My theory is that social media provides critical mass for POVs which might otherwise be easily ignored.
Consider the plight of homosexuals. It was easy to marginalize them when there were at most a handful of them in a town, but in the big city, you reached a large enough nexus of gayness that there were bars and other businesses catering to homosexuals and their tastes. As this became more visible, it became more mainstream, and that small town homosexual who was ostracized became aware that they were not some misfit, but there was a community out there where they were accepted. Maybe they ended moving to the big city or maybe they had the courage to be true to themselves without moving. And more people saw that and came out of the closet or realized they were gay. Some sort of gay tribe was established.
Now, instead of homosexuals, imagine we’re talking about…let’s say incels. And instead of the big city, these incels meet on the internet. They also form a sense of community, one that knows no geographic boundaries.
Social media amplifies the voices of marginalized people by providing the critical mass to form a community. Black Lives Matter is the size and scope it is because of social media, but the same can be said of the alt-right. These non-geographic communities engage in performative communication on the internet because that is where they were born.
Right now, we have a war going on, the cultural war that Pat Buchanan spoke of in the 1990s. For decades, Democrats have been pretending that the war is not going on, but the people have spoken. They increasingly understand that we have a struggle for the soul of America, a conflict over what values drive us as individuals and as a nation.
We are once again what Abraham Lincoln described as a house divided against itself. One side must prevail. There is no compromise to be had. There will be no peace for our time. What some decry as “cancel culture” is a necessary string of battles in the war of ideas. Those who can be rehabilitated can be rehabilitated later. For now, they are collateral damage, but it won’t necessarily be forever. Once there is victory, we can establish the appropriate penance to regain entry into a reconstructed society.
There needs to be change. If an orderly transition can’t be managed, then we need a messy transition instead of a semblance of order held together by the duct tape of oppression.
