 If you've been watching my supernatural psychology series, you know that while most of us believe we're completely rational, many of us hold irrational supernatural beliefs. In this video, I aim to argue that not only does Shane Dawson deserve forgiveness, but I'll also argue that we already offer forgiveness to those who have far worse crimes. I'm willing to bet that a majority of you watching this video identify as liberal or progressive. If not, you align with many liberal morals and values. What's this have to do with Shane? Today, we'll see what canceling Shane Dawson looks like through the lens of political morality. Like I said, by the end of this video, you'll see that conservatives would be more likely to cancel Shane than liberals. If you remember, when Shane and Ryland first got engaged, a conservative Christian went viral for saying that Shane and Ryland were going to hell. But this video isn't about conservative views against gay marriage. Right now, you may believe you're justified in your feelings towards Shane, and that's okay. But I ask you to watch this video in its entirety to have a better understanding of where your moral compass actually lies. Today, we're going to use critical thinking to analyze conservative versus liberal models of morality, views on punishment, and the path to redemption. Remember, a major part of critical thinking is improving our emotional intelligence. And we become irrational when we allow our morality to shift based on present moment emotions. But before we get started talking about morality, if you're new to the Rewire of Soul and you enjoy critical thinking and improving your mental and emotional well-being, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. In extremely divisive times, and as I monitor political arguments and debates, I find it fascinating that both sides think that they are morally correct. When I first got sober eight years ago, I realized how subjective morality is when I was working the 12 steps, and I found that really interesting. For example, I might make an amends in my ninth step for something that someone else wouldn't. It would all depend on our moral outlook. So I started to wonder who was right when it came to morality, liberals or conservatives. As a liberal, I see what conservatives stand for, and although I disagree, I'm extremely skeptical of anyone who makes the blanket statement that all conservatives are immoral. After living in central California for a while, I met quite a few conservatives, and even though we disagree on political ideologies, I saw them do many kind things to help their community. Some would volunteer their time to feed the homeless or build homes for the less fortunate. After losing the 2016 election, I decided it was time to learn more about the conservative side. I wanted to learn about what matters to them and why they hold the beliefs that they do, so I started studying moral politics. Some of my favorite books include Moral Tribes, Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them by Joshua Green, and The Righteous Mind, Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Hyde. But recently, I just finished the book Moral Politics, How Liberals and Conservatives Think by the Cognitive Linguist and Philosopher, George Lakoff. For the purpose of this video, I think Lakoff's view on moral politics fits perfectly with our analysis of Shane Dawson and cancel culture in general. George Lakoff argues that the best way to understand how liberals and conservatives think is by looking at their ideologies through contrasting styles of parenting. Lakoff teaches us that while liberals use the nurturing parenting model, conservatives use what he calls the strict father morality. Now, for a moment, I want you to think of the characteristics of a nurturing parent compared to a strict parent. Feel free to leave a comment down below with characteristics that you came up with, but here are some of the ones that George Lakoff lists. For nurturing parent, he lists, trust in their children's fairness and good judgment, respect their children's autonomy, thoughts and feelings, support their children's interests and goals, enjoy their children's company, protect their children from doing injury to self or others, not by establishing rules but by communicating values and discussing their children's behavior with them and modeling the self-control, sensitivity and values they believe their children will need. For the strict father model, they believe that children learn through reward and punishment as in operant conditioning. Corporal punishment such as spanking is favored in this model relative to other models. They also believe that children become more self-reliant and self-disciplined by having strict parents. And finally, they believe that the parent, particularly the father, is meant to give out rewards for good behavior as well as punish bad behavior. Isn't this interesting? When listening to political commentary, you hear conservatives talking about people quote-unquote picking themselves up by the bootstraps which align with their beliefs in self-reliance and self-discipline. And the strict father is the type who inflicts much harsher punishments and this is something that we'll dive into more in the next section. Many studies have shown that people from more conservative parts of the country such as the South are much more aggressive than the typical liberal. In a study titled, Insult, Aggression and the Southern Culture of Honor and Experimental Ethnography, the authors wrote the following in their abstract. Three experiments examined how norms, characteristics of culture of honor manifest themselves in the cognitions, emotions, behaviors and physiological reactions of Southern white males. Participants were University of Michigan students who grew up in the North or South. In three experiments, they were insulted by an actor who bumped into the participant and called them an a-hole. Compared with the Northerners who were relatively unaffected by the insults, Southerners were a, more likely to think their masculine reputation was threatened, b, more upset as shown by the rise in cortisol levels, c, more physiologically primed for aggression as shown by the rise in testosterone levels, d, more cognitively primed for aggression and e, more likely to engage in aggressive and dominant behavior. Findings highlight the insult, aggression, cycle and cultures of honor in which insults diminish a man's reputation and he tries to restore his status by aggressive or violent behavior. So, based on the research around political morality, we know that while conservatives want harsher punishments and are more aggressive, liberals are far more forgiving. In this next section, we're going to compare liberal versus conservative policies and see how they compare to the current situation with Shane Dawson. It's election year and one of the biggest challenges our country faces is voter suppression. This is such a major issue that NBA star LeBron James decided to step up and create the more than a vote initiative. A recent Tampa Bay Times article says the following, former Miami Heat superstar LeBron James might have taken his basketball skills to the west coast, but he continues to have an eye on Florida. His more than a vote initiative on Friday committed $100,000 to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition to help ensure felons are able to regain the right to vote. James tweeted, this is a fight about their constitutional right to vote being denied. Something that conservatives often get wrong about liberals is the belief that we're against punishment, but this isn't true. We're aware that any well adjusted society needs punishments for it to run properly. What conservatives don't understand is that our problem is that punishments are disproportionate to crimes. