The Decline of the Dictatorship of the Commentariat: On the Free Speech Editorial

With the caveat that there has been some well-done push back, this is a major newspaper of record picking a side in our dumbest culture war. I maintain that culture wars are stupid, and that cancel culture isn’t really a thing, but the fact remains that cultural phenomena are given life by discussing them. I’m afraid that, to tell you how dumb it is, I’m forced to feed the beast.

CommentaryCameron SummersMarch 23, 2022News Media, Cancel Culture, Moral Panics, Free SpeechComment

Quarantined in Horny Jail: on Metaphors of Disease

But we can see an interesting trend: as the number of epidemics tails off, so – generally – do the number of major moral panics. We have the red scare, sure, and prohibition and the devil’s music, and filthy literature – but, generally speaking as the number of epidemics tapers off, the moral panics become fewer and slightly more grounded.

Wars and Rumors of Wars (Time of Monsters #6)

None of this matters. People get worked up about these things that frankly do not matter and then it gets plastered all over social media as people look for the newest thing to be outraged by. They are outraged, because their outrage is profitable to the people who work to influence their emotions.