I have always felt that the term “cancel culture” was far too mannerly and tame.  It scarcely captured the degree of hatred the Left and its social-media zealots unleashed with any transgression from woke orthodoxy.  Even doctrinaire liberals, tried and true “progressives” with a lifetime of fidelity, have felt the sting of leftist vengeance after betraying the cause on a single, isolated point.  Individuals have been disgraced, careers ended, livelihoods wrecked, and reputations trashed over minor infractions of the ever-evolving progressive canon.  And that is how they treat former friends and allies.  Conservative foes are filleted and quartered outright in broad daylight. 

I recently found myself the target of leftist vitriol and experienced the full fury of “cancel culture.” The events and tactics are worth reviewing. 

I produced a 50-second pro-2^nd amendment video in my backyard with my 25-year-old son.  I placed two Trump-Pence signs in front of us.  An American flag behind us. I spoke of my love of country, the Constitution, and Bill of Rights, in particular our Second Amendment.  I said that we were not looking for trouble but would not run from it, and tossed out a challenge to “BLM” (Black Lives Matter, the organization).  I closed by saying that I liked President Trump.  Of note, my son and I were holding our respective AR-15s.  Not pointing them, mind you, just holding them.

The context, of course, is the more than four-month siege on America’s cities, the violence, rioting, and arson occurring since the George Floyd incident on May 25.  Many of us seethe at this ongoing disorder and the unwillingness of Democrat politicians that govern these cities and states to control it.  It is also galling to find our dominant institutions supporting the radical street thugs. 

Into this maelstrom, I posted my 50-second video on my Facebook and Twitter pages.  The next morning, I was seeing patients in my medical practice.  One of my employees who monitors my social media noticed tens of thousands of views and thousands of comments, reactions, and shares.  By the end of the day, it was going “viral,” with both supporters and detractors responding and sharing.  The insults, hatred, and threats, however, were extreme. 

“I’d rather die from cancer than have you as a doctor,” one cheerful commentator asserted, among many other choice statements far more appalling. 

Then came the menacing comments and “doxing” of my home and office as detractors posted my name and address on Facebook and Twitter.  Individuals I had never met called my office, disparaging my work as a physician.  Some asked for the office manager, thinking I was employed, attempting to pressure the employer into firing me.  I am self-employed, and so that ploy was not effective. 

The attackers took to my Google business page and left nasty comments and one-star reviews to damage my reputation and practice.  There were threatening and derogatory calls to my local hospital, which had to increase security.  The hecklers contacted my State Medical Board, prodding them to revoke my medical license.  There were also plans for a demonstration at my house that same week on Friday at 6:00 P.M. 

On the first night of the video, my son, who appeared in the video, was concerned because of the threats and doxing.  He worried about the safety of our home and family but also the impact on his career.  At his request, I deleted the video.  It did not help him.  The next day, he lost his job.  Furthermore, it had already been “screen captured” and spread by others throughout the internet despite removing it from my page. 

On Friday at 6:00 P.M., the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, four police cars were outside my house to provide protection.  I met with the police and thanked them.  They seemed supportive.  As it turned out, the protesters did not show. 

As yet, my practice remains busy.  I live my life as always, but with greater awareness of my surroundings.  I have installed security cameras.  And, yes, I carry.

There is a great divide in the country today.  Our opponents have declared war.  Consider that, in this case, there was my 50-second video.  Patriotic, pro-American, pro-2^nd Amendment, and, perhaps, a bit provocative.  But merely a video.  On the other side, there have been four months of continuous burning, looting, assault, and murder in our cities.  There have been calls for defunding and abolishing the police.  Democrat politicians, local, state, and national, rather than condemn the mayhem and violence, encourage it as do their media allies.  So, too, the academy, Hollywood, corporate America, and professional athletes.  BLM and Antifa, the Marxist perpetrators of the turmoil, with the open support of our principal institutions and the Democrat Party, call for “burning down the system.”  They deface synagogues and churches and refer to Jesus as a “white supremacist.”  Yet, in this contest, hardly equivalent, my otherwise harmless little video was sufficient cause to denounce and threaten me in the vilest ways, including attacks against me personally, my home and family, reputation, career, and livelihood. 

We are in the midst of an assault on our Republic, a Marxist revolution under the guise of “racial justice.”  Who knows what will come after the election in November?  The passions today are no less extreme than they were in 1860.  Both times, Democrats were attempting to dismantle the nation. 

We are well beyond cancel culture.  The proper term is “crush and destroy culture.”  But it is worse than that.  It is an insurrection, and the enemy has taken over our leading institutions.  Unwittingly, though, these forces of darkness have roused the sleeping giant.  Patriots and citizens, modern-day Paul Reveres, have organized and pushed back as we have seen in Kenosha, Oregon, Ohio, Colorado, Seattle, and elsewhere, including outside Walter Reed Medical Center during President Trump’s brief hospitalization. Thousands I have never met rose to defend me in the social media and telephone blitz against me.  We outnumber them.  We can and must defeat these, the enemies of civilization.   

Richard Moss, M.D., a surgeon practicing in Jasper, IN, was a candidate for Congress in 2016 and 2018. He has written A Surgeon’s Odyssey and Matilda’s Triumph, available on amazon.com.  Contact him at richardmossmd.com or Richard Moss, M.D. on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Image: Gan Khoon Lay