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Alex Ilex's avatar

Thank you for long and thoughtful reply! Agree with everything but dragons lol - I love them and don't consider to be 'monsters to fight' but I got the sentiment behind the saying and agree with it too.

Yeah I also was cancelled already back in 2017 when my Master's thesis was headed with 2 because I dared to raise the forbidden issue of Islam here... Back then I was very angry and traumatized but now I also consider it a bliss. If not for this politically motivated grading which barred me from PhD academic career, I might have ended up in academy during COVID and BLM nsanity actually, and that would have sucked indeed. Instead, my cancelation set me on my way to awakening and an independent political blogging which I'm grateful for.

But my article isn't about peril of giving in to our anger so it's a valid point too. I rather meant that we need to break free from partisan tribalist thinking altogether and see the bigger picture instead.

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sean anderson's avatar

One thing Conservatives, Classic Liberals and Libertarians must avoid is sinking to the moral level of the progressives in being vindictive, hateful and too intent on “owning” our adversaries. Indignation and anger due to personal insult and injury (including being canceled, losing livelihood, vocation and sense of personal dignity) is a natural human reaction and who if us have not been angered by their antics in the last eight years? But the progressives have made a virtue out of feeding their senses of anger and indignation and seeking pretexts to vent that accumulating anger on anyone whom they view as their opponents (which include not only conservatives but moderate liberals who don’t swallow the whole woke whale.) People who are on the conservative side generally believe in the religious precepts of not holding unto anger and view wrath as a serious sin: “be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your wrath” in Ephesians 4:26 and in numerous passages in the Proverbs.) But even agnostic or atheist conservatives believe in holding fast to the Stoic ethical precepts of maintaining self-control even in the face of being insulted and moderation in one’s emotional life. The progressives by contrast despise all Western traditional values and think that cultivating extreme rage somehow “proves” the authenticity of their views. Even physiological and psychological science shows that cultivating perpetual rage is harmful to one’s physical and mental health. My fear is that in the euphoria of triumphalism we may descend to their level of vindictiveness and vile behavior. Not that we should not investigate and punish blatant crimes that they have commited but we should do so with justice and integrity.

I myself have suffered cancellation and loss of my livelihood by having my tenure as a professor revoked on specious and dishonest grounds. I would advise any young conservatives considering a career in academic other than the STEM disciplines or business administration to look elsewhere for a vocation: all of these left-wing academic institutions are doomed to implode both for demographic and practical reasons. Yet I came to view my cancellation as a hidden gift from God: I was delivered from an increasing toxic working environment and got out before the madness of Spike Covidianism, CRT, mandatory preferred pronouns, and DEI mandates hit academic with hurricane force. In retrospect I now see that my treacherous colleagues have had to suffer all this that they brought upon their own heads. So I am not speaking down to anyone from a moral high horse. I too have suffered from cancellation. But the worst thing that could happen to me would have been to let anger and bitterness consume me. As Friedrich Nietzsche said: “He who fights dragons perpetually is in danger of becoming a dragon.” Let our humanity and moral integrity continue against any temptation to become vindictive ourselves.

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