SweeneyGate Proves Left Is Losing Culture War
Outrage over American Eagle ad, Colbert firing shows cultural tide is turning
What do Sydney Sweeney and Stephen Colbert have in common?
No, it’s not the opening of a joke—although that sort of thing might have helped Colbert salvage “The Late Show.” The just-canceled program forgot that the purpose of a comedy show is to, you know, make people laugh.
It’s actually a serious question, and the answer might surprise you. Of course, there’s the obvious.
Both Sweeney and Colbert have recently become lightning rods for controversy—the former for an American Eagle ad campaign that has inexplicably been compared to Nazi propaganda.
The latter? Getting axed by CBS after his $100 million a year late-night wokefest hemorrhaged so much money that the network couldn’t paper the losses over anymore.
Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle campaign is receiving criticism for a “jeans/genes” pun that some say echoes eugenics and white supremacy rhetoric.
Right-wing voices are celebrating the ad as a pushback against “wokeness.” pic.twitter.com/Q6LkOoAqbi
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 29, 2025
Both have brought the culture war into sharp focus, with forces on the Right and Left taking up the mantle to suit their purposes.
On its most basic level, however, the battle is about one thing: controlling the cultural narrative. And it’s a battle that the Forces of Progressivism now understand that they’re losing.
Badly.
That’s the reason they’re so terrified. Need proof? Check out this MSNBC story from Hannah Holland, a producer on the uber-leftist network:
“Sydney Sweeney’s ad shows an unbridled shift toward whiteness.” Move past that bat-guano crazy clickbait headline, and you can see real fear percolating between the lines.
In the videos, Sweeney exudes a sort of vintage sexiness that caters to the male gaze. She embodies the near mythological, girl-next-door beautiful but low-maintenance femininity that dominated media in the 1990s and the early 2000s. Together, the campaign feels regressive and not retro, offensive and not cheeky.
Girl next door beautiful? Low-maintenance sexy? Heaven forbid!
But Holland lets the mask slip with her lament over how traditional beauty standards are making a comeback is somehow “regressive.” When you consider how the Left has spent the last decade trying to convince us that obesity is attractive and that biological sex doesn’t matter, the threat that Sweeney poses to their narrative becomes clear.
The reaction to Colbert’s cancellation, meanwhile, demonstrates how the progressives have lost their control over the narrative. “The Late Show” has been bleeding cash for years, but CBS seemed content to keep pouring millions down that ratings hole.
So what changed?
Liberal pundits would have you believe that dumping Colbert was a bribe to President Donald Trump, particularly after CBS News had to settle with him over its misleading edits to a Kamala Harris interview during the 2024 election.
60 Minutes removed Kamala’s word salad in the latest version. 1984 is here.
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 8, 2024
Others claim it was to grease the skids for the sale of CBS’s parent company Paramount Global to Skydance Media. In truth, the culture had moved past Colbert and his brand of “clapter” comedy.
Just as the culture has moved past the woke definition of femininity.
That’s why progressives have reacted to the American Eagle ads and Colbert’s cancellation as Dracula would react to daylight. Both showed that their grip over the culture is failing, and with it their ability to drive the wider narrative.
That noise you hear? It’s just the final gasps of the woke beast as it goes, not so gently, into that good night.
Marc Giller is an information technology professional and a novelist. His latest thriller, “CANDIDATE Z,” is available at Amazon
Both sides ARE FKING STUPID. The ad makes a pun about genes/jeans and is in NO WAY trying to allege that HER WHITE GENES are superior. The right wing CROWING that this pushes back wokeness ARE LITERALLY SAYING YES IT’S WHITE SUPREMACIST AND WE LIKE THAT. You are all cretins.
There’s no such thing as “the male gaze”. There’s only attraction.
Americans have had enough of the Fat Mouthed Malcontents and Insane Whiner Tool Bags bought and paid for by the Likes of George Soros and the Democrat Party. They are sick of them running their Yaps at Warp Speed 24/7/365 whining about everything and anything without ever offering any kind of “CommonSense” solution to anything that apparently upsets or offends them. Which by the way seems to be Everything and Anything no matter how minor it is, and especially if it comes from President Trump, MAGA, Caucasian Males, Christians or any other Sane or Normal Person in American Society. It’s like they Wake up Each and Every day Miserable, Chock full of Anger and just looking to Lecture, Scold and Dare anyone to knock the Massive Chip on their Shoulder off. Most Americans just want to be left alone to Love their Families, their Lives and their Country. They don’t want to have to Listen to people that can’t ever be satisfied unless they are Running off at the Mouth about some nitnoid complaint that in the grander scheme of things, means nothing. It Boring and after the last 16 years of non stop Cryng, Pearl Clutching, the Vapors Most Americans just want to move on. Everything isn’t Political to them, like it is to the Idiots on the Democrat side what with their Cause Du Jour. Most of which they have no Idea what they are about, but are told to support them! Just Shut Up for Awhile and give it a rest and Oil you Lips, which I’m sure are Smoking and Burned from lack of Lubrication!
Don’t celebrate the end of woke yet. The democrats will do literally anything to keep it. And Hollywood, though not liking the lost revenue, won’t give up on it either. They will go underground, regroup, and reintroduce. Just look at the trailer for that new Trek Academy show, its soaked in leftism. They are still fine with losing millions to keep the message alive.
…and relabel.
You know what comes between me and Sydney Sweeney? Absolutely nothing.
On CLAPTER COMEDY: I went to a taping of a late-night-comedy show once. It’s jaw dropping the amount of training that goes into turning the audience into barking seals prior to rolling cameras. We actually had to practice our applause, laughter, and reactions with the stage manager before every take. It’s stunning how fake everything is.