Just a quick not friendly reminder: someone who has apologized for past mistakes, made amends for past actions, and clearly no longer holds past beliefs, is a far better person than one who digs up old dirt and uses a person's past that no longer exists against them.
Michael: How do I feel about cancel culture? Mm, when I was growing up if there's something different about you I remember hearing people say things on television or in life that was really, um, horrible about other people and it seemed like that was okay, so people being made to feel like that's not okay I think is a good thing for us, but then on the other hand using the idea of of cancel culture or whatever to stop people from being able to say what they feel and believe you know I think we have to be careful about that, we have to be able to talk about things and have free discussion and have opposing points of view and not feel like we're scared to say what we believe, but also, you know, if you believe certain kinds of things that are quite extreme you know, if you say I think you know people who are who have blue hair have to be sent out to the country well you have to be prepared for people with blue hair to come back at you and say, 'Well that's nonsense.'
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
― George Orwell, 1984
“dni if you’re problematic” is level 95 middle schooler behavior btw. “problematic” by what standards? my brother in christ, you’ve got to be more specific. but I can promise you that you are also “problematic” in some people’s opinions whether it be online or irl, whether or not you know it. unless you’re a literal saint who’s never done anything wrong, ever, in your life, I guarantee you this; you are also “problematic” in someone’s opinions. I am problematic in someone’s opinions. every single one of us is problematic in someone’s story, sorry to break it to you though.
And you know that there are many journalists who are very concerned about the pressure that's being applied about the sensitivities of this conflict.
And let's just be very clear here. We have the Israeli government, has a lot of supporters in Congress, has a lot of supporters in the media, has a lot of supporters in activist groups on K Street. There is a, quote unquote, pro-Israel lobby which does apply pressure on media organizations.
If you've worked like I have, both in American media and British media, you've seen the emails from honestreporting .com, and Kamera. And some of these groups your listeners may never have heard of. But I'll tell you what, every newsroom has heard of these groups; “Why is your headline this,” and “Why is your reporter showing bias?”And, “Why do they tweet this?” In this recent case, it's Louisa Lovelock, who is a British journalist at the Washington Post. It's a fantastic Middle East correspondence. Covered Syria, covered Iraq, covered Gaza, covered a bunch of things.
It's so absurd, the dossier they've produced against her. One of the things they go after is she took part in student protests at university in England against tuition fees. And..? A) that's a bad thing? B) that means she can't cover Israel's bombing of Gaza? It's so absurd. The stuff that they pull with me. Of course, I've had stuff going back 20 or 30 years that they've thrown at me. And it's a real problem where people get intimidated into not saying, not speaking what they want to speak about.
And we live in a world where the right is obsessed about cancel culture and free speech when, let's be very clear, the greatest victims of, quote unquote, cancel culture in this country have always been Palestinian activists, both on campus, in the media, and in politics.
I mean, let's just be clear, we have a Congress filled with white supremacists. We have a guy, I think, Andy Ogles from Tennessee, this week who was caught on tape saying, “Kill them all.” Alright? None of these guys get any attention. No votes of censure. Who is the only member of Congress who's been censured since October the 7th? The one Palestinian woman.
So let's just be very clear who the victims of, quote unquote, cancel culture and suppression and intimidation are. It tends to be people who speak out on behalf of Palestinians. And that's the case with reporters who aren't even taking positions. They're just reporting what they're seeing, and what they're seeing of course, is not favorable to the Israeli narrative, because what they're seeing is mass starvation. What they're seeing are mass killings. What they're seeing are kids being pulled out from the rubble. And, of course, that doesn't help the Israeli narratives.
—Mehdi Hasan, on ‘cancel culture’ and how journalists and reporters are attacked for simply reporting the truth about Gaza 🇵🇸
You owe no one forgiveness. But it's a shit thing to do to try to ruin someone's life with a mistake they made a long time ago when they've grown and changed.
“I’m not entirely sure why we need an anti-woke comedy club. It seems like the biggest comedians around are also ‘anti-woke’, whatever that really means. Louis CK, a white man who repeatedly says the n-word on stage and who has been accused of multiple counts of sexual harassment, still tours. Dave Chapelle, for all the noise of transphobia whenever he performs, is one of Netflix’s biggest stars and has leaned harder into being anti-woke since his first controversy.
“...The answer, when the discriminatory nature of their act is laid bare, is always that it’s a comedian’s job to challenge things. But if you’re playing at a club where you know you’re preaching to the choir, you’re not challenging anything. If you’ll only tell jokes about trans people to a crowd that already hates them and with no ‘threat’ of being recorded, what do you believe you are challenging, and how? You’re preaching to an echo chamber when your humour and views never have an opportunity to be challenged in the first place, and if they ever are, you have the face of the person who did it on file, which feels like a threat in and of itself.”
❝ When I was a child, I always had an image of the angry villagers in Frankenstein. I always used to think about society that way, as the angry village. You see it more and more. It’s a very, very strange human dynamic, a human trait that I don’t quite like or understand. ❞