Yesterday Disney cancelled Jimmy Kimmel's late night TV show. I'm not a Kimmel fan, and frankly can't understand how his earlier racist and sexist behavior got miraculously excused by the left. Much like the newspaper writer who also got fired, they were fired based on what they said about Charlie Kirk. This is not uncommon of late, with many people being fired for making vile and offensive public comments about Kirk. I'm not going to get into the people who have made specific, direct, threats to various individuals as I believe that doing so does constitute a potential crime.
What's absolutely insane is hearing the same people who cheered when the Biden administration coerced various social media companies to censor speech about COVID, or wanted to incarcerate those who didn't get enough jabs, now complaining that these firings somehow violate the 1st Amendment protection of free speech. It's always been understood that there are limits to protected speech, but this isn't that. This is private employers choosing to respond to employees who engage in behavior that the company doesn't like. My last two jobs have involved my freedom to post whatever I want on social media, something I accepted.
Unfortunately for the idiots, it needs to be explained that the 1st Amendment does give you the right to say almost anything you want, and prevents the GOVERNMENT from infringing that speech. It does NOT prevent people who say vile and hateful things from the natural consequences that their actions might provoke.
Firing the people who've said vile, hateful things is not a 1st Amendment issue. It's not even grounds for a lawsuit in many/most states. It is the FO part of FAFO.
Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences.
Other than the actual censorship practiced by the Biden administration, let's look at a few other instances where the ASPL didn't get quite so worked up.
Roseanne Barr-Fired after one Tweet.
Gina Carano-Fires for social media posts.
Megyn Kelly- fired for comments about Halloween costumes.
Dave Chappelle- Netfilx employees staged a walkout and demanded his comedy special be pulled.
Joe Rogan- Dropped by Spotify due to left wing pressure.
Tucker Carlson- fired from Fox after leftist pressure.
Parler- Entire platform wiped out of existence.
JK Rowling- Too many things to catalog.
Mike Lindell- Pulled from retailers, banned from Twitter.
DJT- Was permanently banned by Twitter.
Chris Harrison- Fired from The Bachelor for suggesting that a contestant not be sent home for actions taken years before.
Alex Jones=Simultaneously banned from all major social platforms.
Winston Marshall- Fired for reading a book and talking about it.
Peter Paranda- Fired for not taking the jab on advice of his personal physician.
Laura Osness- Cancelled for her presumed position on the jab.
One more example of one set of rules for the ASPL, and another for everyone else.
2 comments:
Clay Travis was talking about the Kimmel thing on his radio show (he and Buck Sexton took over the slot when Rush Limbaugh passed away, while Dan Bongino had that slot in other markets). He opposes cancel culture in general, regardless of who is doing it. But a private sector business, or any non-governmental organization, has every right to disassociate themselves from those who's continued presence among them would reflect badly upon them.
For example, it reflects badly on me if I hire a homosexual, as that might very well imply to my customer base that I'm pro-LGBTQ++++, which I wouldn't want regardless of how it impacts my profit potential. And this is the key here for the private sector. If principle trumps profits, then some people won't be received as others are received. I see that as a good thing and would like to see more of it. It's peer pressure as it ought to be when foul, immoral or other inappropriate people and their actions are judged.
There is absolutely an argument against cancel culture. In this case, the bigger point is the double standard shown by the left. After the actual government censorship during COVID, and their glee when a conservative got/gets cancelled, they really have no place to get on their high horse on this one.
What's crazy is that Kimmel's crap from other shows should have gotten him cancelled by the left years ago, but it didn't. What's crazier, is that all he really needs to do is apologize, but he won't because he's convinced he's more important than he is.
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