HuffPo Slams Cancel Culture, Can’t Admit Conservatives Were Right

Most journalists greet Cancel Culture with scare quotes.

It’s “Cancel Culture,” thank you.

That grammatical touch tells readers the movement is neither real nor a threat to the culture at large.

Hardly.

Cancel Culture, a nefarious off-shoot of the woke mind virus, is a punishing force with little room for grace or forgiveness. It’s deeply political and used by Leftists to control speech and silence anyone who doesn’t sing from the progressive hymnal.

Yet it may have gone too far even for The Huffington Post.

In the first of several pieces I've written in a new series interrogating cancel culture, I examine why it has failed. In short, a lack of organization, rules and nuance have long plagued it. Yet, we wonder why it hasn't stuck. Read the full article here: https://t.co/5IgaI13xoB pic.twitter.com/24Iczy4Fmd

— Candice Frederick (@ReelTalker) November 6, 2023

The far-Left site published a withering op-ed from liberal film critic Candice Frederick dubbed, “Where We Lost The Thread On Cancel Culture.”

No scare quotes. Plenty of scary observations. 

Cancel Culture is “unsustainable,” the op-ed declares, part of a series dubbed “Cancel Culture Unraveled.”

The article cheers the cultural revolution until liberal comic Aziz Ansari got canceled in 2018. The “Parks and Recreation” star got blasted by a former one-night-stand, and we immediately were told to believe her account of their unpleasant date.

Doesn’t he get a say in the matter? Then again, his accuser rode the Left’s “Believe All Women” mantra, which faded after Tara Reade accused Joe Biden of sexual assault.

Then, the slogan came with an asterisk. Hmmm.

RELATED: IS THE TIDE TURNNG AGAINST CANCEL CULTURE?

The woman didn’t accuse the comic actor of rape or sexual assault, mind you, just “sexual misconduct” based on misread signals. Yet HuffPo notes, accurately, that distinguishing what happened between the two and what film mogul Harvey Weinstein did to too many starlets got you in trouble with the woke mob.

Just ask Matt Damon, who was scolded for suggesting Weinstein’s sins were far more egregious than that of Sen. Al Franken, accused of inappropriate behavior by several women.

Shut up, the mob cried. And he did.

Now, sites like HuffPo are noticing Cancel Culture isn’t a healthy trend but a plague on society teeming with inconsistencies.

Better late than never (even though conservatives have been making this case for a while now)

No one can offer an opinion or ask a question ― however valid ― about cancel culture without risking being just as quickly canceled…. But it too often looks like cyberbullying or doxxing. Not just against those who’ve committed serious wrongs, like the ones in Maureen Ryan’s Hollywood manifesto “Burn It Down,” but anyone who does or says anything considered unpopular or simply malformed in the moment.

This hardly scratches the surface of Cancel Culture hypocrisy. 

And let’s hope the HuffPo Cancel Culture series saves room for apologies.

RELATED: WHAT IS CANCEL CULTURE AND WHY SHOULD ARTISTS FEAR IT?

For Roseanne Barr, who saw her career wiped out for sharing one ugly, racially charged Tweet. Did it matter that she shattered glass ceilings for female comics and show runners alike? What about her track record of hiring black talent for her show?

Apparently not.

For Gina Carano, who dared to speak her mind in ways that didn’t align with Hollywood groupthink and got fired for it.

For every actor whose right-leaning views cost him or her a steady gig. Or gigs.

Let’s see how HuffPo’s subsequent columns deal with Cancel Culture. Admitting it’s a train wreck is the first, necessary step.