Brad Locke: Cancel culture found home in Tupelo decades ago
Apr. 11—Conservatives love to decry "cancel culture," which is ironic considering how long they've embraced it. One could even argue they invented it — right here in Tupelo.
The American Family Association has for decades led boycotts of companies that offended its Christian sensibilities. Boycotting is an American right, but don't act like it's something just recently introduced by the Woke Brigade.
I'll admit the current trend of canceling people and companies has gotten out of hand, but that doesn't mean it's all bad. Terrible people like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida need to be held to account. Companies that harm our environment just to make a dollar should not go unpunished.
On the other hand, a professional athlete who sent an off-color tweet when he was 16 years old shouldn't be raked across the coals. Teenagers do stupid things — all the time. Digging up old tweets like that and writing a breathless gotcha story is not real journalism.
Back to AFA. The Rev. Don Wildmon founded the organization in the 1970s because he was concerned with what he was seeing on television — increased sex, violence and vulgar language. Natural concerns for a parent.
Wildmon's voice soon became a prominent one as he spoke out against what he saw as the moral decline of TV. He also tried to eradicate pornography. AFA has launched countless boycotts against companies that advertise on shows found to be offensive. This is a form of canceling, so don't pretend it isn't.
It's simply human nature to want to cancel or boycott or whatever you want to call it. Because most of us — liberal, conservative, anywhere between — have a heightened sense of self-righteousness that stems from our particular moral code. And that causes us to react strongly when someone or something offends us.
It's natural, and there is nothing inherently wrong with it. But people can go overboard.
There have been instances of Daily Journal readers canceling their subscription because of a story they didn't like. Nothing else in the paper offended them, but this one thing on one day out of 365 set them off, so they threw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.
Personally, I've never had any use for boycotts and such. For starters, I don't think they make much of a difference in the long run. Secondly, if you make a quality product that I need, I'll buy it. I truly don't care where your CEO stands on some hot-button social issue or whether you outsource your customer service to India.
I will eat Chick-fil-A because it's delicious, and I will shop at Target — when I'm able — because it's so much better than Walmart.
Most canceling is loosely organized, but it can happen to most anyone. We recently had a dust-up here in Tupelo involving Strange Brew Coffeehouse. Several people were upset when an employee was fired for what they thought were unfair reasons, and my Facebook feed was full of folks vowing not to visit Strange Brew again.
I rolled my eyes and have kept going to Strange Brew for some of that delicious blueberry cobbler coffee. The owner is a good dude, and he has great products.
You're probably thinking, "But Brad, are there any businesses you won't patronize on principle?" Sure, like Starbucks. Not for moral reasons, though, but because their coffee is disgusting.
Gosh, I just had a thought: I hope this column doesn't get me canceled.
BRAD LOCKE is senior sports writer for the Daily Journal. Contact him on Twitter @bradlocke or via email at brad.locke@journalinc.com.
