MAGA ‘Cancel Culture’ Far Surpasses its Liberal Counterpart
The Right Exposed Its Insincerity on Free Speech and Liberty
The right wing never believed in liberty, democracy or freedom and cunningly bandied these words about like cheap props—in the same way they desecrate the Constitution while insincerely wrapping themselves in the flag. It turns out their “beliefs” were not closely held tenets, but cheap theatrics and devious tactics to gain political advantage.
When conservative provocateurs, such as Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulos, were “canceled” from speaking at prominent liberal universities, the right wing endlessly fulminated about “free speech”. The early days of the Trump administration has revealed, however, that their loud protests were as cynical as they were performative.
What these cranks genuinely desired was manufacturing controversies by polluting respected university platforms. Instead of offering thoughtful conservative views, they unfairly and dishonestly disparaged liberalism, while undermining democracy in the service of gaining political power. Now that they have succeeded and run Washington, the right-wing’s professed defenders of liberty have swiftly moved to strangle speech that doesn’t neatly align with their backward worldview.
To call these phonies “hypocrites” doesn’t do justice to their Machiavellian behavior. They deliberately and methodically exploited free speech to kill it, just as they used democracy to usher in autocracy. In a matter of weeks, the alleged haters of political correctness replaced it with its mirror image, “conservative correctness”, and substituted liberal woke with right wing woke.
The perpetually petulant right also used rage against “limousine liberals” who they believed had too much power. But the Trump administration is chock-full of wealthy “Cybertruck Conservatives”. During his campaign, Trump deceitfully peddled MAGA as populist, but the movement is a mecca for mega-wealthy oligarchs.
The first Trump cabinet meeting included a black-clad Elon Musk who defiled the White House by disrespectfully donning a crappy T-shirt and a ratty MAGA baseball cap. One would think the richest man in the world could afford a proper suit and tie to show respect for the Office of the President.
Republicans, once upon a time, fancied themselves national security hawks. Now, GOP Senators voted to put Pete Hegseth, an inexperienced drunk and Fox News host, in charge of the Pentagon. They followed this historic disaster by naming Putin bootlicker, Tulsi Gabbard, as Director of National Intelligence, and chronically angry Kash Patel to lead the FBI.
The national security clown car set the stage for Trump to absurdly blame Ukraine for starting the war with Russia, then extort Ukraine to surrender its mineral wealth to the U.S. without providing security guarantees. This is a cowardly recipe for crass appeasement to Russia’s police state dictator, Vladimir Putin, under the thinnest veneer of seeking “peace”. They must be celebrating with caviar in the Kremlin, ecstatic about their good fortune since their orange puppet returned to Washington.
Republicans also used to pretend that they were “fiscally conservative” and hated deficits. But their latest budget-busting proposal, passed by the House, includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the rich, that can only be partially paid by cutting key programs that could turn the working poor into the non-working destitute.
The GOP used to present itself as the protector of free markets and stewards of the economy. For years, they preached that “uncertainty” rattled markets and should be avoided. Then, these fanatical frauds reelected Trump, a veritable uncertainty machine, who tanks the volatile market every time he flaps his paper-thin lips. If he doesn’t shut up, they will soon have to rename the 401k, the 101k—with stocks freefalling from America’s schizophrenic, unstable economic policies.
The right made a big show of protecting children. Yet, it shrugged this week when a Texas child died from measles. The child was unvaccinated, thanks to misinformation spread from people like Health and Human Services director Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
With so much head-spinning, double-talk from soulless Republicans, it’s difficult to know which act of governmental vandalism is most damaging to America. I would say that “Conservative Cancel Culture” is probably the most imminent threat domestically. Without access to accurate information, the fascists can blur fact and fiction to disorient citizens. Once there is no objective truth—the “facts” are what Donald Trump and Elon Musk say they are.
If you’ve visited X (formerly Twitter) lately, you understand what this bizarre fantasy world looks like. It consists of outrageous lies spewed, in rapid succession, by Musk in the service of Trump. The mistruths are multiplied by subservient right-wing influencers, ensuring the lies are seen millions of times before they can be refuted by a decreasing number of independent, underfunded, fact checkers. The result is millions of fools confidently spouting disinformation and burying truth in a very deep grave.