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, here are some stats around what you should know about felon voting rights. In 21 states, felons lose their voting rights during incarceration and for a period of time after. Typically while on parole and or probation, voting rights are automatically restored after this time period, former felons may also have to pay any outstanding fines, fees, or restitution before their rights are restored as well. In 11 states, felons lose their voting rights indefinitely for some crimes or require a governor's pardon in order for voting rights to be restored face an additional waiting period after completion of a sentence, including parole and probation or require additional action before voting rights can be restored. Most liberals look at this and think it's absolutely absurd. Those from the more progressive side of the aisle believe that prison should be about rehabilitation and that these men and women have served their time. What's worse is that many of these people have felonies for nonviolent drug offenses. Although there may be some debate amongst liberals about whether we should legalize all drugs or just some drugs, the majority of us believe that marijuana should be completely legal. But as a recovering drug addict, my view on punishing drug users is much different. Right now we're in the middle of an addiction epidemic that was massively backed by conservative legislatures. If you're a liberal like me, you believe that rather than punishing these drug addicts, they should receive treatment. People like you and I know that most drug addicts are self-medicating a mental illness. You and I know that if we hope to rehabilitate people, we need to provide them with care and support and not stricter punishments. So for a moment, I want you to pause this video and ask yourself, should felons have the right to vote? If the answer is yes, I want you to think about why you think that. My guess is that based on your nurturing parent model of liberal morality, you believe people can change and deserve a second chance. So now, in this final section, let's take a look at Shane Dawson's situation through the lens of political morality. As we discussed in the last section, one thing that conservatives get wrong about liberals and progressives is that they believe that we're against punishment in general. Well, one thing that liberals get wrong about cancel culture is they believe cancelling someone is a punishment that's proportionate to the crime. Now that you know a little bit about liberal versus conservative morality, let's discuss Shane's transgressions. Years ago, while building a name for himself, Shane Dawson used shock humor to build his brand. On multiple occasions, he's apologized for the videos he did in the past doing blackface and he apologized for his ignorance. About a year or two ago, Onision attempted to cancel Shane by calling him a pedo. These allegations were based on jokes Shane made on his podcast in more attempts at shock humor, and recently a video resurfaced of him making inappropriate jokes about Willow Smith when she was a child. Now, if you've made it this far in this video, I'm assuming you're a critical thinker. I'm also assuming that you're liberal, but if you're a conservative, I respect the fact that you've stayed. So as it stands, Shane Dawson hasn't had one criminal charge pressed against him. As liberals, is it rational for us to think that felons should be forgiven, but Shane Dawson shouldn't be? We fight for policies that allow actual criminals to grow and change, but we won't afford that same respect to a content creator. You may say that this is different because Shane can still vote. Maybe, but let's look at the job opportunities for felons. One of the worst parts about having a felony isn't just voting, but it's difficult to get a job. Those with a felony have a difficult time supporting themselves and their families. Is this right? Is it justice that a felon who served their time and wants to turn their life around can't work? Look at what's happening to Shane Dawson. His entire career is based on his personal brand, but cancelling him is an effort to take that away. Not only has he lost subscribers, but Morphe and Target have stopped supporting his products. What makes his punishment even more irrational is how old these videos are. In my opinion, if someone can turn their life around from committing thefts or other crimes, then I think Shane Dawson has also been able to grow in the last 10 years. Imagine if we kept pointing to an ex-felon's pass as a way to judge who they are today like conservative laws currently do. Part of being a liberal is recognizing and respecting the fact that people can change. The most recent controversy with Shane Dawson was Tati's attempt to scapegoat the blame of her James Charles drama on the Shane. But as you can see from the like to dislike ratio, many people disagree with Tati's claims. So now that you know about the difference between liberal and conservative morality, I want you to take another look at this situation. Conservatives call us snowflakes and they say we're way too soft on crime, but I believe that we're more compassionate and forgiving. Personally, I wouldn't have been able to beat my drug addiction eight years ago if it weren't for the forgiveness of my loved ones and society as a whole. Right now, I can only imagine the mental state of Shane Dawson. As a liberal, I believe we need to really take an honest look at our morals and values and use them more often in our lives. Because if you pick and choose when you're going to apply your moral code, then is it really even a moral code? Hey everybody, thank you once again for making it through one of these video essays. And yeah, the topic of justice reform, but more importantly, forgiveness and the human capacity to grow is very, very near and dear to me because I am a recovering drug addict and I've worked with thousands of recovering drug addicts. I know so many people who don't want to change because they figure how's it ever going to get better? Nobody's ever going to forgive me for what I've done. Like I've done things in my addiction. It was almost a decade's worth of just being a screw up. And I did things that are unforgivable. Like I shouldn't have my family in my life. I shouldn't have my friends in my life. I shouldn't have my son in my life. But the people stuck around and saw that I had the capacity to change and I've worked hard to become the man that I am today. So I really wanted to do this video because I know a lot of us have this idea. Like we already think like this. We think that people who committed crimes when they were younger have the capacity to change. We think that people deserve rehabilitation and people deserve a path to redemption. But I find it interesting that although our political morality says this, we don't transfer it over to just the way we act as a culture. So I was hoping to blend these things together to help kind of get those critical thinking wheels turning a little bit and broaden our perspective on it. You know what I mean? But anyways, that's all I got for this video. I hope you liked it. If you did like it, make sure you give it a thumbs up. And if you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And I want to send out a huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel over on Patreon or buys my books at therewiretoll.com or gets merch from the merch store. Or if you ever want to get the books that I recommend, they're always down in the description. Those are affiliate links. So if you get the books with my links, a little bit comes back and supports the channel and what I do here. All right. Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.