Cancel culture has gone too far. I’ve had enough, I cannot sit idly by anymore and bite my tongue. This has got to stop. Woke culture, the woke mob, have gone too far.

What was the proverbial straw?

Now they want to cancel Grease.

My beloved Grease – a movie I saw 26 times the summer it was released – sometimes two or three times in an afternoon that summer (sorry Har Mar Theatre, I owe you a ten spot). My best friend Stella and I memorized every line of dialog and every song in that movie. We had the moves too. We could sing into a hairbrush like Olivia Newton John, and within a couple of years smoke like the rest of the Pink Ladies.

Earlier in the day I learned that Condé Nast was going into its archives and putting trigger warnings on all its recipes – of all things.

The Muppets now have a disclaimer and can only be watched on Disney + from an adult account.

Coca Cola wants everyone to be less white:

These are just examples from this week, and it’s only Tuesday.

Of course these are examples of the left eating their own – something that should strike terror in all of us. This does not include the list of those who lean moderate or to the right, or those who simply questioned conventional wisdom – from getting canceled by the mob.

Amazon has been quietly ending sales of books labeled “hate speech”.

California considering bill requiring gender neutral toy departments.

*Not three minutes after publishing this post Abigail Shrier’s book Irreversible Damage was removed from Target. For the moment you can still get it by clicking on the link (that’s an affiliate link – I earn a small fee if you purchase the book using that link).

Gina Carano was fired from the Mandolarian and Disney for an instagram post that most people were unable to comprehend.

“Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children,” Carano wrote in a now-deleted post on Instagram, adding, in quote marks: “Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”

Carano did not say Republicans today were like the Jews of the 1930s. She said – quite correctly – that tyrants succeed by turning neighbor against neighbor. That is Totalitarianism 101 , a point made in fiction by Orwell and in history by Solzhenitzyn, among many others. h/t Mitch Berg over at Shot in the Dark.

Of course the argument is that this is not Cancel Culture, it is merely a Culture of Consequence.

And anyone who makes that argument intends for you to shut your mouth, there will be no discussion of cancel culture anymore. How can there be, it’s already been decided that it was bad behavior that was the culprit.

I don’t know about you, but I never got the memo about what was and was not acceptable to discuss.

I was canceled in 8th grade. It was one of the most traumatic things I have ever experienced. To this day I don’t know what I did to have my little clique of friends turn on me, but they were swift and unforgiving. I’m sure I said something that was inappropriate. Most things I said when I was in 8th grade were painfully awkward and inappropriate. I didn’t read social cues well, was way too self conscious about my weight and was too busy trying to make sure no one found out that my dad was gay (not that there was anything wrong with that, but he was married to my mom and I didn’t understand it myself), to navigate the teenage girl social hierarchy.

I learned I was canceled by a bunch of insecure, and awkward second tier teens when I went to sit at my spot at our lunch table. No one talked to me. No one looked at me. I’m not sure who it was that made the decision to cancel me (because to this day I still don’t know what I did wrong in their eyes) but the two who were constantly stabbing each other in the back for leadership in the group probably held some king of vote.

There was no discussion, I did not get to state my case or defend my behavior. There was no context. The mob had spoken, I was out.

Friends who I really believed had my back no longer talked to me, accepted my phone calls or sat next to me in study hall. No one would tell me what I did so I could grovel for forgiveness (I’m actually really thankful for this).

I don’t think I have ever felt as alone as I did that year. Thankfully, I had some friends who were not interested in being part of a clique and welcomed me with open arms to their table at lunch.

The treatment by those girls/ young women who said they were my friends, has tainted every relationship since. It takes me a long time to trust new people and even then I know they can kick me out on a whim whenever they like. I don’t ask for help unless I’m desperate and the help is from family – and even then I feel like I don’t deserve it.

What most struck me about being canceled in 8th grade was that mob rule wins. It didn’t matter what I said or did to get kicked out of the clique – it could have been for wearing the wrong sweater; it might have been because I didn’t participate in smearing butter all over the mirror and walls of the girls bathroom in the cafeteria; or it could have been because I didn’t back up one of the girls vying for top mean girl status – but likely it was due to something that I said I believed that went against the orthodoxy of the group. I have been a contrarian ever since.

It’s not a surprise that most of the people doing the canceling these days are the same people who canceled me in 8th grade. A gaggle of mean girls who never really grew up or had to actually live in the real world. They might be on the board, work for Coca Cola, or hold political office of some kind, but it’s very likely they never had to struggle to pay their bills, find a job or work an 8 hour shift on their feet. They live in a world where science is settled and cannot be questioned – which is exactly the opposite of science.

They put signs in their yard proclaiming their wokeness. They may even pass out Ziploc bags of toothpaste and deodorant to the homeless standing on street corners – and you’ll know because they’ll post their virtue on Insta, Facebook and Twitter.

Pro Tip: You can do good deeds without posting it on social media.

I have seen behind the curtain (most moderate and right leaning folks have) and know that my status is almost completely dependent on the good graces of people who are pretty despicable. No matter what you do, eventually you’re going to piss them off and be kicked out of the cool club.