RUSH: Remember, these are the people that do not think they should have to face opposition. They don’t think they ought to have to debate you at all. That is beneath them. Dissenting ideas are beneath them. People that disagree with them?
“Why, that’s just unheard of! We’re not gonna give people the time of day who disagree with us. We’re not gonna waste our time in debate. We don’t want to have to change hearts and minds. That’s not who we are. That’s not what we’re about,” they say. “We’re simply gonna enforce what we believe and cancel people out who disagree with us.” That’s the cancel culture.
The latest example of the cancel culture is Josh Hawley, senator from Missouri. Josh Hawley had a contract with Simon & Schuster to publish a book, and Simon & Schuster has canceled the contract. “In its online catalog, Simon & Schuster described Sen. Hawley’s book as championing the idea that ‘big tech companies — Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple — represent the gravest threat to American liberty since the monopolies of the Gilded Age, and proposes a democratic, hopeful path forward.'”
So, Hawley’s book warning of the dangers of Big Tech was canceled; 2021 has morphed into 1984. “Simon & Schuster decided to drop the publication” even though there’s a contract for it, after what Simon & Schuster “called the ‘deadly insurrection’ that took place at the Capitol Wednesday. Sen. Hawley’s book, The Tyranny of Big Tech, had been scheduled to go on sale this June,” six months from now. “In a statement Thursday, the publisher, a unit of ViacomCBS Inc., ‘We did not come to this decision lightly.'”
No, of course not. They never do.
“As a publisher it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and viewpoints: at the same time we take seriously our larger public responsibility as citizens, and cannot support Senator Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom.” Josh Hawley wrote a book that they eager signed a contract to publish. Josh Hawley is now referred to as “a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom.”
Well, we’ve got something in our Constitution called the First Amendment. The First Amendment! It talks about free speech. Look, Simon & Shuster, they’re free to cancel anything. It’s a private business. If they don’t want to run the book, if they want to run the risk of being sued by Senator Hawley, fine and dandy. There’s no law mandating they publish the book.
The purpose of my comments is not to in any way affect that. They can do what they want to do. The point is for them to say that they’re engaging here in “securing the principles of our democracy” is a joke. They are doing the exact opposite here. The Wall Street Journal writes, “A call to Sen. Hawley’s office wasn’t returned. Sen. Hawley’s literary agent couldn’t be reached…”
But here is a statement that Hawley tweeted: “This could not be more Orwellian. Simon & Schuster is canceling my contract because I was representing my constituents, leading a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity which they have now decided to redefine as sedition. Let me be clear,” writes Senator Hawley, “this is not just a contract dispute. It’s a direct assault on the First Amendment.
“Only approved speech apparently can now be published. This is the left looking to cancel everyone they do not approve of. I will fight this cancel culture with everything I have. We will see you in court.” So this is how they do it. They don’t want to debate anybody. They don’t want to have to explain themselves. They don’t want to have to deal with dissent.
They just say (summarized), “To hell with it! We’re just gonna cancel Hawley’s book. We’re not gonna be responsible for what this lunatic thinks being published.” It’s their attitude. Leftists do not have to enter debate. They do not have to win debates for your support, for your hearts and minds. They don’t have to do that. That is definition of the cancel culture.
Related Links