This is not the type of post I would normally write and post on a Sunday. Sunday is supposed to be my day of rest, a day to think, contemplate, and enjoy.
However, some things can’t wait and for me this is one of them. If you’ve been under a rock, a young man in Iowa made a joke by asking for money to buy beer. He got it.
Being an amazing young man, an example of good (which progressives seem to loathe on sight) that is refreshing and amazing to see, he decided to give the money to a local children’s hospital. Upon making that decision, he got serious about fundraising and got companies, including the beer company named in his joke, involved. Currently, more than one million dollars has been raised for that local children’s hospital.
Of course, this meant he needed to be cancelled and the Des Moines Register was up for the hatchet job. The reporter assigned to the hit dug down to find some posts, put up when the young man was sixteen, quoting a comedian (Tosh something) in not nice ways. Yeah, they were bad but we are talking about a teenage boy (girls aren’t much better), humor, and judgement.
Anheuser-Busch dropped him and his effort like a hot potato. Doing good for kids with cancer? Fuck them seems to be the attitude of the Des Moines Regiser, AB, and others. It’s past time that the cowardice, envy, and general destructiveness of the cancel culture be dealt with. You don’t destroy a cancer like that by punching back twice as hard.
You do it by bringing the pain and making it rain. Until those doing this experience the pain and suffering themselves, it is not going to stop. So, let it rain.
People need to go through the social media history of every employee at the Des Moines Register (and any other organization that doxxes and cancels) and shine a light on them. That is especially true for every reporter, editor, and even the publisher, but do it to all. Make them live up to their rules.
Others need to step up and cancel any advertising they do with the paper. Everyone else needs to encourage those businesses they frequent to stop advertising there. Look into the business dealings of the publisher and others: after all, if due diligence is the excuse being given for the dig, it should apply to their own efforts, no?
No, it’s not nice, it’s not polite, and it’s not a cultured response. It is, however, an effective response. Appeasement has been tried many times in history and it never works. If libertarians, conservatives, and others continue to cede this ground to progressives, it will never stop.
The reporter who did the story has been tossed under the bus (and is already whining about being the “real” victim in all of this). The leadership of the paper has posted a couple of arrogant non-apologies. It’s not enough.
If you want it to stop, it is not even a good start. Bring the pain, let it rain, and let it soak every person that works there.
There are none of us alive who have not said or done stupid or even bad things in our lives. We have all made bad jokes, held flawed positions, and said or done things that our current selves would not do. It’s called growing up. I’m very glad social media was not around when I was growing up.
This needs to end. You can’t make it end by being nice, turning the other cheek, or even by giving them lube as you bend over. Punching back twice as hard, as Obama said to, is for wimps. You punch back as hard as you can, as often as you can, until the other party gets the message. Only then will the cancel culture end.