifiably, the world learned every painful detail of the torture/killing of Matthew Shepard, but few learned that around the same time, two gay men raped and killed a small boy.  Both stories deserve our attention, pointing out unacceptable behavior in a civil society.

The result of newspapers focusing too heavily on sending messages was two-fold.  The important part was the slow death of this media.  It wasn’t just that you could read news online.  The papers no long served to set you up for the day, feeling informed and ready for whatever might come.  The second was the dumbing down of editing, where most papers today include many typos, repeated sections and simply awful grammar.  Thus, the reading experience has become painful, rather than a vital act each day.

TV stations purporting to offer news are similarly losing viewers.  They are no longer trusted to bring us the information we need.  They had one job…and they blew it.

Book Publishing and e-Tailers

Still, after all of this, you could still read well-crafted, non-fiction books and learn in more depth about the issues you cared about.  You could also enjoy a variety of creative fiction.  But allowing free choice in reading is no longer a right we appear to have.

For simply stating that only women menstruate or have babies and that “women” as defined by the transgender community cannot, as J K Rowling did in her Tweet, she was shouted down.  Here is an author who accomplished the nearly impossible.  She got children to read huge, lengthy books happily, deepening their reading experience.  Another author, Ryan T. Anderson, wrote “When Harry Became Sally.”  Countering a lot of presumptions in the transgender community, a call rang out to take this book off the market.  Many other books have lost their publishing contracts or been shut down from marketing because they “offended” someone for reasons such as:

§  No “lived experience” as a minority. Apparently, you are supposed to only write about your “type,” whatever that is.

§  An opinion that the shrieking Left doesn’t like, no matter the validity nor the right of any author to share an opinion

§  The publisher finds out that you are not the race they assumed you were.

This behavior has a chilling effect on writers.  Should I, a Caucasian heterosexual woman of German descent only write about “my people?”  That would be very boring to most readers.  In the past, publishers and sellers only cared about the bottom line; would readers buy the book?  That’s all that should matter.  In fact, when judging musicians, Julliard maintains a policy of blind auditions, so that when they select a student, that person is the best, regardless of race or sex.  Publishers should focus on publishing quality work, not trying to maintain some balance.  Given, as I believe, there are important writers of every race (and any other category one might come up with), there should be no problem in representing a wide swath of writers.

Cancel Culture and the Workplace

How many go quietly around their workplace these days, afraid that if they share any political opinions (or opinions someone else considers political), they could lose their job?  How many voices have been silenced on social media because people fear retaliation?  Note:  most of these people don’t have a problem with being attacked on their platform of choice.  Vibrant dialog and exchange are some of the reasons why writers post.  But to have employers scan sites and fire (or fail to hire) people because of their posts is ridiculous, especially when they go deep into the past.

Confession—I only started writing this blog when I retired, as I felt it wasn’t safe to “be me” while working. 

While the Left has shifted gears on the First Amendment, which was widely construed to support any speech that did not, by itself lead to violence or danger, most of America does not agree with them.  For those who feel they have experienced harm from reading or hearing words, I bring them back to the phrase we all learned in the ‘50’s:

“Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”

Time to return to sanity.