I use the historical perspective to illuminate how far back the orthodoxy goes; we can‘t undo that orthodoxy within two or three generations. Women are raped, stalked, harassed, and murdered because men feel they are property, and they feel that way because of lingering orthodoxy. Black people are cut out of spaces and disallowed the same dignity as others because people feel they are uneducated or dangerous, and they feel that way because of lingering orthodoxy.
Yes, the orthodoxy of one’s immediate circle is important, but human society is interwoven across many levels. Some orthodoxies result in uncomfortable Twitter arguments. Other orthodoxies lead to the election of a sociopathic dimwit who has led a completely failed pandemic response that has left 140,000 dead and triggered the greatest economic crisis of the last century (if not more).
To say that a progressive orthodoxy is a threat at this time is to claim that a fire ant is a threat in a wildfire.
I am not from the US, so Trump does not really affect my directly that much and yet, when he got elected, I donated to the ACLU, I have been in numerous heated arguments about why I think he's cancerous to society and I would vote for Biden and would have voted for Hillary if I was American. Similarly, I've cut off contact with an uncle after it became clear he was supporting the homophobic backlash in Poland, I have unfriended people over non-stop blaming refugees for everything, I am in deep horror of gays being rounded up and killed in Chechnya and Uyghurs being interned in China, and so on.
And yet, I am at the same time still perfectly capable to lament a deterioration of political discourse not only on the right, but on the left as well.
You seem to assume that because people criticise "cancel culture", they think racism or sexual violence or homophobia are not also bad, and yes, also worse and more dangerous. But that is nothing more than a strawman. I've been strawmanned like this before and I find it just really tiring.
I think Trump is worse than even the worst excesses of cancel culture. But that doesn't mean I can't still worry about the latter. And crucially, I do also believe that "cancel culture" only serves to drive more moderate right-wingers further and further into the fold of the far right. In some respects, I think Trump is a monster of the left's own creation.
Luckily, where I live, politics is not yet as polarised as I perceive the US to be. But it's changing, I feel, and I partially blame US cultural influence for it.
Yes, the orthodoxy of one’s immediate circle is important, but human society is interwoven across many levels. Some orthodoxies result in uncomfortable Twitter arguments. Other orthodoxies lead to the election of a sociopathic dimwit who has led a completely failed pandemic response that has left 140,000 dead and triggered the greatest economic crisis of the last century (if not more).
To say that a progressive orthodoxy is a threat at this time is to claim that a fire ant is a threat in a wildfire.