Try herding cats sometime. You’ll crouch, whistle, wave treats, and for one delusional moment, think you’re in charge - until one bolts under the couch, another claws the curtains, and the rest nap defiantly.
Welcome to cancel culture, where both left and right try to corral the wild, furry mess of public opinion.
Now there’s a new twist: digital ID systems and creeping censorship promise to fence in the cats - or neuter them entirely.
Is this a master plan to tame free speech, or just another doomed attempt to herd ideological felines?
The Left’s Cat-Chasing Conundrum
The left has long tried to “cancel” conservative voices... through deplatforming, boycotts, and social media pile-ons. Think Joe Rogan or J.K. Rowling. The result? A classic Streisand Effect: the “cancelled” get louder, X explodes with support, and their podcasts or book sales soar.
Why does it fail? The left’s coalition is a litter box of contradictions. Progressives, moderates, and radicals rarely agree on who’s “problematic.” One group’s villain is another’s hero.
And conservatives? Slippery as cats dodging a bath, they thrive on backlash.
Enter digital ID and censorship. Governments and platforms - Canada’s proposed Digital Safety Act, the EU’s Digital Services Act - push for verified identities to “combat misinformation.” Sounds tidy, but it’s like trying to microchip every stray cat - and then wondering why the cat videos keep multiplying. Online posts reveal widespread fears of overreach: users worry that digital IDs could make it easier to target dissenters, especially conservatives. Yet, enforcing such a system across a decentralised internet?
Good luck herding those cats.
The Right’s Feline Fiasco
Conservatives aren’t innocent bystanders. We’ve pounced on our own cancel campaigns - boycotts of “woke” brands like Bud Light or Nike, or pushes to ban progressive curricula in schools. But our coalition is just as fractious. Libertarians cry “free speech,” populists rail against elites, and traditionalists long for simpler times.
Censorship cuts both ways. Some conservatives cheer when progressive voices are throttled (e.g., shadowbanning claims on X), but howl when their own posts get flagged. M included.
Digital ID proposals - like Australia’s age-verification trials - spark bipartisan suspicion. Users argue these systems could track and suppress anyone, regardless of politics. It’s less a coordinated leash and more a chaotic attempt to collar cats who’d rather and do their own thing.
Why It’s All So Feline
Cats don’t follow orders, and neither do people in a free, digital age. Cancel culture assumes the mob can be steered, but social media is a catnip frenzy. Try to silence someone, and they’ll pop up on X, Substack, or a podcast, louder than ever.
A 2021 Pew Research study found 64% of Americans see cancel culture as more about punishment than accountability - yet both sides keep swinging. Digital ID and censorship tools promise control, but they’re like building a fence around a cat colony. Some cats slip through, others claw back, and a few just nap on the fence. Users across the spectrum - left, right, and libertarian - distrust these systems, fearing they’ll chill free speech or dox dissenters. The internet’s too wild, too decentralised, for a perfect cage.
Lessons from the Litter Box
Cancel culture, censorship, and digital ID systems are all attempts to herd cats: noisy, futile, and guaranteed to leave scratches. Digital IDs might tag a few strays, but the clever ones... on both sides .... will always find a way to yowl. Instead of chasing tails or building digital fences, maybe we should let the cats roam. Free speech thrives in the mess, not in a sterile cage.
Cats, Sheep, Wolves, and Strays
Here’s the bitter irony: in the UK, Canada, and Australia, the ferals aren’t being neutered. They roam free, scratching, biting, and terrorising neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the housecats - the careful, conscientious citizens - are increasingly confined, silenced, or punished for pointing out the chaos unleashed by the ferals.
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— 🇦🇺 (@OZzSue5) October 8, 2025
Alleged ‘kill team’ teen on bail for 17 break and enters. @ChrisMinnsMP refuses to commit to a review of bail legislation.
IT WOULD SEEM CHRIS and @NSWLabor DON’T CARE ABOUT PROTECTING THE PEOPLE OF NSW FROM VIOLENT REPEAT OFFENDERS.
. pic.twitter.com/SW5AI2RKGZ
Governments know exactly how to handle sheep: obedient, trainable, easy to herd. But cats - independent, clever, unpredictable - defy orders. The Fabians lurk in this landscape too: posing as gentle sheep, but wolves underneath, plotting control while baaing softly. That seemingly docile feline on your lap?
Treat it kindly, but don’t be fooled - it might be a lion, waiting for the right spark to roar.
The lesson is clear: independence cannot be caged, control is a fantasy, and the chaotic, infuriating, utterly necessary mess of free speech will always claw its way through.
So stop trying to herd the cats - let them roam, sharpen their claws, and knock over the vases; at least in chaos, they’re still free.
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