In case you needed more proof that cancel culture can’t sustain itself forever, a recent poll revealed that most Americans do not favor the political tactic. It can be expected that the number of people who view cancel culture as a negative will only rise as the hard left continues to go overboard with their latest exercise in cultural Marxism.

According to a recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released to The Hill, 64% of respondents claimed there is “a growing cancel culture” that is threatening to their freedom. Only 36% indicated that they did not believe it to be a threat to their freedom.

The Hill reported, “the poll found that 36 percent of Americans said cancel culture is a “big problem,” while 32 percent called it a “moderate problem.” Another 20 percent said it was a “small problem” and 13 percent said it is “not a problem.”

The survey was published only days after CBS announced that Sharon Osbourne would be stepping down from her position as co-host of “The Talk.” The announcement came after a heated conversation centering on Osbourne’s defense of British media personality Piers Morgan, who criticized Meghan Markle and Prince Harry after their interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Morgan savaged the couple, stating he did not believe Markle’s claim that she struggled with mental health issues and that she has been suicidal. As you could easily predict, this led to the usual accusations of racism and bigotry and blah blah blah.

Osbourne defended Morgan, saying, “I feel even like I’m about to be put in the electric chair because I have a friend who many people think is a racist, so that makes me a racist.”

The survey also found that 54% of respondents indicated they were “concerned” that if they express their views online, they would be fired. Conversely, 46% said that they were not worried about stating their opinions online.

“It is a chilling finding that most people in the country now are afraid they would be fired if they expressed their real views on social media,” said Mark Penn, the director of the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey.

He continued, “The public generally gives negative ratings to social media companies and sees the movement as more about censorship rather than trying to correct wrongs. It is growing as a national issue.”

Cancel culture has become cancerous and has been steadily metastasizing into a danger to the idea of free speech. It seems that every week, hard leftists manage to dig up old social media posts that they deem problematic and weaponize them against people they don’t like. In recent years, this practice was targeted primarily against conservatives and others who refuse to bend the knee to the woke Sanhedrin.

But now, those who favor cancel culture are beginning to use the tactic against others on the left. Neither Sharon Osbourne nor Piers Morgan are exactly right-wingers. We have also seen this new trend in the story of media activist Alexi McCammond, who was fired from her editorial position with Teen Vogue after 10-year-old tweets surfaced in which she made bigoted remarks against Asians.

The results of this are yet another indication that cancel culture might not be as invulnerable as we might think. Indeed, it seems clear that most Americans do not support the tactic and are rightly concerned that it could threaten their ability to express their beliefs on social media. Now that the hard left is using cancel culture against their own, they will only continue stoking the flames of an angry backlash. (See: Maybe Conservatives Shouldn’t Be All That Worried About Cancel Culture)

At some point, cancel culture will decline because the left simply can’t sustain it at this level over the long term. As more and more of its adherents continually abuse the tactic, Americans on both sides are going to reject it.

Of course, this is not to say that cancel culture will ever truly be definitively dead. There will always be people out there who wish to use shame to destroy the careers of their opponents. However, it will not have the level of prevalence in American society as it does now. But this will not happen tomorrow. It could take up to a few more years. In the end, the desire for freedom will outweigh those who wish to stifle it – unless, the hard left manages to get the government involved. It will be up to those who value free speech to ensure this does not happen.