OPINION:
Freedom of speech has supposedly been making an epic comeback, with growing optimism that cancel culture, the steady march to deny free speech rights and the politics of destruction across society, has finally been served a massive rebuke.
“How Cancel Culture Collapsed” and “Pendulum Is Swinging Toward Free Speech Online” are just some of the headlines practically declaring victory over this hideous trend and its pernicious influence on our society.
After the November elections, where the American people rejected the overreach by the news media, politicians and influencers who attack basic freedoms in pursuit of a narrow agenda to appeal to extreme constituencies, it would seem that cancel culture is finally reaching its natural death.
Not so fast. This toxic and insidious practice of destroying people because of their viewpoints, moral failures or critical errors may be in retreat, but it’s not dead.
The cases are still everywhere.
Just recently, a state representative in Maine was formally censured for a social media post about a transgender athlete who won a high school girls’ track competition.
Then there’s the case of Enoch Burke, a teacher in Ireland who has been jailed three times for more than 400 days combined for refusing to call a boy a girl at his school in a case of the pronoun police gone berserk.
Numerous whistleblowers tried to report the “grooming gangs” in Britain, where witnesses were treated like racists for reporting the sexual abuse of scores of women and girls by a community of immigrants.
We experienced cancel culture firsthand during the acute pandemic period when we bucked the trend of lockdowns and mask and vaccine mandates at the school in Miami we founded. We knew in our hearts that these emergency measures weren’t yet known or understood, and we were ultimately proved right, but not until long after the global media attention had subsided and real damage had been inflicted.
Another case occurred less than six months ago when we tried to donate $10 million to the city of Miami to build a domed multisport athletic complex at an underused and decrepit public park. A local commissioner and his lobbyist were arrested and accused of improperly prioritizing our donation to the detriment of a competing interest in the park. Charges were later dropped, and the matter was never brought to trial.
After discovering that our political contributions had been a factor in the case, the media, already skewed against us from our pandemic controversy, sharpened their knives. We became the cover story and the sinister and dirty focus of their journalism, even though we had no connection to the alleged wrongdoing. Once charges were dropped, one would think the entire matter was a giant nothingburger and everybody lived happily ever after. Unfortunately, long-lasting damage has been inflicted on everybody. Textbook cancel culture, executed flawlessly.
Perhaps the highest-profile case of cancel culture today is with the Department of Government Efficiency, run by entrepreneur Elon Musk. Most people agree that to get our fiscal house in order, we must rid the government of waste, fraud and abuse. Common sense, no? Not to those who have thrived off massive amounts of money that have gone to the countless questionable causes uncovered by DOGE.
What does the backlash against Mr. Musk look like? Vandalism against Tesla automobiles, dealerships and charging stations nationwide has continued. Think about it: Many of those who once hailed the benefits of these epic electric vehicles to our climate are torching them in parking lots today.
There are countless other examples of ordinary people whose lives have been upended by cancel culture for seemingly minor or completely fabricated transgressions, even when an unsubstantiated allegation was enough to ruin someone’s life. Whether they be acts of military injustice, violations of the right to peacefully protest, medical advocates who challenge the status quo, parents seeking rights to have a voice in their child’s education or influencers who are victims of “debanking,” cancel culture is a cancer on our society.
The real danger isn’t just what it does to its victims; it’s the broader chilling effect on society. When people fear speaking out, debate suffers, innovation stalls and democracy weakens.
Of course, the current examples of cancel culture prove that the threat is looming and real. I propose that cancel culture is far from over. As long as the media, traditional and otherwise, continue their inexhaustible and lustful campaigns of clickbait titillations, we will never see the end of this.
The best disinfectant, of course, is sunshine: lots of exposure to these ongoing acts of intimidation and free speech suppression. More than ever, we must all speak out for freedom and stand up to the bullies who seek to silence dissent in America and abroad. The best way to defeat cancel culture is not to live in fear but to stand firm in your truth and expose the ill effects of this dangerous trend.
We will not be silenced, and neither should you.
• David Centner is a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits who invented critical technology in electronic tolling systems. Leila Centner is the founder of Centner Academy and Centner Wellness. They are the owners of Erase.com, a reputation management company.
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