Cancel culture refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. It may be an innocuous word or tweet from years ago, that through the long memory of social media can resurface, leading to public group shaming of an individual.

Such shaming typically goes only one way, based on one’s politics. For others it’s just a matter of being caught in the stampede. A “Saturday Night Live” cast member, Shane Gillis, made a derogatory comment about Asians a few years ago and was fired for his comments.

Uber liberals however, like MSNBC’s Joy Reid, get a pass for past homophobic blog posts. Other woke liberals who toe the line on global warming and abortion also get a pass for racially insensitive behavior like wearing blackface. They weren’t singing ‘Mammy” with Al Jolson a century ago, but wearing blackface far more recently. Examples include Howard Stern, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Virginia Governor Ralph (Coonman) Northam.

The cancel culture has morphed to cancelling America because of who it might offend. What happens when everything gets cancelled and we become a society described by letters and numbers, eliminating our rich history and traditions? The cancel culture is leading us to an Orwellian dystopic society, from America the Beautiful to The Hunger Games.

The self-appointed censors have found their voices after George Floyd’s death and the immediate end to COVID-19 threats, with protests and riots not only now condoned but actually encouraged. What are some of the casualties?

Gone with the Wind, a multi-Academy Award winning classic movie was cancelled from HBO due to “racial insensitivity.” Several Netflix shows  were cancelled due to an Australian comedian’s use of blackface. Yet Northam and Trudeau haven’t been cancelled out of government.

Police shows have also been cancelled, at least the ones not portraying a multigendered police force concerned more about their carbon footprints than catching the bad guys.

Newspaper editors have been cancelled for the high crime of publishing op-ed pieces, which they invited, written by a conservative senator, as was the case for NY Times editor James Bennet. So much for the Times motto, “All the news that’s fit to print.” They should just change their names to the Democrat Party Times.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to cancel statues in the U.S. Capitol. It seems statues depicting Confederate leaders are suddenly offensive to her. Yet these same statues didn’t bother her or any other House Democrats a week ago, a year ago, or a decade ago. Democrat officials walked past these offensive statues gathering dust and never said a word, but now all of a sudden they most go because as Pelosi said, “Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals.”

Will statues or buildings dedicated to former Senator, and KKK Exalted Cyclops, Robert Byrd also be canceled? Will those who eulogized the former KKK bigwig at his funeral also be cancelled? These include Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Pelosi may want to cancel U.S. Capitol statues but is she willing to cancel her own father? While mayor of Baltimore, Nancy’s father dedicated monuments to Confederate generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E Lee. Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro had it right at the time, saying the memorials, “Stand like a stone wall against aggression in any form that would seek to destroy the liberty of the world.” In other words, a reminder to remember history, lest it repeat itself. The apple fell far from the tree in the Pelosi family.

There is also a push to rename military bases named after Confederate commanders, including Forts Bragg, Hood, and Benning. Will they be renamed after such inspirational leaders like Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray, or the “gentle giant” Michael Brown”? Or will they just be given numbers? How proud will the West Point grad’s parents be to say their son or daughter is being deployed to Fort 267. Or was that 257?

Colleges and universities are next. Most of the Ivy League schools have ties to American slavery, even if centuries ago. Now the only slaves are those students taking out six-figure loans for worthless degrees in gender studies or intersectionality, leaving college as slaves to loan companies. Elihu Yale, founder of Yale University, was a slave trader. Will Yale change its name to George Floyd University? Or how about Al Sharpton U?

Sports teams need a bit of cancellation too. There is a long list of offensive team names and mascots, from the Washington Redskins to the Cleveland Indians. Should they be cancelled or renamed? Good luck with renaming. They tried that with hurricanes and the woke progressives still weren’t happy since it turned out that female hurricanes are deadlier than male hurricanes, according to CNN. What about the other 70 or so genders who aren’t properly represented in hurricane naming?

Support for law enforcement is also being cancelled as cities want to defund or eliminate their police departments. Ironically, we are told all cops are bad because of the actions of a few. And all gun owners are bad because of the evil intentions of a handful. Yet it’s considered racist and Islamophobic to even hint at generalizing the actions of a few jihadis to the entire religion.

Cancel the police and it will be the Hunger Games in American cities. Truckers have already promised to not deliver to cities that defund police. Minneapolis can grow its own food in winter when the temperatures are below zero. Good luck with that.

When the left wants to cancel everything that is part of the American culture and way of life, there will be nothing left. Perhaps that’s the goal. They can remake history as they choose, like writing a novel. But history is important, even the bad parts. As philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

President Trump is the last bulwark against the left turning America into Seattle’s CHAZ, led by a rap singer warlord with the survival of the fittest. When everything is cancelled, nothing is left. If Democrats get the power they crave, that will be the new America. 

Brian C Joondeph, MD, is a Denver based physician and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in American Thinker, Daily Caller, Rasmussen Reports, and other publications. Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn, Twitter, and QuodVerum.