Censorship kills…. freedom, liberty, democracy, ideas, dialog, and souls. We pride ourselves in our First Amendment Rights, yet often fail to recognize, as we shout down others, they too have those same rights. Ironically, real cancel culture isn’t asking questions to probe for the truth. It is the obstruction and restriction of asking those questions. Censoring by yelling down those who have a different opinion. Censorship, in the hands of the critical race, is a uniquely powerful form of cancel culture.
The Truth is an amalgamation of everyone’s perspectives of facts. Truth, the real whole truth, is forged by the relentless pounding of facts between the unyielding anvil of history and the merciless, endless swings of the hammer of investigation.
And History; History isn’t supposed to tell you what you want to hear. History is supposed to be challenging. True history is unearthed by wrestling with and confronting difficult topics. Not shying away from uncovering what is uncomfortable but embracing the opportunity to really know.
Like looking at a diamond, each facet gives a unique view, each is right from the perspective of the viewer but not from any other. Only by taking time and expending the energy to focus and look at each facet and merging their images can we see the whole Truth the Full History. But we don’t have the time or patience to do the hard work, to do what’s right. It’s just easier to yell someone down, ban a book, and censor authors, artists, activists, and ideas. People aren’t wrong just because they disagree with you.
Most people, and news outlets, don’t intentionally lie. Most just knowingly highlight their ‘facts’ without mention of, and may be intentionally ignoring, the ‘facts’ of others. Most don’t purposefully lie; but some do, and you must be informed to know the truth. (Yes, Biden won; No, the election wasn’t rigged; Yes, the climate is changing; No, COVID isn’t a hoax; and Yes, Black Lives DO Matter.)
Rarely is it a matter of you being right or them being wrong. It’s about finding and exploiting the areas in which we agree and being respectful where we disagree. We live in what should be a civil society. As such, diversity breeds disagreement as much as it does agreement. None of us own the whole truth just our little part of it.
America has been a world model for many things. A shining beacon of freedom and representative government to some. A sought-after sanctuary for the oppressed. Juxtapose this with our Jim Crow, citizenship and miscegenation laws being used as the basis for Nazi Germany’s antisemitic and racist Nuremberg Laws. (Hitler’s American Model, J.Q. Whitman). History is messy and we are viewed from all angles. Great nations and people don’t take, overthrow, or seduce for control. They subdue and control their voice and lead by example.
You see, it isn’t treasonous to challenge the accepted view of history or the truth. In fact, it’s essential. Healthy societies like, healthy ecosystems, are diverse and contrasting not uniform and inbreed. We should be embracing the hard messy chore of unearthing our full history and the truth. We are destined to repeat ‘history’ because we refuse to fully understand the whole history. We only have ‘our’ history without regard to ‘their’ history, which won’t play out well in the long run. #NeverFeartheDream
simplebender 