Campbell: It’s a QAnon, cancel culture, year of confusion

For what it’s worth, the idea of a so-called “cancel culture” has a strong history in New England, especially in Connecticut where the Puritans were slavishly devoted to policing one another’s behavior.

They were so devoted, in fact, that infractions could net punishment that ranged from stocks, pillories, ear removal, branding, or whipping, depending on the crime. And in those days, “crime” was loosely equated as “sin.” If someone was caught lying, for example, the offender could be fined 10 shillings, or sentenced to three hours in the public pillory, according to a 1915 law journal article. Keep in mind that one did not just spend leisure time in the stocks. Whoever was trapped there was subject to whatever mistreatment passers-by dreamed up.

These past few weeks have seen multiple opportunities for such shaming, though one must remember that accusations of engaging in canceling generally come from people on the right against people on the left. The president’s oldest son recently tweeted #CancelNetflix, over an award-winning French film that, its detractors say, sexualizes young girls, even while in other tweets he lambasts progressives for suggesting they do the same for other entities.

Even a casual student of the First Amendment knows that while we enjoy incredible freedom from government intervention in our speech, we are not protected from people’s reactions to that speech. For instance, in 2014, when the Supreme Court ruled that Hobby Lobby, a for-profit organization that sells crafts items, wasn’t required to provide birth control for their employees. Company owners said they had religious objections to birth control, and so in reaction, I took up knitting just so I could boycott Hobby Lobby and buy my yarn elsewhere. This is called market censorship. The same way I will never watch another Woody Allen movie (market censorship), the same way I will go the rest of my life without buying so much as a stitch from the My Pillow guy (market censorship), I am free to let my pocketbook do my talking, as are you.

That’s a fairly benign reaction to pillory-worthy behavior, actually. State Sen. Christine Cohen’s yea vote on Connecticut’s recent police accountability bill netted her Madison bagel shop threats of a boycott – and worse, she got death threats. Is that cancel culture? Or do we call it something else because it was born of a conservative crowd and their rules are different.

Lately, in no particular order:

Jonathan Hardy, of the gun group Connecticut Citizens Defense League circulated on social media a vulgar, racist meme that targeted a female Democratic state representative. His response when he was called on it? He removed the meme, and said that people were mostly only paying attention because it’s an election year. His organization’s response? Quick distancing from Hardy, but not before a handful of people contacted the IRS questioning the organization’s “non-profit” status.

Cancel culture? Maybe. Or maybe it’s market censorship.

And then we have state Sen. Eric C. Berthel, a Republican who represents lovely Connecticut towns such as Oxford and Watertown. A photo of a decal with a QAnon slogan on his car – with his legislator license plates – began spreading on social media because a QAnon decal on an elected official’s car is newsworthy, to put it politely. QAnon is an anti-Semitic conspiracy group loosely organized around the lie that Donald Trump is doing battle with a group of Democratic pedophiles.

The lies don’t end there. See if you can name the conspiracy theory not embraced by QAnon:

· 5G networks are being used to spread COVID-19.

· Oregon wildfires were started by liberals.

· Cabal members meet in tunnels beneath the country to rape and torture children.

· People who drive blue Tauruses are the Devil’s own minions.

That’s a tough quiz and you’re excused if you fail it. The correct wrong answer is the last one. I made that one up, and I apologize in advance to all Taurus owners if that starts circulating as truth.

Sen. Berthel said he doesn’t support the group’s “wild-eyed” conspiracy theories, but he said he likes the group’s stance against government corruption. The nosebleed one would get from such a leap of logic could be fatal, and I hope he’s OK.

The FBI says QAnon is a pack of “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists.” In July, “The Forward,” formerly “The Jewish Daily Forward,” asked not if, but how anti-Semitic is QAnon. (Spoiler alert? Any measure of anti-Semitism is not OK.) Vice president Mike Pence recently canceled an appearance at a Montana fundraiser hosted by what appears to be QAnon supporters.

But 2020 is a year of confusion. The Tweeter-in-Chief, no stranger to ridiculous conspiracies, loves him some QAnon – mostly because, he says, they like him.

Come to think of it, if you’re a Republican party leader, it’s good strategy to hoist the anti-cancel flag. The party’s survival may depend on members remaining loyal, and staying in the party, despite the rising number of COVID-19 deaths. Any thinking Republican has to have considered dropping their party.

Country? Party? Tunnels of pedophiles and 5G conspiracies? As we move closer to Nov. 3, the wild-eyed faithful will be left to play jump ball over the last of the tin foil hats. Maybe they can play against those folks who drive blue Tauruses. My money’s on those guys. They’re evil.