To complete their plot to overthrow reality and permanently seize power, MAGA knows that it must destroy the free press. Since 2016, they demonized the media as “fake news”, even as their own right-wing outlets habitually dissembled. Most notably they peddled the Big Lie conspiracy of Joe Biden stealing the election from Trump. Fox News’ transgressions were so outrageous, they reached a whopping $787 million settlement for its election lies and was forced to fire Tucker Carlson, its highly rated white supremacist star.
As Trump rapidly moves to tighten his grip and consolidate power, it is no longer enough to belittle and intimidate the media. He is simply moving to replace seasoned journalists from respected news outlets with subservient lackeys posing as reporters, who work at dedicated propaganda centers.
Trump unceremoniously removed The Associated Press from covering the White House because they refused to go along with Trump’s childish renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. Next, the White House staged a media coup by replacing The White House Correspondents’ Association as the entity that decides who makes up the press pool.
In its typical Orwellian way, the administration defended its authoritarian move by saying that reporting on the White House is a privilege, not a right. But access to a free press is a right central to maintaining our democracy and enshrined in the United States Constitution.
Clearly, Donald Trump is a thin-skinned autocrat who can only countenance obedient parrots, instead of dealing with an uninhibited press. Trump clumsily replaced long-standing members of the press pool, such as The Huffington Post, Reuters and The Associated Press, with slavish, bootlicking lackeys.
New members covering the White House include The Blaze, a right-wing media outlet founded by Glenn Beck, and Newsmax, the closest thing we have to North Korea-style state TV. Soon the press pool may be so supine it will be renamed “The Press Poodle”.
Another threat to the free media are greedy, conniving billionaire owners who break the number one rule of beating back fascism: Never obey in advance. This historical lesson has clearly been lost on Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.
In obeisance to Trump, the billionaire announced his newspaper’s opinion page would only write in favor of “personal liberties and free markets”, whatever the hell that pablum means. In response, the well-respected Washington Post opinion section editor, David Shipley, resigned in protest.
It is my view that Bezos believes that Trump will soon tire of the chronically irritating, and frequently boring, Elon Musk. Like Musk, Bezos owns a space company that would stand to benefit from billions of dollars in federal contracts if Musk is jettisoned from Trump’s orbit. So, Bezos has huge incentives to stay in Trump’s favor.
“The oligarchs kissing the ring, the lawsuits against the media, the constraints on which media should be in the White House pool, and which are not — all that sounds familiar,” said Yevgenia Albats, a top Russian journalist who had to flee Moscow to evade arrest from Vladimir Putin after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Enforcing conservative cancel culture goes far beyond the media and extends into the arts. Trump staged a hostile takeover of the esteemed John F. Kennedy Center and promptly cancelled a concert featuring The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., and the National Symphony Orchestra. The concert was scheduled for late May to kick-off the WorldPride 2025 festival in DC. (It’s only a matter of time before Kid Rock is slated to perform or a one-man show by Scott Baio)
Following Trump’s conquering of the Kennedy Center, his censorious troglodytes fanned out across Washington looking for arts programs to nix under the guise of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Enormous pressure led to The Art Museum of the Americas, a cultural venue run by the Organization of American States, canceling two upcoming shows, one featuring Black artists from across the Western Hemisphere and the other showcasing LGBTQ artists from Canada.
This is a perverse version of DEI in reverse, where white artists are promoted by the government, solely due to the color of their skin. Meanwhile, the talent of black or gay artists is dismissed and they are downgraded as DEI beneficiaries, regardless of their talent or accomplishments.
A rare silver lining of the new Trump administration is that it clarifies who the right wing truly is and always was. It is a two-faced authoritarian Cancel Culture cult that only cares about liberal defeat, rather than genuine debate.
They never believed in liberty, democracy or freedom and cunningly bandied these words about like cheap props—in the same way they desecrate the Constitution while insincerely wrapping themselves in the flag. It turns out their “beliefs” were not closely held tenets, but cheap theatrics and devious tactics to gain political advantage.
The wolf has shed its sheep’s clothing, with the overreach of “conservative correctness” far surpassing liberal “political correctness”. The progressive brand could, at times, be trying—but the dangerous MAGA-version is outright totalitarian. It is a new McCarthyism that must be staunchly confronted and ultimately defeated if we are to continue living in a free country.