Extremist left-wing political movements often involve internal purges.
From the earliest days of Soviet Russia, Joseph Stalin built gulags for his political opponents and those who contested his rule. In China, Mao Zedong stressed ideological purity during the Great Leap Forward campaign of the 1960s.
The modern American Left dabbles in the habits of its foreign predecessors. When particular Leftists speak against Democratic orthodoxy, they are often denounced or castigated.
Here are five times the Left turned on its own.
Richard Dawkins
Famed atheist Richard Dawkins was canceled after he invited debate on the inconsistencies of transgenderism.
“In 2015, Rachel Dolezal, a white chapter president of NAACP, was vilified for identifying as Black. Some men choose to identify as women, and some women choose to identify as men. You will be vilified if you deny that they literally are what they identify as. Discuss,” Dawkins tweeted on April 10.
After receiving backlash on social media, the author of “The God Delusion” issued a follow-up tweet: “I do not intend to disparage trans people. I see that my academic ‘Discuss’ question has been misconstrued as such and I deplore this. It was also not my intent to ally in any way with Republican bigots in US now exploiting this issue.”
Dawkins — who is indeed no fan of “Republican bigots” — earlier supported Twitter’s banning of President Trump from its platform.
However, Dawkins faced a similar bout of cancel culture from Leftists. The American Humanist Association revoked Dawkins’ Humanist of the Year award from nearly three ago.
“Regrettably, Richard Dawkins has over the past several years accumulated a history of making statements that use the guise of scientific discourse to demean marginalized groups, an approach antithetical to humanist values,” said the group. “His latest statement implies that the identities of transgender individuals are fraudulent, while also simultaneously attacking Black identity as one that can be assumed when convenient.”
“His subsequent attempts at clarification are inadequate and convey neither sensitivity nor sincerity,” the statement added.
Alison Gill — an executive at American Atheists who self-identifies as transgender — likewise denounced Dawkins: “The progress of science has helped us better understand who we are as trans people… We need science communicators like Richard Dawkins to put in the time to learn this information and then communicate it clearly and accurately to the public, not reinforce dangerous and harmful narratives put forward by the opponents of equality.”
J. K. Rowling
Not even the author of the beloved “Harry Potter” series is safe from Leftist cannibalism.
J. K. Rowling, who identifies as a feminist, is hesitant to embrace the notions of gender fluidity and transgenderism. For instance, she criticized the use of the phrase “people who menstruate.”
“I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” she tweeted.
“If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased,” Rowling explained after a wave of backlash. “I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.”
“I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans,” she continued. “At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so.”
Another wave of cancellation washed over Rowling after she supported Maya Forstater, who lost her job with the Center for Global Development over “transphobic” tweets.
“I knew perfectly well what was going to happen when I supported Maya,” Rowling wrote in an article about the situation. “I must have been on my fourth or fifth cancellation by then. I expected the threats of violence, to be told I was literally killing trans people with my hate, to be called c*** and b**** and, of course, for my books to be burned, although one particularly abusive man told me he’d composted them.”
Rowling also mentioned that she had been accused of being a “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist” (TERF) by trans activists.
Kyrsten Sinema
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) was initially heralded as a progressive hero upon her election to the United States Senate. As she enters her third year in Congress, many Leftists are now decrying her as a traitor.
Sinema is the first openly LGBT woman to attain election to the Senate, and she is an adamant supporter of the LGBTQ+ movement. However, her opinions on other issues lean far more conservative than others in the Democratic Party.
In February, for instance, Sinema voted against an amendment that would have added a $15 minimum wage law to Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan. She bobbed her knees as she gave a thumbs-down to the policy, creating body language that reflected some degree of lightheartedness while offering the vote.
To this day, Sinema’s social media is filled with condemnation over the move. Even a tweet about her Minority Business Resiliency Act was “ratioed” — flooded with more comments than likes — due to Leftists criticizing her minimum wage vote.
“Help minorities by raising the minimum wage!” screeched one commenter. Another reshared a popular cartoon of Sinema wearing a mask emblazoned with the slogan “F*** The Poor.”
Tulsi Gabbard
Like Sinema, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is often ostracized within the Democratic Party due to her moderate views.
Gabbard faced criticism as one of the few Democrats who dared to meet with President Trump after his election.
Sherry Alu Campagna, an environmental scientist who sought to challenge Gabbard in the Democratic primaries, commented that “the wake up call, for most of us, came when Gabbard met with Trump soon after his inauguration and then with Assad, instead of marching on DC with us and the rest of the Hawaii’s congressional delegation during the Women’s March in protest of what has become an unprecedented abolition of human and civil rights in America.”
“The incumbent clearly has an agenda that does not involve her constituents and we are waking up to the fact that our needs are taking a back seat to her ambitions,” Campagna added.
An op-ed from The Los Angeles Times’ Brian Boyle — entitled “Tulsi Gabbard may not be a Russian asset, but she sure talks like one” — slammed Gabbard for appearing on Sean Hannity’s program to discuss impeachment.
“She snuck onto the Democratic debate stage this month as the low-polling 12th member,” wrote Boyle. “That’s right, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination stopped by Fox News on Thursday night to echo the muckiest, swampiest of Republican talking points.”
Boyle could not fathom the possibility of Gabbard holding views that do not perfectly align with the Democratic platform: “Gabbard is a tricky candidate to pin down. Her domestic policy positions graft rather cleanly with Bernie Sanders’ and Elizabeth Warren’s progressive platforms — in fact, she was one of Sanders’ fiercest supporters in 2016. She’s also a veteran, though holds staunch anti-interventionist views (which could be admirable in theory but in practice look like Trump’s blood-soaked abandonment of the Kurds).”
Kristen Day
For left-wing cultists, pro-life Democrats are intolerable apostates.
Kristen Day — who leads an organization called Democrats for Life — is routinely shunned by members of her party for defending unborn babies’ right to life. Her organization seeks to create “an inclusive culture of Democrats who oppose abortion and other systemic discrimination.”
Day gained national attention after she asked former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg whether pro-life voters belong in their party.
“I am a proud pro-life Democrat,” Day told Buttigieg during a Fox News town hall. “So, do you want the support of pro-life Democrats, pro-life Democratic voters? There are about 21 million of us, and if so, would you support more moderate platform language in the Democratic Party to ensure that the party of diversity and inclusion really does include everybody?”
Buttigieg responded by stating that “I am pro-choice, and I believe that a woman ought to be able to make that decision,” which other Democrats in the audience greeted with raucous applause. However, Day pointed out that Buttigieg refused to answer the second part of her question.
“The Democratic platform contains language that basically says that we don’t belong, we have no part in the party because it says abortion should be legal up to nine months; the government should pay for it,” said Day about pro-life Democrats. “And there’s nothing that says that people that have a diversity of views on this issue should be included in the party.”
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.