I thoroughly agree that cancel culture is stupid and reduces our collective discourse into sheer nihilism. As an evangelical Republican, I would just like to point out that that it didn't originate with Democrats. I have always thought they were responding to decades of what I remember that began in the 70's by the evangelical right, then spread to politics by the late 90s.
1970s: Southern Baptists led purges of "liberal" professors, church employees, and even pastors. Many were fired, others were shamed out.
1980s and 1990s: The religious right coordinated book burnings and music bonfires. (I remember playing some albums backwards just to check.)
1972: Jane Fonda. She was wrong, indeed, but what she has incurred through the decades is ridiculous. As recently as Meagan Kelly, she was called "Hanoi Jane" on Fox. Really? In 2021 the Ohio SoS tried to cancel her speaking event hosted by Kent State. Really?
1988: Murphy Brown television show. It never stopped until the show came to a natural end years later.
1997: Disney. 16 million SBC members boycotted.
1997: Ellen DeGeneres. Her show was cancelled the next year due to this and she struggled to find work for many years.
1999: Teletubbies, led by Falwell, Sr.
*Enter political + evangelicals*
2003: Freedom Fries.
2003: The Dixie Chicks.
2012: Ellen DeGeneres, again. The objection by One Millions Moms was her placement as the JC Penny spokesperson. Huh?
* Enter The Age of Trump and it's constant outrage about anything, especially if criticism or race was involved, many times a backlash was due to a previous backlash*
2016: Beyonce's Superbowl performance that referenced police killings. A police union was nearly successful in canceling her Miami concert.
2016: Target. For their transgender policy.
@Somewhere in there: Samantha Bee's joke about Ivanka during a comedy monologue. Advertisers pulled out. Trump demanded TBS be cancelled.
@Somewhere in there: Kathy Griffin's Trump photo. The outrage was warranted, but now the same outraged people are perfectly ok with anime videos about killing the Speaker, The President, etc. Congresspersons stating that a "bullet to the head" would be an expedient ending for political oppnents. Idk, this makes a photo look tame in comparison.
2017: Keurig. Long story beginning with Fox interviewing someone who had sex with a minor.
2018: Michelle Wolf after a joke about Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the WH Correspondents Dinner. Which is by design a comedy/roast event. Her talk show was cancelled.
2019: James Gunn. Fired from Disney after he criticized Trump, which fueled the alt-right to search his past and resurface some very old offensive jokes.
2019: Gillette RE advertising regarding masculinity.
2019: The Hunt movie. Disturbing and inappropriate indeed, but not much different than other common violent filth. Universal was successfully lobbied to cancel the theater release of the film.
2019-2020: Colin Kaepernic-> NFL-> Nike.
2020: A Boon year for both sides, but since I am referencing the right, NASCAR because they banned the banned the Confederate flag. (I grew up in the Louisiana, and I loved my Rebel flag as a cultural symbol. It is NOT cultural anymore.)
I am not at all denying what the left does is just as wrong. I am just trying to make a historical point.
The left may be better at cancel culture, (I wish they were as efficient with politics.) but they definitely not start it. The right has been waging the battle for 50 years.
Feb 8, 2022·edited Feb 8, 2022Liked by Chris J. Karr
Excellent column Steve. You summed up with moral clarity(far better than I could’ve ever done) the concerns I’ve had with the political discourse and behavior of the right as of late. This woke, cancel culture from the new right is the religion of anti-wokeness. It’s in many respects markedly similar to the woke progressive left’s anti-racism extremism. Fighting toxic wokeness with another variety of toxic wokeness will have deleterious consequences for our culture and society.
The only push-back I'd put is that it doesn't mean that things will inevitably move leftward in a political sense: it's just as likely that a violent right-wind takeover occurs. Maybe more so, considering the fetishism of violent rhetoric in the US right.
Bravo. And very well stated.
I thoroughly agree that cancel culture is stupid and reduces our collective discourse into sheer nihilism. As an evangelical Republican, I would just like to point out that that it didn't originate with Democrats. I have always thought they were responding to decades of what I remember that began in the 70's by the evangelical right, then spread to politics by the late 90s.
1970s: Southern Baptists led purges of "liberal" professors, church employees, and even pastors. Many were fired, others were shamed out.
1980s and 1990s: The religious right coordinated book burnings and music bonfires. (I remember playing some albums backwards just to check.)
1972: Jane Fonda. She was wrong, indeed, but what she has incurred through the decades is ridiculous. As recently as Meagan Kelly, she was called "Hanoi Jane" on Fox. Really? In 2021 the Ohio SoS tried to cancel her speaking event hosted by Kent State. Really?
1988: Murphy Brown television show. It never stopped until the show came to a natural end years later.
1997: Disney. 16 million SBC members boycotted.
1997: Ellen DeGeneres. Her show was cancelled the next year due to this and she struggled to find work for many years.
1999: Teletubbies, led by Falwell, Sr.
*Enter political + evangelicals*
2003: Freedom Fries.
2003: The Dixie Chicks.
2012: Ellen DeGeneres, again. The objection by One Millions Moms was her placement as the JC Penny spokesperson. Huh?
* Enter The Age of Trump and it's constant outrage about anything, especially if criticism or race was involved, many times a backlash was due to a previous backlash*
2016: Beyonce's Superbowl performance that referenced police killings. A police union was nearly successful in canceling her Miami concert.
2016: Target. For their transgender policy.
@Somewhere in there: Samantha Bee's joke about Ivanka during a comedy monologue. Advertisers pulled out. Trump demanded TBS be cancelled.
@Somewhere in there: Kathy Griffin's Trump photo. The outrage was warranted, but now the same outraged people are perfectly ok with anime videos about killing the Speaker, The President, etc. Congresspersons stating that a "bullet to the head" would be an expedient ending for political oppnents. Idk, this makes a photo look tame in comparison.
2017: Keurig. Long story beginning with Fox interviewing someone who had sex with a minor.
2018: Michelle Wolf after a joke about Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the WH Correspondents Dinner. Which is by design a comedy/roast event. Her talk show was cancelled.
2019: James Gunn. Fired from Disney after he criticized Trump, which fueled the alt-right to search his past and resurface some very old offensive jokes.
2019: Gillette RE advertising regarding masculinity.
2019: The Hunt movie. Disturbing and inappropriate indeed, but not much different than other common violent filth. Universal was successfully lobbied to cancel the theater release of the film.
2019-2020: Colin Kaepernic-> NFL-> Nike.
2020: A Boon year for both sides, but since I am referencing the right, NASCAR because they banned the banned the Confederate flag. (I grew up in the Louisiana, and I loved my Rebel flag as a cultural symbol. It is NOT cultural anymore.)
I am not at all denying what the left does is just as wrong. I am just trying to make a historical point.
The left may be better at cancel culture, (I wish they were as efficient with politics.) but they definitely not start it. The right has been waging the battle for 50 years.
Excellent column Steve. You summed up with moral clarity(far better than I could’ve ever done) the concerns I’ve had with the political discourse and behavior of the right as of late. This woke, cancel culture from the new right is the religion of anti-wokeness. It’s in many respects markedly similar to the woke progressive left’s anti-racism extremism. Fighting toxic wokeness with another variety of toxic wokeness will have deleterious consequences for our culture and society.
The only push-back I'd put is that it doesn't mean that things will inevitably move leftward in a political sense: it's just as likely that a violent right-wind takeover occurs. Maybe more so, considering the fetishism of violent rhetoric in the US right.