What does Accept Culture mean and how do we escape from Cancel Culture?
If there was ever a term that causes more emotional outrage in politics, I don’t know what it is. Cancel Culture itself needs to be…CANCELLED! Not because it’s a bad practice. Sometimes it’s the only way a person can be held accountable, and pedophiles, rapists, and insurrectionists must be dealt with. But Cancel Culture is being used as another way to divide Americans.
Enough!
Cancel Culture has been used to punish public figures or companies who commit a wrong as determined by society. Used properly, someone like Roger Ailes or Joss Whedon is called on the carpet over their abuse of other people, which is a good thing. We all need to know who the predators are. But in politics the term Cancel Culture is overused and accusatory. The politicians using it the most sound-like crybabies. “You don’t like my politics, so you are trying to cancel me, wah, wah, wah!”
You get the idea. But have you noticed that some of these people with extremely bad behavior, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, never go away? Cancel Culture doesn’t even work. It makes people FAMOUS! That is what must stop.
Now to the purpose of my story. We must practice Accept Culture!
Accept Culture means that we accept people just as they are. It’s quite simple, and it needs to apply to politics too. For example, my wife and I are registered with opposite political parties. So are our neighbors across the street. We are still compatible and happily married. Since COVID settled down we ‘hang’ with our neighbors often. And we all agree, regardless of political persuasion, that politics are completely out of control.
Accept Culture is such a simple thing I don’t know why it hasn’t come up. If you Google the term, there is no result. There are plenty of hits with both words, but they never appear together. Instead of making the worst among us hugely famous, why don’t we use social media to focus on making good people or a great cause famous?
For example, Heather Abbott is a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing that happened in 2013. I can look out the window where I sit to write and see where it happened. She was recently featured as a 2021 CNN Hero for her work raising money for other amputees struggling to afford prosthetics. Her Twitter handle is @Heather_Abbott1 and she has now raised over $1 Million to help others when their insurance falls short or doesn’t pay at all. Why hasn’t she gone viral after CNN broadcast and published her story? Why isn’t she famous instead of a Kardashian?
Another good example is Kerry Donovan. She’s a State Senator from Colorado and she is sponsoring a bill to force big tech companies to have some accountability. These companies claim they can’t control what is posted on their sites, but they track every click we make and constantly try to sell to us. If they are so deep into what we see online they must have the ability to detect and control election tampering, cyber bullying, hate speech, and predatory marketing using our data. She’s a political hero trying to protect her constituents. Follow her Twitter handle @KerryDonovanCO and make her famous by helping her defeat Lauren Boebert.
You may be asking, “shouldn’t we accept Lauren Boebert too?” The answer is yes, we should. What we should NOT do is feed her need for attention and make her more famous! Every time she misbehaves, she earns more campaign cash and is positively reinforced to repeat the bad behavior. She recently created an attack ad that targets the Speaker of the House and uses gun related sound effects that resemble assassination. It’s impossible to cancel her so ignore her bad behavior instead.
Changing culture is a slow process. It takes persistent and dedicated leaders to believe in it and set an example. It also takes sponsors. Sharing the message ‘organically’ has almost no reach. Communication has a cost. Cancel Culture has become viral because there is drama and conflict involved. Our human nature is drawn to that, which makes sharing the positive message of Accept Culture more difficult.
A recent organization called America Talks is hosting an event on June 12th designed to bridge the political divide. With the help of sponsors, and organizations like MITM, they are sponsoring a national conversation dedicated to bringing people of different political beliefs together for a 1:1 video chat. It’s an opportunity to talk earnestly about what is dividing us and why. I hope everyone who reads this participates now and at future events. It’s a brilliant way to share the message of Accept Culture.
America Talks – Repairing America’s Divides, One Conversation at a Time
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