The Cultural Political Hypocrisy: A Rejoinder Towards Today's Conservatives Intellectual Decline

     I am a conservative in the sense that I am "one who adheres to traditional methods or views." I am one who likes the tradition of the Christian Church, especially the Episcopalian tradition. In fact, the Bible commands us to hold to traditions (1 Corinthians 11:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:15) as well as the affirmation of the good traditions in scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17). I would hold to the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed & the Athanasian Creed, which are three creeds I recite during daily office or the Eucharist on the Lord's Day service. However, we have reached a time where there is another view in mind for conservatives, which is referring to the political & cultural conservatives. I am sure you have heard some of the phrase: "They have gone woke!" "It's the liberal left!" "Another left wing snowflake!"

    So some might be asking, why am I talking about this? I am perfectly okay with differences of opinions in politics. America, as well as the Episcopal Church, is known for having and allowing disagreements on issues while at the same time showing unity, love and peace between members of the church. However, we reach an odd point where people are now going to argue by simply using insults and ad hominem arguments with terms like woke, snowflake, liberal, etc. to score some slam dunk as people are complaining about how too sensitive and insecure certain democrats & left wing individuals are. I have noticed this among some of those on the left, but I have also noticed it in the right wing folks as well. Not all of them, but there are a few interesting people who will pretty much act like the people they criticize.

    I remember one example was involving a book by Andrew M. King called "Social Identity and the Book of Amos" and how this led to somebody accusing Andrew of being something he wasn't. In order to understand what the book is about, here is the description from Amazon:

"What, according to the Book of Amos, does it mean to be the people of God? In this book, Andrew M. King employs a Social Identity Approach (SIA), comprised of Social Identity Theory and Self-Categorization Theory, to explore the relationship between identity formation and the biblical text. Specifically, he examines the identity-forming strategies embedded in the Book of Amos. King begins by outlining the Social Identity Approach, especially its use in Hebrew Bible scholarship. Turning to the Book of Amos, he analyzes group dynamics and intergroup conflicts (national and interpersonal), as well as Amos’s presentation of Israel’s history and Israel’s future. King provides extensive insight into the rhetorical strategies in Amos that shape the trans-temporal audience’s sense of self. To live as the people of God, according to Amos, readers and hearers must adopt norms defined by a proper relationship to God that results in the proper treatment of others."

    So here we see that we are just dealing with an approach at understanding how the Book of Amos deals with the question of what it means to be an Israelite using the Social Identity Theory & Self-Categorization Theory, both not being exclusively liberal ideas. Yet, a Christian tried to find something to protest about it because it had the words Social and Identity on there, which were commonly used by liberals. Therefore, its promoting Socialism. Despite asking for evidence and even the author of the book correcting him on this, the guy just would not listen. He simply said that he knew and he didn't have to prove himself because he's been around many false teachers to know what one sounds like. It was one of the strangest moments I experienced.

    There is then the whole thing about cancel culture which essentially is just a way of blocking or preventing people from having a platform to voice their views. Wikipedia defines it as "a culture in which those who are deemed to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner are ostracized, boycotted or shunned." So if some are against it, then we would expect there to be consistency of this by some of the most prominent critics, correct? Not exactly. Some will say that "cancel culture is stupid" while also trying to ban people from speaking at other platforms, report people for things with the intent to get people banned from social media platforms, and spreading the word to block or report an individual. It is essentially people condemning cancel culture by also participating in cancel culture.

    One of these that became a notorious case was a person with a twitter account named ValidLs who attempted to try and cancel a furry named BlueFolf by compiling a fake discord conversation in order to paint BlueFolf as a person who harms children. After the evidence was starting to be shown that it was clearly a fake and doctored image of a  conversation, the damage was already being done as eventually BlueFolf managed to get doxxed (prior to the controversy of course) and a screenshot of the fake image was sent to their parents. While it is unclear whether or not ValidLs was intending to make it this far with the aftermath, what is ironic is the fact that ValidLs had shared and encouraged people to go after Blue as well as create the fake discord conversation AFTER being called out by BlueFolf to be deplatformed or "cancelled." In other words, ValidLs responded to cancel culture by participating and encouraging cancel culture itself.

    The solution that can be solved in this is simple: either admit your hypocrisy and move on or do not even interact with the individuals or controversy in any response whatsoever. It's funny how some will say "I do not get triggered" yet get  triggered when they see an LGBTQ+ flag or even an atheist meme trending on the internet. People who claim to not be triggered yet respond in lengthy posts or make mock memes in return are people who are triggered. We should respond biblically as Christians as 1 Timothy 6:11 says "but you, man of God, flee from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness."

    We should get out of the culture of trying to be triggered or angry, instead choosing to love one another, especially our neighbor and enemies (1 John 4:7, Luke 6:27-28, Matthew 5:43-48) while also praying for everybody, including those you disagree with (1 Timothy 2:1-2, Romans 12:14-19). Consider well the words of Proverbs 24:17-18: "Don’t gloat when your enemy falls, and don’t let your heart rejoice when he stumbles, or the Lord will see, be displeased, and turn his wrath away from him." Do not be a hypocrite and do not act like the world, for we are to be holy and set apart from the world.