{"id":734077,"date":"2021-09-09T12:36:11","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T16:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=734077"},"modified":"2021-09-09T12:36:19","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T16:36:19","slug":"watch-msnbc-takes-on-cancel-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-msnbc-takes-on-cancel-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: MSNBC Takes On \u2026 Cancel Culture?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwatch-msnbc-takes-on-cancel-culture%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=734077&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/msNBC.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Modern cancel culture \u201cfeels like\u2026a kind of massive, intense form of social conformism.\u201d That comment \u2014 which would pass without notice on Fox News or Newsmax \u2014 was made on MSNBC during an extended segment that derided social media mobs as \u201cThe New Puritans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The incessant desire to punish people for their political views or perceived microaggressions has left countless innocent people \u201costracized,\u201d said Anne Applebaum, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2021\/10\/new-puritans-mob-justice-canceled\/619818\/\">wrote<\/a> of her observations in The Atlantic, during Tuesday\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey lose their jobs. Sometimes they lose their livelihoods. Sometimes they lose all their friends,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Scarborough began his interview by noting that \u201cabout a decade ago I start noticing this moral self-righteousness and moral preening \u2026 popping up on the far-Left,\u201d whose demands for ideological purity reminded him of watching 1980s televangelists <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5O8Cl9wwRL8\">Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Applebaum hearkened back to Nathaniel Hawthorne\u2019s novel The Scarlet Letter.<\/p>\n<p>Those accused of violating ever-changing politically correct speech codes are canceled after \u201cprocedures that are unclear, or anonymous, or conducted behind closed doors. Sometimes they understand very little about it. That feels, to me, deeply unfair,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>In her view, the latest round of cancel culture goes well beyond the regular cycle of \u201cgenerational conflict\u201d because the consequences have become severe and nearly universal. \u201cThe atmosphere of intellectual life in a lot of institutions is frozen. People are afraid to say things. They\u2019re afraid to publish things. They don\u2019t talk to one another. There\u2019s topics that can\u2019t be brought up,\u201d she said. \u201cThat means that we have universities, we have schools \u2026 [where] difficult subjects aren\u2019t dealt with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fear-based silence emanating from Cancel Culture cuts across generations, Joe Scarborough told fellow panelist Walter Isaacson, a professor of history at Tulane University. When he and wife Mika Brzezinski invite liberal friends over, \u201cI can tell you, every dinner discussion somehow always got back to this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s true,\u201d Brzezinski interjected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd most of the people that were talking about it, surprisingly enough, were left-of-center people who were going to take their kids out of New York City schools,\u201d Scarborough continued.<\/p>\n<p>The students, who have the longest future in this culture, feel the impact of online feeding frenzies the most.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe most frightening thing I heard came\u201d from college students, who told them: \u201cWe don\u2019t talk in class anymore. We don\u2019t have public discussions anymore. If you say one wrong thing \u2026 your social life at school is over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe heard this time and again, and it made me sick,\u201d Scarborough said.<\/p>\n<p>He then launched into a pitched defense of intellectual engagement, free speech, and open debate:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"15\">\n<p><em>For those who went to college when we went to college, it\u2019s about saying stupid things in class, about getting it terribly wrong, and about getting your preexisting prejudices and getting your idiotic ideas out on the table, having it discussed and you growing as a person. That is not happening at so many colleges, because the students are scared to death to talk, go up on social media, and be canceled. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Isaacson said he makes his classroom \u201ca safe zone,\u201d where \u201cyou\u2019re going to be free to say what you want, and we\u2019re going to respect what everybody says.\u201d He draws out both \u201cvery conservative voices\u201d and \u201cother voices\u201d to \u201cmake it a civil dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Applebaum noted that often the mobs that cancel popular figures are motivated by more than just misguided social justice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a lot of other issues involved: jealousy, or competition, or people trying to get back at other people,\u201d she said. \u201cThis was also, by the way, typical in very conformist societies, where people are attacked for all kinds of reasons other than the ostensible one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many of those targeted had difficult, gregarious, or demanding personalities, or set high standards for their colleagues \u2014 \u201cwhich, of course, doesn\u2019t mean that they deserved to be eliminated from public life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scarborough thanked Applebaum \u2014 who has likened President Donald Trump\u2019s supporters to people who \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2020\/jul\/12\/anne-applebaum-how-my-old-friends-paved-the-way-for-trump-and-brexit\">collaborated<\/a>\u201d with the Soviet Union during the Communist occupation of Eastern Europe\u2014for pointing out \u201cilliberalism on the far-Left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The panel was not without its problems. Scarborough and his MSNBC panel attempted to portray both sides of the political spectrum as equally guilty of engaging in Cancel Culture. \u201cThe victims of this mob justice are certainly not confined to the Right. So many are also on the Left, whether in media or whether in academic circles, wherever it is,\u201d Scarborough said.