Conservatism Without Caution

Another disturbing dimension of the Right’s new cancel culture is that it abandons not only free speech, but also the very conservative principles conservatives once championed. Traditionally, conservatism valued restraint, due process, and the recognition that mobs are dangerous precisely because they short-circuit careful judgment.

But now, as with #MeToo, the accusation itself is treated as conviction. On the Left, the problem was the presumption that a charge was enough to ruin someone. On the Right, the pattern is similar: a screenshot, a post, a clip pulled from context is enough to end a career. Yes, often the evidence looks unambiguous—there’s a video, or a public statement. But even “unambiguous” can be faked, or stripped of its context, or misinterpreted by the mob in the heat of outrage.

This isn’t conservative. It’s the opposite of conservative. It’s mob rule, clothed in the trappings of principle, but without the caution, the skepticism, and the respect for institutional process that used to define the Right.