Conservatives rely on the public's shaky understanding of rights and how rights are balanced when they conflict.

It's simple: the private expression of a right is more protected than the public expression. That's one of several established doctrines.

In other words, you can spout your racist views in the privacy of your home, or to your friends, if you have any, but once you take this public you are coming into conflict with the rights of others, and you may very well find that that conflict means you don't have the right to say "anything you want."

I wonder who else is getting approximately sick to the gills of hearing that word "cancel"? I'm almost as tired of hearing it as I'm tired of hearing "freedom" in relation to the pandemic and mask / vaccine mandates.

You DO have the freedom not to abide by the mandates. No one has a gun to anyone's head. There are, however, repercussions to that decision. Your child may not be able to go to school, or you to work. But that's part of being a grown-up, conservatives. Right? Consequences. Rights AND responsibilities. I thought you right wing guys were big on that?

I'm starting to think that conservatism is a kind of pathology, something to do with one side of the brain not communicating with the other. (They make shit up, why can't I? Exactly.)

Cancel culture is a fake problem that gains traction with repetition, just like "politically correct" (which ridicules the attempt to use respectful language that is affirming and humanizing rather than demeaning), and "SJW" (and forgive me for thinking that fighting for social justice would be something a person would be proud of. )

No one is, has been, or ever shall be "canceled." You never did have the "right" to go to a university - a private entity - and spout nonsense, any more than you can insist on barging into someone's home and spouting it. And even if you do, we don't have to like it or accept it. That's "freedom", too.

All of these phrases are simply conversation stoppers. They wield them to ridicule and shut down every progressive conversation about social justice and equality and to exhaust and confuse their audience. Meanwhile we have the ludicrous spectacle of hearing them complain about being shut down to their YouTube audience of a million.

Conservatives canceled? In my dreams.