The cowardice of ‘cancellation’

A well-known, and highly respected, expert on the Boer War recently penned a short review of my new book, ‘Eating Bananas in Durban’. He endeavoured to post this on a couple of the various Facebook Boer War discussion groups, but was surprised that his review was rejected in panic by one such group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/AngloBoerWar/

If you prefer your favourite Apartheid-regime myths to go unchallenged, this is the place for you!

Regular readers will know I am not on Facebook – indeed, I avoid all forms of social media like the plague. But, apparently, the moderators of this particular group are so utterly terrified by my writing, that they have completely ‘cancelled’ me, and no mention of Chris Ash, or the books and articles I write on the Boer War – the subject they pretend to be interested in – is allowed.

So, basically, these fanatics want to run a discussion group where no discussion is allowed, and no one is permitted to challenge their much-adored, National-Party-approved, version of events.

What is most amusing of all is that, by dint of their panic-stricken decision to ‘cancel’ me, they are blatantly declaring to the world that they simply have no answer to the points that I raise, and admitting they lack the knowledge or intelligence to debate my work. Let’s not beat about the bush here: if they felt they had the intellectual horsepower and depth of understanding to take me on, then they of course would – but they know they cannot, so this risible cowardice is their only resort.

Indeed, their pathetic and cowardly reaction reminds me of something I read by Dr Cody Dakota Wooden (some sort of leadership / management / life-skills coach), who wrote:

When you take a stand for something, eventually (usually sooner rather than later) someone will challenge your beliefs.

What do you do when this happens?
The truth is most people get it completely wrong.
There are 2 ways most people react which never work:

– Cower And Give Up
– Scream Over The Opposition

No matter how often you do either of these, you will always lose.

If you cower and give up, you will lose respect from those around you, and you will be seen as indecisive.

If you attempt to scream over others, they simply won’t listen and will find you rude and off-putting.

Either way, you lose.
So, what do you do instead?

It’s really quite simple.
Prove them wrong through action.
If you are truly right, and you can back your position up, then prove it.

Realising they are completely out of their depth, but lacking the humility to actually learn about the subject they pretend to be so passionate about, the clowns running this Boer War Group have given up on ‘screaming over the opposition’, and – by cancelling me – have instead adopted the ‘cower and give up’ option.

Of course, if these fellows thought for a moment that they were ‘truly right’, and could ‘back up their position’, they obviously would do exactly that. For example, if they felt able to ‘prove’ the utter fantasy that the Boer invasions of British territory were ‘defensive’, they would. Likewise, if they had evidence to support the lies that the poor, innocent, invading Boers ‘only wanted to take up defensive positions, just over the border’, then they would be delighted to counter my research, and demolish my articles. Similarly, if they thought for even a nanosecond that they could ‘prove’ to oft-repeated make-belief that there were British troops ‘massing on the border’, and that the Boer invasions were thus ‘pre-emptive’, they would take immeasurable glee in showing Ash up as a charlatan… oh, and they would also be keen to show how such an imaginary ‘pre-emptive’ invasion meets the Caroline test too (something not even the Grand High Wizard of National Party Myths has troubled himself to attempt – I wonder why).

Of course, none of this should be at all surprising, as not a single True Believer had either the balls or the integrity to accept the challenges I set a few months ago:

https://www.chrisash.co.za/2025/10/02/c-s-lewis-and-the-cowardice-of-the-true-believers/

https://www.chrisash.co.za/2025/10/14/another-challenge-for-the-true-believers/

In reality, and just like all the other blinkered, brain-washed True Believers, the chaps running this Facebook group actually have no interest in learning about, and discussing, what really happened during the Boer War. Instead, they are driven entirely by fanaticism, a rather pitiful sense of faux victimhood, and an obsessive, and somewhat unpleasant, anti-British prejudice. The sad truth is that they know, in their heart of hearts, that the comfort blanket of Apartheid-regime myths they still so fondly cherish and cling to, does not stand up to any sort of objective scrutiny – so ‘cowering and giving up’ when their bogeyman Chris Ash appears is all they have left.

I’m not sure if I find that funny or pathetic – probably a bit of both, to be honest.