25A040 Reason vs. Cancelation by Jim Davies, 10/7/2025

The simplest way to prevail in an argument or debate is to silence your adversary.

Simplest, but not always the easiest way; to do it, you need to have superior force available. Duct-taping the mouth of Larry Flynt, for example, was what the judge in a Federal court did when Flynt defied his authority. I once witnessed the forceful removal, from another court, of Andrew Melechinsky when he stood and politely corrected the judge, claiming the "right of remonstrance" to government employees like her. Andy responded by going limp, so as to prove he was not resisting, while giving the two marshals a hard time dragging him out.

Those examples are trivial, while graphic; silencing the opposition is what all governments wish to do, but usually cannot because their power is not absolute. Hitler came very close to it, when media, police and army members had all taken an oath of obedience to him personally as Leader; so did Stalin in the USSR with his sinister secret police force.

Muslim zealots, heads full of righteous conviction that theirs is the one and only true religion, have neither the wish nor the ability to reason with Christians or other theologians, so resort instead to lethal force - as Islam did from its very foundation. They do have enough skill to pull the trigger of a machine gun or even to assemble a bomb. They prove they are "right" by killing some opponents - and show their sincerity by doing it as a suicide.

Deeply convinced that society is best served by a hierarchy of rulers, statists worldwide have commanded that all children shall submit to twelve years of teaching that their view is correct; and have silenced any contrary world-view by making everyone pay for the service. If schools exist outside their direct control, they still ensure that their curriculum is followed.

When in the media and the Internet a government narrative is contradicted, rather than opening a debate to try to reach the truth they take steps to prevent the rival opinion being heard. This was brought to near-perfection by the Biden Gang, when for example anyone wrote that the Covid "pandemic" was bogus, his ability to broadcast was negated; this was a fulfilment of what has become known as the "Cancel Culture." One victim of it was Tucker Carlson, whom Fox News fired despite his large popularity; that one has backfired because Tucker used his own resources to create the Tucker Carlson Network on the Internet, with modest viewer fees for membership to meet expenses.

In 2005 Irwin Schiff was accused of evading income tax and his whole defense was that no law compelled him to pay it - a fact that would, had he been acquitted, have imperilled half the FedGov's revenue. So Judge Dawson had him imprisoned for one day for every time he tried to say so, in court; having no rebuttal, he silenced him. Details here.

Prior to the trouncing of Kamala Who a year ago, Internet giants like Google and Facebook were co-operating with government media controllers by banning social-media contributors who were gaining a good following while challenging the official narrative on important subjects; most notoriously, the Covid fable. As time has passed the outrageous falsehoods of that fable are becoming ever clearer (and very soon a ZGBlog edition will have more on that subject) but when any of the few well qualified physicians who contradicted that narrative they not only lost their web site but also their permit to practice medicine.

When people have power, they don't bother with reason. They just Cancel.

When Donald Trump was gaining traction in his bid for the White House last year one of the young zombies with a head full of Leftist nonsense tried to kill him. In my opinion he was used as a patsy while the serious shooting was done by a government sniper, but killing Trump was the intent. The Biden Gang could not out-reason him, so they shot him instead. By a quarter inch, happily they missed.

Last month another zombified product of the government school monopoly succeeded in shooting Charlie Kirk, an articulate conservative speaker who explicitly invited all his audiences to "prove him wrong" - that is, to debate him, engage him in reasoned exchange. The zombie (suspected, Tyler Robinson) answered him with a 30 caliber bullet which severed his carotid artery, killing him instantly. He did not reason, he Canceled.

In the tiny country of Moldova, just to the West of Odessa in Ukraine, an election was held on September 28th. In the few days prior, incumbent President Maia Sandu had all but one of her rival parties banned. Surprise, surprise; she won! She didn't argue. She just Canceled.

These are, therefore, dark days for freedom of speech. They will lighten brightly in the coming zero government society, because (a) there won't be any ''public policy" questions needing debate, and (b) there won't be any superior force around to do any canceling even if there were.