cancel culture and political violence

i differentiate between liberals and leftists, so if you don't or can't understand that, either get lost or stick around and find out what i'm talking about.

i posted 2 weeks ago about freedom of speech and why it's important, but doesn't protect people from consequences. arguably, Charlie Kirk was a sacrifice to his own cause in this regard. there are conspiracy theories about his death and some of the details are seemingly fudged. but what is clear is that, whether conservative or liberal, neither side values free speech as much as they claim.

i'm a leftist. to be specific, i'm an anarchist-communist or libertarian socialist depending on your definition or interpretation. not sure what i'm talking about? Kropotkin, Goldman, Bakunin and Marx forged the theories i agree with. Laboria Cuboniks comes into play to make me an accelerationist.

conservatives and liberals value free speech in theory but not in practice. i would argue that liberals value it slightly more, but only if it doesn't criticize them too much. then you get into cancel culture, and it's clear: liberals don't value free speech if they can start a social media campaign to ruin someone's reputation. don't think so? how many liberals do you know are dredging up people's social media posts from 5 or 10 years ago to prove that people don't know how to grow. they try to force people into a spree of apologia. "you believed this thing 10 years ago? there's no way you changed your mind or gained any sort of nuance! #canceled"

here's what i propose: Cancel Me. go ahead. why? because two weeks ago i said i smiled about the death of Charlie Kirk but still valued his sense of free speech. i don't support hate speech, but i don't believe in cancel culture either.

i have this revolutionary idea. see, i have talked before about how i used to be a right-libertarian. i said awful, racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic things. i was 24. i'm now 34. somewhere are probably screen shots by people who are waiting for some perfect moment to say, "see! look what Des said in 2015!" well, i've got news for you. if i've gained nuance in the last two weeks, then you better believe i've grown drastically in the last decade.

two weeks ago i was sharing memes about an assassination and even went so far as to wish it on other people who shared similar ideas. after talking to several other leftists, i realized something: an act of purported political violence isn't revolutionary in and of itself. regardless of "whodunit," Charlie Kirk was assassinated because people didn't like what he said. i didn't like what he said. people don't like what i say. am i supposed to be surprised if someone shoots me for it? i wouldn't be. i've said this already.

i'm not going to get on some liberal high horse and claim "political violence is never okay." JFK was quoted saying, "those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable." he was assassinated too. MLK said, "riots are the language of the unheard." he was assassinated, too. Charlie Kirk said a lot of inflammatory and controversial things. i agreed with him on two points and two points only:

1) freedom of speech is an inalienable right
2) Israel is performing an ethnic cleansing in Gaza

Charlie Kirk made his career out of "well actually"-ing about the Constitution in order to "own the libs." he started off as an independent conservative and then became backed by big money. this further entrenched him in his beliefs. but he was critical of both the Right and the Left for trying to ban or limit free speech in their own ways. fascists will use the law to limit your speech, and liberals will make social justice campaigns to see people deplatformed.

i want to make a few things clear because i've said a lot so far.

1) Charlie Kirk is not someone to be worshipped
2) Charlie Kirk has in common his political assassination with JFK and MLK but almost none of their beliefs
3) Charlie Kirk is a convenient sacrifice for the political machine to further limit free speech that they see as inciteful or dangerous

the government is trying to call Trans people "terrorists," for having "dangerous ideology." they see anti-fascists as "the real fascists." the American Right made death threats about Obama and loses their shit if you say "Trump might be slowly dying of poor health." the American Left will body-shame Trump and make homophobic insinuations about him and Putin, but attempt to cancel people on Twitter for making controversial statements a decade ago.

neither values freedom of speech. as i've said before, though, freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences. i don't like Charlie Kirk, and while i didn't want him to die, i'm not surprised someone else did, and went so far as to perform a public execution.

i have been arguing with other Leftists and a small handful of Rightoids about this, and i've come up with this nuanced conclusion in just two weeks:

i am willing to be wrong about my beliefs from even an hour ago if i'm presented with information that contradicts my beliefs; AND ALSO i have opinions that i will not shake or stand down from because i value my sense of morality and ethics over any politic, law, or theory presented to me.

all life is sacred. Black Lives Matter. Palestine must be free. people ought to control what happens to their own bodies, whether abortion or transition. we are alienated from the products of our labor and forced to trade time for coupons instead of being guaranteed necessities based on the so-called rights of Life, Liberty and Happiness.

so, cancel me. i changed my mind. i'm still a Leftist, but i have decided that Charlie Kirk's death wasn't that funny after all. it's going to get worse from here. i'm trying to hold on to my seat as the wings of this plane deteriorate and we begin to descend. i'm just hoping we land in the water so i have a chance to swim away. but if i go down in flames, know that i did it with integrity and was willing to grow from who i was a week ago, a month ago, a decade ago.

but who are you to say i don't deserve free speech? God? the government? i don't fucking think so.

cancel me.