September 17, 2025

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In the old Soviet Union, the Communist government did not kill or even imprison some of the prominent dissidents. If you were famous enough in the outside world, but the Soviet government believed you posed a threat because of your opposition to government policies, here's how they tried to silence you:

1. Since the government owned all businesses, there were no jobs for you if the government decided to declare you unemployable. How did you live? Friends and neighbors and family members who were very brave invited you to eat with them in their home -- but of course this was noticed and recorded by the government, and their chances of job promotions or extra benefits disappeared. Other people would simply bring you food, hiding what they were doing, if they could. But your life hung on the thread of the charity and courage of others.

2. Or, to confine you, they wouldn't hold a trial and condemn you to death or imprison you. Instead, psychiatrists would be instructed to find that you were insane, so you could be confined in a mental institution ... in perpetuity. The government was now feeding you. But they were also drugging you, keeping you sedated or psychotic, all in the name of "curing" you of your delusions.

3. China used reeducation camps -- essentially, institutionalized brainwashing. You would have the "correct" views drilled into you, and you would be required to confess your incorrect thoughts over and over, until your will was broken and you believed, or feigned to believe, everything you knew was false. This is what we saw in the novel 1984 -- the defiant hero lost all his courage when he was faced with what his tormentors knew was, to him, the worst thing in the world.

Here's what the LefTaliban in the United States has been doing for a generation: Cancellation.

1. Define the incorrect opinion as "hate speech," even if there is no element of hate in the person's speech or writing.

2. Define opposition to the correct policy as pathological -- racism has been the most common charge, even if no race was involved. Homophobia, transphobia, climate-change-denial, and, back when the Left still believed in the existence of women, misogyny.

3. If anybody offers to give the offender a public forum, threaten to hold demonstrations or boycotts against the venue. Usually they back down, withdraw the invitation, and the opportunity for aberrant speech goes away If the venue holds out against this pressure, cancel the venue and/or organization that defied the ban.

I think cancellation is evil. It was evil when the Soviet Union and Communist China did it. It's evil when the Taliban of the Left cancels their opponents.

And it's evil when conservatives and Christians do it, too.

In the wake of Charlie Kirk's martyrdom, slackwits of the Left have celebrated the murder by expressing their joy at his death -- online, in the form of graffiti, or in public demonstrations celebrating the murder.

These people are the product of institutionalized ignorance -- they have been taught that it's wrong to have a human soul, and that political opponents are not even worthy of the respect we show to animals. People who would never dream of celebrating a cat being run over by a car have no compunction about publicly rejoicing over the murder of a man who had committed no crime but speaking the truth as he understood it.

Are these people morally repulsive? Of course. My opinion of them plummeted. I even had a near relative who talked online about having a drink of champagne to celebrate Charlie Kirk's death. It made me weep, because I remembered when she was a kind, compassionate person who was thoughtful even of her invisible friends, and of living people as well.

But if she lived nearby, or wanted to take the trip, I would welcome her in our home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I would stifle any attempts to discuss Charlie Kirk's death or any of the other points on which we disagree. Instead I would celebrate the girl I had known all her life, with all the virtues and talents she has always exemplified -- because I know that the young woman I knew so well is still there.

She was a victim of other people's lies. She had been told false and terrible things about Charlie Kirk because such false propaganda was the only tool that Cancel Culture had left. They had canceled him, but his mission was not cancellable. He refused to accept cancellation and retire into silence, as I had done. And so they lied to young people and my young relative believed the lies, and therefore saw his death with insouciance and self-gratulation.

When I heard conservative commentators and show hosts talking about how anybody who openly rejoiced about Charlie Kirk's death should lose their jobs, I thought: Don't they see how that's treading in the footsteps of Stalin, Mao, Castro?

It's understandable if a person, speaking as a hired talking head for a network or corporation, said things that might damage the reputation or customer base of their employer. I can see why a university would regard open anti-semitism or Charlie-Kirk-bashing as a reason to revoke tenure and fire a professor.

But I can also see why such institutions might discover courage and integrity that had been missing when they could have stood up for conservative speakers or professors, and allowed them to speak freely. After all, its pretty rare when politically conservative speakers actually say anything dangerous, except insofar as telling the truth can cause some sleepless nights for disseminators of dishonest propaganda.

Should the Right imitate the Taliban of the Left and try to stifle and destroy people who indecorously rejoice over the death of a good man? Isn't the offense self-punishing, in the disgust of decent people at their behavior?

Why should we take food out of the mouths of their families? Isn't that a tactic of the oppressive Left?

So here's my plea, offered from my obscure position as a nearly invisible writer for the past decades: Let's stop with the Cancellations. Even when we hate the speech and actions of people who trample memorials to Charlie Kirk and put anti-Kirk statements on walls and online, can't we continue to allow the perpetrators of such indecencies to be full citizens of our country, able to hold a job and feed their families? Do we really want the KGB to be our exemplar?

No more canceling. Even if the Left keeps canceling people, can't the Right and, dare I say it, we of the invisible Center set a better example of the American Way?

My friends and relatives with silly or indecent views are still welcome in our house. If they are in need, I will help them if I'm able, as I always have. Offending my sense of decency does not take decency away from me. I can still be tolerant of the stupidity of others, and their dishonesty I will answer with truth, not persecution, and certainly not abandonment.

The Left is already firing on Fort Sumter in "sanctuaries" all over America. But do I want to learn my behavior from them?

My cheek has been slapped many times, but can I not still turn the other cheek? Does my purported Christianity mean nothing to me? Canceled as I am, I will not countenance treating others as I have been treated. Quite the contrary. I want to treat them as Charlie Kirk would have: With conversation, even argument, but no coercion or punishment. Shunning is not a viable tool to use in a civil society.

No, don't try to engage me in political arguments. I have enjoyed my vacation from the public square. Be idiots if you want to. I'll call it the Gulf of Mexico exactly the way I'll call it Mount McKinley, because I'm stubborn and I resist the winds of meaningless change. But I don't care if you call it the Gulf of America or Mount Denali. We can still be friends, or at least fellow-citizens.

I recognize, as I always have, your right to be different from me, as I insist on my right to be different from you. When you punish me, I bear it. But I'm not going to punish you. I'm not fit to be judge or jury of your speech and political advocacy, even when I think your views are idiotic. Because I'm aware that I may come to believe my own previous views are faulty, and change my mind.

Persecution does not change minds. Assassination does not change minds. Only free and open discussion can change minds.

Quoting Gandhi in the movie of that name, "They can kill me. But what will they have? My dead body. Not my obedience."

Let's not go around trying to kill careers or coerce indecent speakers into silence. Let's set an example of patience, longsuffering, and hope.