Conservatives Can Either Embrace Cancel Culture Strategies or Die With One Hand Tied Behind Our Backs

Unpopular opinion: We all engage in cancel culture. It depends on how we define it, of course, but in a rare moment of clarity the editors at Dictionary.com gave a pretty darn good overview of what cancel culture is, at least in American society:

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. Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming.

Conservatives and free-speech absolutists often rail against cancel culture while unwittingly participating in it regularly. Did you boycott the NFL for being a social justice company? Cancel culture. Are you calling on Congresswoman Liz Cheney and other Republicans who voted for impeachment to step down? Cancel culture. Did you cancel your Netflix subscription over any of the many progressive things they’ve done. Cancel culture. Duh.

Cancel culture works. It applies pressure to our adversaries just as they apply pressure to us. Somewhere along the lines conservatives and libertarians started calling out cancel culture to defend freedom of speech or something. That’s asinine. Our First Amendment rights do not extend to private life. Twitter is not breaking the First Amendment by banning people. You can rightly claim they’re abusing their Section 230 protections, but they’re not attacking the First Amendment per se. They’re attacking free speech as an overarching concept, but in reality there’s no such thing as purely free speech, not in American or anywhere in the world.

All speech comes at a price. Usually it’s small. Maybe we made a friend angry when we told them they were gaining a little weight. Feelings were hurt but the friendship endured so the price was small. If conservatives want to survive the next 2-4 years, we need to be willing to take and inflict more pain than that through cancel culture.

It’s hypocritical to think cancel culture must be opposed. Another way to make that more clear is to say we’re being disingenuous when we say cancel culture must be… canceled. We may not like it when it seems unfair to us, but it’s a tool and very powerful one at that. We need cancel culture if we’re going to save this nation from the radical progressivism that’s spreading across it. Instead of pretending like we think it’s a bad thing while engaging in it somewhat ourselves, conservatives and libertarians need to embrace it. We need to use it.

We need to use it against Amazon, a company that is up there with Google and Facebook as the most destructive to our nation. For years I justified using Amazon because of the value they bring to small businesses who would otherwise never make it by themselves. I also like that they gave access to millions of Americans who are not easily able to head to the store for supplies. But we must find alternatives because the damage Amazon is doing far outweighs the good they provide through convenience.

We need to use cancel culture against Hollywood. If you are a Republican, they hate you. If you are a conservative or right-leaning libertarian, they hate you. If you are a Christian, they hate you. And if you voted for President Trump, they especially hate you. Yet we continue to feed them our dollars and attention because we became entranced by the feeble brand of entertainment they deliver. Unlike Amazon, there are no viable alternatives yet, at least not that deliver the same type of entertainment. For me, I just don’t watch television shows or movies anymore unless I’m with friends or family who rely on it for entertainment. I can’t remember the last time I watched a movie or television show by myself. I watch documentaries, commentaries, and the occasional stand up comedian. But I’ve never seen an episode of The Sopranos. That’s still popular, right?

Many people who I respect have made it one of their missions to cancel cancel culture. I believe they’re making a fatal mistake. Instead of fighting it, we need to show the left how it’s really done. That means we must use the power of our patronage, whether it’s a website click or a visit to a store or a bill we’ve been paying from AT&T for the last 20 years. It’s time to cancel those who hate us and find alternatives that embrace freedom. Cancel culture as defined above specifies group shaming as the primary method, but it needs to be more than that. We need to boycott.

It’s not going to be easy. Just as there are no viable options to fully replace Hollywood, there are no freedom-loving professional sports leagues. The NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL all consider our ideology to be repugnant. There are very few options for us to cancel Google and Apple when it comes to mobile devices, though some are rising. We’ve already seen what they do to cancel us on social networks like Twitter. They’ve effectively killed Parler and I haven’t been able to post anything to Gab in a couple of days.

The pain we’ll have to suffer in order to properly cancel our participation with companies that hate us will dissuade most from even trying. But here’s the thing. If conservatives don’t engage in cancel culture now, we’re going to eventually be fully canceled ourselves.

‘The Purge’ by Big Tech targets conservatives, including us

Just when we thought the Covid-19 lockdowns were ending and our ability to stay afloat was improving, censorship reared its ugly head.

For the last few months, NOQ Report, Conservative Playbook, and the American Conservative Movement have appealed to our readers for assistance in staying afloat through Covid-19 lockdowns. The downturn in the economy has limited our ability to generate proper ad revenue just as our traffic was skyrocketing. We had our first sustained stretch of three months with over a million visitors in November, December, and January, but February saw a dip.

It wasn’t just the shortened month. We expected that. We also expected the continuation of dropping traffic from “woke” Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, but it has actually been much worse than anticipated. Our Twitter account was banned. Both of our YouTube accounts were banned. Facebook “fact-checks” everything we post. Spotify canceled us. Medium canceled us. Apple canceled us. Why? Because we believe in the truth prevailing, and that means we will continue to discuss “taboo” topics.

The 2020 presidential election was stolen. You can’t say that on Big Tech platforms without risking cancellation, but we’d rather get cancelled for telling the truth rather than staying around to repeat mainstream media’s lies. They have been covering it up since before the election and they’ve convinced the vast majority of conservative news outlets that they will be harmed if they continue to discuss voter fraud. We refuse to back down. The truth is the truth.

The lies associated with Covid-19 are only slightly more prevalent than the suppression of valid scientific information that runs counter to the prescribed narrative. We should be allowed to ask questions about the vaccines, for example, as there is ample evidence for concern. One does not have to be an “anti-vaxxer” in order to want answers about vaccines that are still considered experimental and that have a track record in a short period of time of having side-effects, including death. One of our stories about the Johnson & Johnson “vaccine” causing blood clots was “fact-checked” and removed one day before the government hit the brakes on it. These questions and news items are not allowed on Big Tech which is just another reason we are getting canceled.

There are more topics that they refuse to allow. In turn, we refuse to stop discussing them. This is why we desperately need your help. The best way NOQ, CP, and ACM readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We are pacing to be short by about $3700 per month in order to maintain operations.

The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. We had 5,657,724 sessions on our website from November, 2020, through February, 2021. Our intention is to elevate that to higher levels this year by focusing on a strategy that relies on free speech rather than being beholden to progressive Big Tech companies.

During that four-month stretch, Twitter and Facebook accounted for about 20% of our traffic. We are actively working on operating as if that traffic is zero, replacing it with platforms that operate more freely such as Gab, Parler, and others. While we were never as dependent on Big Tech as most conservative sites, we’d like to be completely free from them. That doesn’t mean we will block them, but we refuse to be beholden to companies that absolutely despise us simply because of our political ideology.

We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.

As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.

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