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Scarborough also asserted, without evidence, that an \u201covercorrection\u201d against the Woke mob and Critical Race Theory could erase slavery and segregation from U.S. history classes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow do we make sure first of all that we don\u2019t have mob justice from the Left, but there isn\u2019t an overcorrection of this and we suddenly have people saying: \u2018Oh, we can\u2019t talk about slavery. Oh, we can\u2019t talk about Reconstruction. Oh, we can\u2019t talk about Jim Crow laws,\u2019 which some people are actually saying out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Scarborough offered no examples. This author is unaware of anyone who has advocated removing these subjects \u2014 which have been taught in public schools since both he and Scarborough were children \u2014 from the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Lemire of the Associated Press also attempted to play the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/the-media-has-entered-the-republicans-pounce-stage-of-critical-race-theory\">Republicans pounce<\/a>\u201d card, confusingly arguing that the GOP may use online pressure to cancel Cancel Culture. \u201cThe general phenomenon of cancel culture, of course, has been seized upon by both political parties, but particularly on the Right,\u201d Lemire said, where Donald Trump\u2019s supporters are in \u201cfavor of his call against political correctness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The article, too, suffered from certain contradictions. Because many of Applebaum\u2019s subjects lost their jobs due to sexual harassment cases over \u201cambiguous\u201d words or actions, according to Applebaum, the article mentions \u201cDepartment of Education Title IX regulations that are shockingly vague.\u201d But it does not mention that in June, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona began the process of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/news\/education-news\/articles\/2021-06-07\/education-department-begins-sweeping-rewrite-of-title-ix-sexual-misconduct-rules\">repealing<\/a>&nbsp;and rewriting the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/outgoing-education-secretary-betsy-devos-defends-due-process-in-farewell-letter\">far more robust Title IX due process protections<\/a> instituted by Trump administration Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, which allowed defendants to know the facts in the case and have someone question their accusers.<\/p>\n<p>She also adds, \u201cCertainly nothing in the academic texts of [C]ritical [R]ace [T]heory mandates this behavior.\u201d She says that \u201cthese are rather typical behaviors in illiberal societies with rigid cultural codes, enforced by heavy peer pressure. This is a story of moral panic, of cultural institutions policing or purifying themselves in the face of disapproving crowds.\u201d But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/what-is-critical-race-theory-breaking-down-the-ideology-thats-hitting-schools-across-the-country\">Critical Race Theory <em>is <\/em>a censorious moral code<\/a> that induces panic within cultural institutions by demanding that they purify themselves by <a href=\"http:\/\/therightswriter.com\/2010\/10\/give-them-the-wealth-obama%E2%80%99s-stealth-reparations\/\">redistributing wealth<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/therightswriter.com\/2010\/09\/the-washington-post-discovers-valerie-jarrett\/\">position<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/therightswriter.com\/2011\/04\/yes-he-did-obama-betrayed-christians-on-easter\/\">prestige<\/a> or be deemed complicit in the greatest (and virtually only) modern-day social sin: racism.<\/p>\n<p>Those caveats aside, the segment marked a rare and notable example of a left-wing cable news network expressing concern over the methods and results of cancel culture, which loom ominously over society.<\/p>\n<p>If these trends are not reversed, Applebaum wrote, \u201c[d]emocratic principles like the rule of law, the right to self-defense, the right to a just trial \u2014 even the right to be forgiven \u2014 will wither.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She told Scarborough that \u201cending [cancel culture] is going to require that we begin to think differently about how we judge people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You can watch the first half of the panel discussion below:<\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&#039;A massive intense form of social conformism&#039;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uZ2Qxe2uzCM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Modern cancel culture \u201cfeels like\u2026a kind of massive, intense form of social conformism.\u201d That comment \u2014 which would pass without notice on Fox News or Newsmax \u2014 was made on &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-734077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}