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Dr. Seuss was in the news again recently when a school administrator in Ohio stopped a reading of his classic, ‘The Sneetches,’ after a child compared the treatment of the starless Sneetches to racism. “It’s almost like what happened back then, how people were treated … like white people disrespected Black people, but then, they might stand up in the book.” It was insightful enough to startle the administrator, and she ended the reading of the book, which was being done as part of an NPR podcast.

I don’t have any patience for terms like ‘cancel culture’ (or ‘woke’ or ‘critical race theory’ or ‘groomer’), but it’s evident that silencing others is not the terrain only of one faction or another. Unfortunately, the right is always better at finding meaningless little nuggety words and phrases with which to assault people who don’t submit to their orthodoxy. ‘Cancel culture’ is just the sort of smug accusation that works for limited minds with no capacity for introspection.  Meanwhile, right-wing extremism marches merrily along, doing its best to roll over and silence anything that challenges its privileged and fragile assumptions. There are few more potent and effective practitioners of cancel culture than Florida’s Ron DeSantis, Tucker Carlson, Libs of TikTok, and the entire right-wing echo chamber.

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“What would you say about someone who is not WOKE? They are “asleep,” “unconscious,” “indifferent.” They are “Mind Closed, Mouth Open.”” – Diane Ravitch

“Beware the unwoke mind.” – Amanda Marcotte

I recently told a friend I was nominating the word ‘woke’ for the one most in need of retiring in 2023. It has become both ubiquitous and meaningless, useful only as a slur employed by right-wing types to hurl at everything they don’t like or agree with. They take great pleasure in accusing those interested in social justice, equality, and accurate history of being whatever they think ‘woke’ means. At this point it only serves as a weapon and a form of mockery. I don’t believe I can have a serious conversation with anyone using the word, since the only people still saying it are wielding it as a verbal cudgel they feel no obligation to define.