I would chalk it up to people as they get older not liking change. it's why people from my age cohort (50+) are freaking out about a handful of Doctor Seuss books being withdrawn from publication or the Aunt Jemima logo being removed. These were things we took for granted all our lives, just like we always equated Santa Claus with being white. So when someone tries to portray Santa Claus as black, it's seen as bowing to those radical leftists who want to change everything instead of a good faith effort to be more inclusive.

There have been forms of cancel culture throughout human history. Controversial pharaohs in Egypt would have their likenesses chiseled out in the years after their deaths. I believe there is a Jewish phrase that translates into English as "may his name and memory be obliterated." In Spain during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, all works of literature had to be reviewed and any offending passages that violated strict Catholic teachings were excised. To this day, the edited versions of these works are still circulating in Latin America, with readers not being aware that they are not reading the books as originally written. During the Cultural Revolution, Communist China banned traditional operas and replaced them with operas that promoted the "glory" of the Revolution.

There is an example of cancel culture in the United States that happened a few years ago that seems to have gone down the memory hole. In 2017, Ridley Scott's movie All The Money In The World about the Getty kidnapping, with Kevin Spacey playing the part of family patriarch J.P. Getty, was getting ready to be released. Then the sexual abuse allegations against Kevin Spacey came out. Fearing the impact it would have on his movie, Ridley Scott ended up reshooting all of Kevin Spacey's scenes with the late Christopher Plummer replacing him. Personally, after having watched the movie, Plummer seemed a natural fit for the role anyway. But All The Money In The World does set a troubling precedent. An actor or actress who becomes the target of salacious allegations can be completely removed from a movie and replaced with someone else between the time it is filmed and the time it is released.

On the other hand, you also have Trump on the record with Bob Woodward telling him in February how serious COVID was and then telling Woodward in March that he deliberately downplayed it so as not to cause a panic. But Trump has never shown any hesitation to stoke fear and panic when it suits him, such as Central American migrant caravans, Muslims, MS-13, etc. More Americans die from COVID in a single day now than were likely killed by MS-13 gangsters in its entire history.

Trump engaged in stochastic terrorism by egging on protesters in Michigan, with some of them ending up being arrested for plotting to kidnap and possibly execute that state's governor. In his haste to appoint a Supreme Court justice in the waning days of his administration, Trump turned the White House into a coronavirus hot spot and ended up himself being sent to Walter Reed Medical Center. From what I read, the wearing of masks in the White House was discouraged and those who wore them were frequently scorned by the president. And now Rudy Guiliani is infected with it and has been admitted to the hospital.

I agree. For a lot of my friends on Facebook, "Defund The Police" is equated with neutering the police and letting criminals run unchecked.

Republicans are much better at branding. Whenever they want to promote something, they equate it with freedom and liberty. Police reform should be marketed, as well as end up working in practice, as safety and fighting crime.

Thanks for watching it so I don't have to.

Good suggestion. I try to use photos that I have taken myself.

Reminds me of way back in 2007 when Paula Zahn on CNN had a segment about atheists and not a single one of the panelists was an atheist. I found a blog post I did about it at the time and remarked it would be like having a panel discussion about gays that consisted of Pat Buchanan, Jerry Falwell and William Donohue.

We don't hate their imaginary friend, we hate what they do in the name of their imaginary friend!

I just stopped going. Didn't feel the need to make any official declaration. It's not like they notice one way or the other. That is the difference between the Catholic Church and a cult like Scientology, where they do notice if you stop going to your auditing sessions and no longer take required courses and kick money back to them.

Yeah, a lot of Christians want us to be like Harry Potter in The Chamber of Secrets. "I'll be up in my room, making no noise and pretending I don't exist."