The College Fix

OPINION: Don’t unfollow everyone you disagree with

In the left’s recent attempt to belittle conservative women, a trend emerged on TikTok recently mocking the way Republican women do their makeup.

Known as the “Republican makeup” or “MAGA makeup” trend, leftist women posted satirical makeup tutorial videos, targeting the physical appearances of prominent conservative figures like White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Congresswoman Nancy Mace.

This trend is nothing new. Rather than engaging in respectful, civil discourse with conservatives and discussing issues they disagree upon — and potentially finding common ground in the process — it’s easier for leftists to mock those they disagree with, or worse — shout them down.

Cancel culture continues to be a problem on college campuses and the nation at large. The College Fix this week reported on 101 such incidents that occurred during the 2024-25 school year.

Many of the issues our nation faces stem from or are exacerbated because people refuse to listen to each other and have genuine conversations. Free speech is one of the principles on which our nation was founded. Still, today’s culture is often so quick to cancel people simply because they have said something contrary to what the mainstream narrative deems as acceptable.

To put an end to this and restore the value of free speech in our nation, we must hold ourselves accountable through our words and actions and not fall prey to jumping on the cancel culture bandwagon.

While an end to cancel culture won’t happen overnight, here are five places we can start:

Be Willing to Have a Conversation

Each of us has family members or friends in our lives with whom we disagree about politics or lifestyle choices. Engaging in a difficult conversation can help us understand each other’s perspectives. Intelligent discourse will promote new ideas and understanding on both sides of the aisle.

Do Your Research

With the various challenges our nation faces, such as immigration, foreign policy, and inflation, come the multiple proposals for how to resolve them. Having a thorough understanding of your argument and talking points to support it is crucial to effectively communicating your position. Starting an argument you can’t defend is ignorant and often frustrating for someone who genuinely wants to understand your viewpoint.

Support Genuine Free Speech

Many people on the left claim they support free speech, but their actions reflect otherwise. Supporting free speech means standing up for all speech, not just people who happen to agree with you. Leaving malicious comments on social media posts contrary to our viewpoints is unproductive. Instead, the productive solution is to engage in discourse with the person who has an alternative viewpoint to understand their stance and effectively convey your argument, all while remaining respectful.

Don’t Unfollow Everyone You Disagree With

Social media apps have algorithms to show you what you like to read and watch, which can create a tunnel vision view of ideas. You don’t have to give a platform to people you don’t enjoy watching, but following a few people with different ideas can help break up the monotone nature of your algorithm. We also shouldn’t be demanding that conservatives should only follow conservatives, and liberals should only follow liberals. Liberals should be allowed to follow Leigh-Allyn Baker, and conservatives should be allowed to follow Taylor Swift– not everything has to be politically divisive.

Allow People to Change Their Opinion

In the 2024 presidential election, many voters cast their ballots for President Donald Trump, who had not voted for him in the previous two election cycles. This contributed to his win of the popular vote and flipping six states he had lost in the previous election. This should be celebrated because it means they chose to do their research and learn what they believe and support. We should all be constantly exploring and learning as new information becomes available.

We need to “cancel” cancel culture and revive a culture that values free speech and diversity of thought. Through leading by example, we can hope to one day live in an America that has restored the principles on which it was founded.

Isabelle Brumley is a student at Texas Tech University and a student media fellow with the Network of enlightened Women.

MORE: 101 campus cancel culture incidents during 2024-25 school year

IMAGE CAPTION & CREDIT: A group of friends is shown hugging / Shutterstock

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