The Wet Rot Think Tank

Trump started with abortion.  The ability to believe a parallel reality.  Encloaking with obvious euphamism.  Outrage at questioning accepted opinions that are obviously not accepted by everyone.  For the first time in our democracies came unsharable opinions, an injustice on empty lips.

Triggering the urge to not upset people became essential to this so called cancel culture.  Gradually things became unsaid because someone might be upset.  Thus, unsaid, the boundary for the acceptable shrank as the hypothetical hurtwords ran over the horizon.

Thus it was with Israel, who we have never criticised, and Islam, which we never believed.  Rejection of the mantra of others became social ostracism.  As they could be offended, we became offensive.  And sensible speech shrank.

As we criticised ourselves for criticising others, confidence in our system waned.  If you can not criticise a hand chopping dictatorship, because it is racist to point out that chopping hands is not normal human behaviour, then you imply it has similar moral vigour to gentle western democracy, which we call evil and oppressive. 

It is said often that to control organised crime, one must clamp down on petty crime.  Graffiti, robbery, youths on street corners.  Thus, it was with our speech.  Obvious hurtwords became restricted so that organised hurtthought never happened.  Systematic analysis of the roots of injustice never surfaced because we focused on emotive superficialities.  A narrow distraction, much less the appropriation of our money.  Potent in its emotiveness.

“It is better to rule in hell, than serve in heaven”.  This has been the mantra of dictators for centuries.  To make hell, dictators divide people.  Division, what we call varibly in western democracy cancel culture, racism and intolerence is manufactured by those who wish to miscalibrate its processes for dealing with difference.  It is an apolitical concept: dislike of the stranger.