The true test of whether one is opposed to cancel culture comes when the insidious practice takes down a victim with views you abhor.
Last week, New York City based actress Jacqueline Guzman TikToked out a truly stupid and vulgar video complaining that streets were shut down for the funeral of slain NYPD officer Jason Rivera. Even after deleting the video Guzman was fired from the film and theater company where she worked. That is not acceptable in a free society.
NYC ACTRESS FIRED AFTER RANT OVER JASON RIVERA FUNERAL: STREETS CLOSED ‘FOR ONE F—— COP’
In a statement the company had this to say about the incident. “Face to Face Films does not support nor can condone these comments made about fallen Officer Rivera. As a result, she [Guzman] is no longer a member of our company.”
Thousands of police officers from around the country gather at St. Patrick’s Cathedral to attend the funeral for fallen NYPD Officer Jason Rivera on Jan. 28, 2022 in New York City.
(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Is this the standard now? If an employee says something their company can’t condone they get fired?
This is not even a situation where Guzman’s remarks fall very far from those of prominent Democrats and media figures. New York City Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan openly equated the loss of Officer Rivera to that of his killer.
New York Magazine in a snarky one paragraph piecelet called this statement from Mayor Eric Adams a “questionable quip;” “Every day when I see New Yorkers, they say they thank the men and women of the New York City Police Department.” Underneath was the line “Every Day?” with a dubious looking emoji.
Thousands gather for the funeral for fallen NYPD Officer Jason Rivera.
(Fox News Digital/ Michael Ruiz)
So let’s not pretend that anti cop rhetoric is some kind of fringe position on the American left. If we fired everyone who wants to defund the police there would be no colleges.
What makes the firing even worse is that Face To Face Films is supposedly an artistic endeavor. Policing the speech of artists is always, as in every single time, a facet of fascism, not the practice of a functioning free society.
There will be those on the right who say, “Hey, these are the new rules, we didn’t make them up.” But that is ultimately self-defeating. If people want to feel some joy in the irony, the schadenfreude, as the Germans put it, of the sacking of a progressive for saying something stupid, thats fine. But that doesn’t make the decision right.
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Cancel culture has created an entire set of perverse incentives for small companies like Face to Face and big ones like Disney. In most cases they are no longer reacting to a broad demand to punish sayers of bad things. Instead, they are proactively showing their virtue. It’s an ad.
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The result is not a corporate and artistic landscape in which the American people influence the product and speech, but rather one in which gatekeepers decide what Americans are allowed to see and hear.
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Jacqueline Guzman said something stupid, she shouldn’t have said it, and certainly shouldn’t have broadcasted it. But this is still the United States. This is still the country where you can say unpopular things. At least it should be.
Private companies like Face to Face can do as they please, the First Amendment does not apply to them as a matter of law. But we should certainly hope it applies as a matter of principle. American companies should be American companies, and yeah, that means they should not be telling their employees what political positions they are and are not allowed to espouse.
Officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora were shot and killed while responding to a domestic violence call.
(Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Free speech, especially in the light of the damaging censorship of solid science occasioned by COVID is front and center in our politics. As it should be.
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In the pursuit of that freedom we must not be distracted by extreme positions, no matter how infuriating they are.
Cancel culture is cancel culture, no matter which side does it, and it must always be opposed.
