Vultures Make Cancel Culture Their Crusade Du Jour
Taking a moment from feasting on what they hope will be the carrion of democracy, right wingers nationwide are ginning up outrage over toys, books and a bunch of puppets.
They would like us to suspend belief in the marketplace of ideas. Instead, we’re being asked to accept the notion that tradition binds us to the darkest parts of our history. Misogyny, racism, and the degradation of others are values they proudly uphold in their quest for authoritarianism.
After all, keeping citizens on the straight and narrow path to MAGA heaven requires fear and disgust, along with distracting us from their incompetence and moral bankruptcy.
On Capitol Hill, mouth-breather Rep. Jim (Gym) Jordan wants a congressional hearing on "cancel culture." One can only hope he’ll remember to call Colin Kaepernik as a witness.
A Cat in a Hat Isn’t Keen on Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene
The San Diego connection to all this nonsense comes through the late Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to children everywhere as Dr. Seuss.
Seuss Enterprises, the entity once headed by Audrey Geisel, which owns the copyrights to his more than sixty books, announced this week it was no longer going to publish six of those titles. The decision, according to the company, was based on the understanding that the works, originally published decades ago, “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,”
Cue the Fox News breakdown, as explained at Vox:
On Tuesday morning and into the afternoon, programming on Fox News and Fox Business ceaselessly harped upon the purported “cancellation” of legendary children’s author Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, as the latest example of woke liberalism run amok — conveniently ignoring the fact that Dr. Seuss has not, in fact, been canceled.
“The cancel culture is canceling Dr. Seuss,” lamented Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade, adding later, “It’s out of control.”
“People are too scared,” echoed co-host Ainsley Earhardt. “They don’t want to be involved in all of this, so they’d rather just cancel it all ... the places we are going in this country right now.”
Later in the day, the network breathlessly reported on a four year old Tweet from Vice President Kamala Harris praising the late author as part of Read Across America day. Shocking, I tell you, shocking!
(Snopes fact check on the right wing truth twisting is here. As usual, Fox News is full of it.)
Representative Marjorie Greene was apparently worried that all this cultural news would take her out of the national spotlight, denouncing media accounts of her tendency to propagate, among other things, QAnon / false flag / Jewish space laser conspiracies. as an attempt to cancel her and by extension, all of the right..
The mainstream media, the Democrats, sure, they’d tried to cancel her. But it wasn’t about her, she wasn’t that important. “No, understand—what they really want, is to cancel you.” The audience shifted and murmured, adjusting themselves to the idea that they had power.
In its quest to stay relevant, the Union-Tribune published a story that included a reader poll asking if UC San Diego should remove Geisel’s name from its iconic library building. At last glance a mere eight percent of respondents thought the idea had merit.
The print edition of the paper featured a front page story on the Seuss Enterprises decision:
Some people applauded the change as part of a long-overdue racial reckoning that has also seen statues toppled, flags lowered and buildings renamed across the country. Others bemoaned what they see as a “cancel culture” that erodes the nation’s history and heritage.
Seuss, in all likelihood, would have welcomed the conversation. “It’s not how you start that counts,” he once said. “It’s what you are at the finish.”
https://twitter.com/jamisonfoser/status/1366915358611755008?s=20
Mr. Potato Head Won’t Be Cancelled by a Senator Named Ted
Next up on the list of Evil Things Democrats Are Doing was the decision by Hasbro that the Mr. Potato Head, introduced in 1952, would be repackaged under a gender neutral name in 2021.
The decision came just in time for the Conservative Political Action Conference, whose slogan for 2021 was “America Uncanceled.” There was no shortage of irony when that festival of foolishness started off with a cancellation of a scheduled speaker whose past anti-Semitic comments came to light.
The prevailing message that emerged from last weekend's annual Conservative Political Action Conference wasn't that Joe Biden is a bad president or that Donald Trump is great (although both speakers and attendees voiced those sentiments).
It was that Mr. Potato Head had been canceled.
"Look out, Mr. Potato Head, you're next," said Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz said in his speech. "I'm sorry, I think now he's going by Potato X. He can't be Mr. Potato."
From LGBTQ Nation:
“You know, in 2020, the New York Times reported that 60% of women named Karen voted for Joe Biden,” Cruz said in what resembled an outdated comedy set. “That’s actually real! That’s what the New York Times reported. And I’m willing to believe that 80% of the men named Karen voted for Joe Biden.”
That wasn’t his only joke though. “Orlando is awesome,” Cruz quipped to open, but “it’s not as nice as Cancun.”
In addition to being universally despised in a party that somehow embraces the likes of Laura Ingraham and former Rep. Steve King, Cruz also holds the distinction of being one of the most anti-LGBTQ senators in a chamber full of them.
Elmo Says Faux Spews Fake News
Finally, there’s outrage over the decision by Disney+ to add a new disclaimer to old episodes of The Muppet Show, warning of “negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures” throughout the series.
Fox News, which once upon a time slammed The Muppets for having an anti-capitalist agenda, was ready to pounce.
From the Daily Beast:
Despite the fact that Disney+ is not removing any episodes or even censoring the broadcasts in question, Fox hosts and guests on Monday breathlessly portrayed this decision as the latest example of “woke” liberalism engaging in “cancel culture.”
“I don’t remember The Muppets ever being offensive. Here we are again with cancel culture,” Fox News contributor Joe Concha exclaimed on Fox & Friends First, kicking off the network’s predictable outrage cycle.
During a later interview with frequent guest Sen. Tom Cotton, who has made stopping “cancel culture” one of his pet issues, Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy asked the Arkansas Republican and potential 2024 presidential candidate to weigh in.
“Total Mickey Mouse move, guys,” Cotton quipped, before making a clunky, throat-clearing transition about why the Muppets news is actually an extremely serious problem.
National Public Radio has trotted out an explainer on the background of all this cancel culture stuff:
Six or seven years ago, the idea of "canceling" someone was largely used among younger people online, particularly on Black Twitter, as Vox's Aja Romano has explained.
In that usage, "cancel" refers to a pretty unremarkable concept, says Nicole Holliday, assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania.
"It is used to refer to a cultural boycott," she said. "We've had the term 'boycott' forever and ever. It just means, 'I'm not going to put my attention or money or support behind this person or organization because they've done something that I don't agree with.' That is not new, that's very old."
In other words, it was just the marketplace of ideas at work.
Republican rhetoric attacking “cancel culture” gives them a chance to blame ‘leftist’ media and tech companies for attacking tradition. It’s an objection to a changing world de-emphasizing the primacy of one particular group. Guess which one?
The only upside to letting these idiots whine about copyright holders making a business decision is that it’s keeping them busy.
https://twitter.com/Grey_Obelisk/status/1366748874988216326?s=20
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