Eventually, we’re all going to get canceled, whether we like it or not. ‘Cancel Culture’ has become our National Pastime, more popular than baseball.
Used to be just the Radical Left who was canceling people. Now the Reactionary Right seems all too eager to get in on the game.
In other words, people and programs and institutions are getting canceled left and right. And I do mean, “left and right”.
I halfway expect this column to get me canceled.
The cancellation of Garrison Keillor hit me really hard. Obviously, bad things happen in Minnesota all the time, but when Minnesota Public Radio canceled the radio broadcasts of Prairie Home Companion in 2017… after a freelance writer for the show accused Mr. Keillor of sexual harassment… I lost access to my favorite NPR radio show. Which I took very personally. They could have asked my opinion, but they didn’t.
That same year, comedian Louis C.K. had his shows canceled and his distribution deals terminated, and he was dropped by his agency and management. He admitted to sexual misconduct, but nowadays that just makes you eligible to be elected President.
He took a short break from show business, and then returned to work and won a Grammy award in 2022. So I guess that tells us all we need to know.
Ultimately, the Reactionary Right finally picked up on the whole ‘Cancel Culture’ idea. Like in 2023, when Bud Light thought it would be a good marketing ploy to have their product promoted by transgender TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney. Bud Light was just trying to expand their market and sell more beer, and most of us older guys were already drinking as much as we possibly could, and then some.
They thought Dylan Mulvaney could appeal to the Gen X-ers who were still drinking Mountain Dew. What Bud Light didn’t fully consider was that its existing customer base (myself included) were not transgender Gen X-ers, and we wanted to be proud of whoever Bud Light was allowing to represent us on TikTok. For one thing, they should at least wear cowboy boots.
Anyway, Dylan Mulvaney didn’t get canceled — Bud Light got canceled. The cancellations up until this point had been individual people who did bad things. In this case, a popular beer who had really done nothing wrong got canceled, because a marketing department did something bad.
If the world was fair, the marketing department would have been canceled. Not the beer.
But this started the ball rolling in a new direction. From here on, bad people could still get canceled, but also other bad things could also get canceled.
Like childhood vaccines, for example. Ten years ago, I never would have imagined that children would be allowed to graduate from high school without receiving the 65 doses of various vaccines recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. But the Centers for Disease Control are now telling doctors and parents and everyone else that some of those vaccines aren’t really necessary.
Dr. Pia Pannaraj, a professor of pediatrics and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, told ABC News that “…kids are exposed to 2,000 to 6,000 antigens every day just by playing at the playground or going to school. That is significantly more than what they receive in vaccines.”
Who knew that going to school could be so dangerous? I’m sort of surprised so many children make it through 12th grade alive.
Other cancellations?
Foreign aid. Scientific research. Museum displays. Books. National Park staff. Performances at the Trump Kennedy Center. The East Wing of the White House. NATO. Trade with Canada. The Vince Staples Show.
Do we think maybe this has gotten out of hand?
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.