Here's the thing about 'the left'.
A lot of people seem to think it is some organised mob - that everyone shares emails and messages about who to attack next, whose fun to ruin... but it's really not like that at all.
Think of it more like a flock of starlings. We might all appear to be flying the same way, but there's very little in the form of active communication between individuals.
Notice I said 'very little' and not 'none'.
The simple fact remains that most people on the left believe certain truths are self evident. So while there may be disagreement on the exact priorities involved in levelling up a community or society in general, the basic ideas - that humans have fundamental rights - is not in question.
On that we stand together.
When people threaten our belief in fundamental human rights? Well, then maybe it does appear that we are co-ordinated. Shit buddy, if we were really coordinated, world would be a socialist paradise by now.
One sec - let me go check...
Nope, still not.
The Right? It wants you to think selfishly. It wants you to think of yourself, and how much you will benefit on a personal level. The Left? We think more societal - like, does it really matter if one guy is rich if everyone else dies because he poisoned the water? None of us can be an external viewer, because we all imagine ourselves fundamentally as either a part of society or as an individual.
Of course, the sad reality is we are both.
From the very dawn of human society we have been both. We were hunter gatherers once, and we relied on each other for survival. We still do. And yet we mate as individuals, and so we have to acknowledge, accept and celebrate our difference.
Have you ever been in a mob? I have.
There was an incident a few years ago when my store was besieged by angry Rangers fans. They were determined to kick the door in and kill everyone. It was... irrational, as we had done nothing to them, save exist. But they were angry because they had lost an important football match, and what better way to end an evening of disappointment than smashing my windows and assault my customers.
Now, that was a mob.
A mob wakes up in the morning, oblivious to the damage they have caused. The mob does damage for no reason. In Hartlepool in the Napoleonic Wars they hung a chimpanzee, imagining him to be a shipwrecked Frenchman.
No,. You are not being targeted by a mob. You are being targeted by a flock. Hundreds of the individuals you claim to fetishize the rights of, who nonetheless have come to a different conclusion to you about how they should exercise those rights.
Most cancellations make me sad. Because its a failure of communication.
And without communication, nobody ever changes their minds.
Look, nobody ever said it was fun, being chased by a flock of starlings. You may think 'oh my goodness, these starlings are out of order! I disagree with them!' But arguing with them is like arguing with the deeply held beliefs of a thousand individuals who believe, with every fibre of their being, that their cause is just. that it benefits the greater sum of collective humanity.
That mob just kicked my window in because their team lost a football match. And that's the difference. It just made them feel better to hang that monkey.
And then they sobered up.