But I'm Not a Witch

Introduction to Substack

What makes Monty Python and the Holy Grail brilliant in my humble opinion is that it is both a comedy and thoughtful commentary. I have always been amused by many scenes of that movie including the one in which an angry mob of villagers present a woman to Sir Bedevere and claim that she is a witch. It becomes painfully, and comedically, obvious that the villagers dressed her up as a witch and have no actual evidence she is a witch since the man who she supposedly turned into a newt “got better.” All they want to do is burn a witch for entertainment. Sir Bedevere’s seemingly measured but illogical response and rigged scales sealed this woman’s fate. 

While I hope we can all laugh at this and other scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, we should not have the same response when we see modern witch hunts that we now refer to as “being canceled.” I recently had an experience that made me feel like that woman accused of being a witch. Some people made false accusations against me anonymously (akin to dressing me up as a witch) and presented me to my superiors. In response, my superiors denied my right to face my accused, did not give me the presumption of innocence, and decided that a matter of professional disagreement was sufficient to cancel me. This has effectively ended my career before it really ever got started. 

As much as I didn’t want this to happen to me, I knew I would likely be canceled sooner or later because I am committed to tell the truth. Since there are several points of contradiction between the truth and wokeism, the prevailing contemporary religion, I am not at all surprised that I have been canceled for challenging the tenets of today’s culture. What has shocked me is the way my accusers lied about me and that my superiors folded so quickly to the angry, witch-burning mob. 

Now that I have been canceled, I can no longer do the job I love and worked so hard to be able to do. I have been trained to be an academic with a bachelors, masters, and PhD in Political Science. Even though it has been the hardest thing I have ever done, I completed my dissertation titled Peaceful Protest vs. Political Violence: Why Some American Social Movements Want to Watch the World Burn, and graduated during both the COVID-19 pandemic and wokeism epidemic. Wokeism ended up being more of a career killer for me than COVID. 

For years I made sacrifices, studied hard, and remained professional in the face of adversity and even outward hostile statements made about people who believe as I do. I did not say what I believed to be untrue, but I didn’t say much of what I thought because my dream was to earn a PhD and become a professor. I knew most academics don’t think like me, even show contempt for people like me, so I got used to keeping my mouth shut. Now that I’ve been canceled for offering my professional assessment in an area of my expertise, I am done staying silent. 

And while I wouldn’t have thought I’d be an online commentator when I graduated, I believe that I still have ideas, analysis, and perspectives to share even if I no longer have a classroom as a platform to do so. What is more, I strongly believe in Substack’s values of free thinking, intellectual curiosity, and quality writing. As such, I am excited to be here on this platform with you. 

So, what can you expect from me on Substack? First, I’m a trained academic, so what I write will include scholarly findings and theories in fields like political science, sociology, psychology, and economics because these findings and theories can be quite useful in understanding current events. And since my secondary field is political theory, I won’t be able to resist sprinkling in some philosophy from time to time since I see quite a bit of wisdom from deep thinkers of the past. My research and personal interests also include history, so you should definitely expect historical references and comparisons to contextualize and explain current events. 

Secondly, I have eight years of experience teaching college courses, mostly to students not majoring in political science, so I have learned how to explain scholarly theories and ideas to people who aren’t academics. So, you don’t need a degree in political science to enjoy this newsletter. But if you want to learn more about the American government and current events, this is the newsletter for you.  

Thirdly, I was a competitive debater for seven years, so I am able to identify the core principles at the center of conflicts. And since competitive debaters are assigned positions in debates that don’t always align with their personal opinions, I have quite a bit of practice not only seeing both sides of a conflict, but also developing the most persuasive arguments for each side of the debate. 

And finally, I don’t think like other scholars, so what you’re going to get here will be original, fresh, and creative takes on the issues that concern us the most. The downside to this is I don’t fit well into the pre-fab academic pegs, but the upside is I have different blind spots, so I can see what others miss. As a consequence, what you’ll get here you are unlikely to get elsewhere. And I am looking forward to hearing about what you think of my original take to make me a better thinker. 

In fact, after being a part of a real-life rendition of the witch hunt scene, I’m looking forward to having debates on Substack more like the opening scene of Monty Python, in which the characters rationally discuss the merits of whether or not coconuts can migrate.