# Did some politician say that “Socrates would get cancelled today”? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 7, 2021, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-some-politician-say-that-socrates-would-get-cancelled-today/950263 "2021-09-07T19:31:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-some-politician-say-that-socrates-would-get-cancelled-today/950263/21 "2021-09-08T23:30:34Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Wow, I had no idea things had gotten so bad! How many left-wingers equate canceling with poisoning their political opponents? I don’t think you’re following the story real well, because the answer is zero. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-some-politician-say-that-socrates-would-get-cancelled-today/950263/22 "2021-09-08T23:44:22Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > > [@Babale](#): > > > > Wow! I had no idea things had gotten so bad! How many right-wingers were forced to drink poison by the modern American Left? > > Wow, I had no idea things had gotten so bad! How many left-wingers equate canceling with poisoning their political opponents? None? The left is the side that is generally okay with what the right had deemed “cancelling.” They call it “deplatforming” and consider it all just freedom of speech and association. So they’re not going to compare said cancelling to execution. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-some-politician-say-that-socrates-would-get-cancelled-today/950263/23 "2021-09-08T23:47:07Z")
Since this is a political question, let’s move it to P&E. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-some-politician-say-that-socrates-would-get-cancelled-today/950263/24 "2021-09-09T00:22:48Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Since this is a political question, let’s move it to P&E. Cool. Now I can add what I left out. It is the right wing that likes to exaggerate cancelling to make it this horrible thing. They try to link it to cyberbullying, something we all agree is wrong. And, if they stuck with that, I would be okay with it. But when they act like it’s horrible when people share their negative opinion, boycotting it, and suggest their employers fire them (while the employers still make the actual choice)? That’s dumb. When they act like the people they agree should have freedom of speech, but the platforms and people they disagree with should not, that’s just hypocritical. They know this, which is why they love to exaggerate how bad being “cancelled” actually is. You know, what this guy actually did. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-some-politician-say-that-socrates-would-get-cancelled-today/950263/25 "2021-09-09T02:16:07Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Wow, I had no idea things had gotten so bad! How many left-wingers equate canceling with poisoning their political opponents? We don’t even have to - they’re eating the horse paste on their own. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-some-politician-say-that-socrates-would-get-cancelled-today/950263/26 "2021-09-09T02:29:41Z")
Now Trump thinks Robert E. Lee would have won the war in Afghanistan. > **[Trump Thinks the General Who Lost the Civil War Definitely Would Have Won the...](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/trump-thinks-general-lost-civil-002915335.html)** > > It’s somehow not even the most ludicrous part of his statement bemoaning the removal of a statue honoring General Lee, who fought against the United States in a war to preserve slavery ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-some-politician-say-that-socrates-would-get-cancelled-today/950263/27 "2021-09-09T09:41:45Z")
If the “Left” “cancelled” Socrates, it’d probably be for his justification of some forms of slavery. Because most people these days have come around to the view that slavery is bad. Like, _really_ bad. It’s also why he and Aristotle are in the Bad Place, as opposed to Plato who is there for being a really loud chewer. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-some-politician-say-that-socrates-would-get-cancelled-today/950263/28 "2021-09-09T13:22:37Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Heard about it on social media, but cannot find any original source. How hard did you try? When I Google “Socrates cancelled” the first three hits directly quote Anthony Sabatini (R-FL) saying this. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-some-politician-say-that-socrates-would-get-cancelled-today/950263/29 "2021-09-09T15:30:46Z")
That’s how I answered it a few minutes after the question was posted, despite the fact that I’d never heard of this before. I just Googled it and got the answer right away. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-some-politician-say-that-socrates-would-get-cancelled-today/950263.md?page=1)