Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

 A friend of mine recently took exception when I mocked people (mostly conservative) who tossed around the term "Cancel Culture." It seems in the opinions of many some (mostly conservative), it's a freedom of speech issue. Not really. And it's not a First Amendment issue either, when Facebook or Twitter cancels your account for praising white supremacists, or neo-fascists, or other right-wing dickheads. " Cancel Culture ," which, according to Wikipedia, was originally an outgrowth of the "MeToo" movement, (so not so much about speech as calling out behavior - specifically against women) has morphed now into the latest right-wing NewSpeak  term for "I'm being punished for expressing my opinion."  Dig a little deeper though and you'll find the issue is not so much about "free speech," as "consequence-free speech." I mean...if you are going to be an opinionated ass, at least have enough self-respect not to be a w

 I just checked and the last time I updated this thing was in October 2017. Why was I gone so long? Call me lazy, or a coward, or just not willing to shout outrage into the shitstorm thunderstorm that America under our previous grifter-in-chief had become. A man could go permanently hoarse yelling that much. It was a mental health decision on my part, okay? But now I'm back. Things still suck a lot (<cough>Ted Cruz, Matt Gaetz, Mitch McConnell</cough>) but they don't suck as much as they did last year. Plus I retired from Sisyphean Corp last year after 20 years of whining and having a steady income, and God only knows there's nothing the Internet needs more than another old white guy with too much time on his hands pissing and moaning about what's wrong with the world on his blog. So don't expect much.  I've given up the world of IT and resumed my past life as a painter, which is fun. If you know anything about me In Real Life, you can probably find