One of the things that I hope we will see wither and die on the vine much sooner than later is the cancel culture that has become so prevalent in our nation.

For those who have been either under a rock or willfully looking the other direction, a significant portion of our society has decided that instead of choosing to not listen to or watch things they may not agree with, they instead align forces to essentially “cancel“ and basically eliminate those things.

To illustrate, those bastions of higher thinking, namely our colleges in universities, have in recent years seen groups organized to throw hissy fits and threaten to hold their collective breath until they turn blue if those colleges and universities didn’t cancel speaking engagements from people those particular groups did not agree with. Now, why simply ignoring them is not an option I cannot answer.

You would think that those groups, the very ones who want to scream the loudest about embracing diversity and choice, would also embrace people choosing to listen to or watch whatever they want to. But instead of taking that, the much more American route, they would just prefer to eliminate the opportunity for any sort of dissenting voice to even be heard.

It makes me wonder if those same people would eliminate the opportunity for people to vote for candidates they didn’t particularly care for, but that’s a discussion for a different day.

The most recent example of our cancel culture showing the rest of us how dumb they are is now being seen regarding the Christmas song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?“ Those of us who grew up in the 80s know the song all too well as a Christmas-themed follow-up to “We Are the World,” another huge song created to raise money for charitable causes. Both songs feature 80’s pop superstars uniting their voices to specifically illuminate the issue of starvation in Africa.

Today’s cancel culture has decided that the lyrics in the song are “too insensitive“ to be allowed to be played anymore. Lines like “it doesn’t snow in Africa,” used to illustrate the bareness of drought stricken lands, and “tonight thank God it’s them instead of you,” used to create a sense of moral and personal obligation to actually lend a hand, have now been deemed as unacceptable by the cancel culture. Some have even gone as far as to suggest that, even though it was created to save lives in Africa, the song actually ‘dehumanizes Africans.’

As a result, there is an actual online effort to essentially cancel the song from being played anymore.

Seriously. Some things you just can’t make up.

What the brats behind this undermining effort apparently do not realize is that “Do They Know It’s Christmas?“ raised millions upon millions of dollars to help feed people who were in fact, starving in Africa. Song organizer, Bob Geldof, the same guy who organized Live Aid (which was another worldwide fundraising effort to help feed people and raised awareness regarding world hunger), has recently said, “the money raised from this important song literally saved untold thousands, if not millions, of lives that would have been lost without it.”

It is baffling and borderline infuriating to me that anyone would be so self-righteous as to take something that was done in the spirit of Christmas, reflecting kindness and generosity, and twist it into some sort of statement of political correctness here 40 years removed from its creation. Just because you weren’t here 40 years ago, doesn’t mean the rest of us who were should willingly forget the truth behind the song because you want to cancel it.

There are countless other examples of this “we above all else know what is right and wrong and if you don’t believe it, just ask us“ attitude in thinking that has wreaked havoc on many cultural icons in the last handful of years. I mean, who exactly gets to determine what is acceptable and not, and by whose standards? Those wanting to do the canceling might want to be careful about opening that Pandora’s box, lest something they care about get canceled as well.

Context in every situation in life matters, and just because you don’t understand the context behind something doesn’t mean you should have the ability or the right to try to rid the earth of it.

Here is an idea for all of those “offended“ by “Do They Know It’s Christmas?“ – if you don’t want to listen to it, then by all means don’t listen to it. But for those of us who grew up with the song and still appreciate the powerful message to be found within it, we will choose to listen to it and enjoy it, thank you. That is true freedom of choice, not getting rid of it because of your self-proclaimed righteousness.

Oh – and Merry Christmas.