The term cancel culture was invented as a cover for rising Nazism. Hear me out. Calling people out for being racist, homophobic, or a Nazi is not nearly as bad of an offense as actually being a Nazi, but the right wants you to believe that any critique of evil ideology is equal to being worse than the ideology, all in the name of free speech. The false equivalency excuses white boys for vile racism and rewards them with positions of great power, but if someone like Vivek expresses an opinion on race they are immediately cancelled and fired with no recourse. What was once wisdom learned from historical lessons is now seen as woke scolding. After all, if one can’t be free to be vile, is one even free? This “reverse woke scolding” technique was upheld by a social network of talking heads decrying attacks on hatred disguised as “free speech.” The left tries to play by the rules of being good, so they inevitably back down from any attack and are subsequently viewed as weak and ineffective. Their denouncement of hatred is deemed “woke scolding.”

The right takes advantage of the left’s kindness and weaponizes it: when called out for abhorrent behavior they claim they are bipolar or autistic or otherwise inculpable. This is a safe haven because the left has spent so much time prioritizing mental health that it has become confused in the zeitgeist as an excuse to be a bad person. This distinction – that even mentally ill people can be assholes and should not get a free pass because of their mental illness, but rather firm and kind boundaries must be implemented – needs to be made clear. Until it is, the right will continue to use labels to manipulate people into defending them, and once the masses can be convinced to defend Nazi salutes and “I love Hitler” tweets they can be made to defend anything.

These tactics of reverse woke scolding and convoluting woke mental health ideals have been shifting the window of politics ever rightward, sea lioning, lying and gaslighting our way into collapse.