In 2017, “Saturday Night Live” uncorked a riotous “‘Woke Jeans’ commercial” tied to the growing woke movement.
The clip proved an exception to the mainstream comedy rule. Woke was more or less off limits to “SNL,” Late-Night hosts, and film comedies, despite a dearth of material.
Insane cultural rules. Virtue-signaling politicians. Identity Politics gone wild. The comic possibilities seemed endless.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Levi&#039;s Wokes - SNL" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/adPXDTvADD0?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>
&nbsp;
Nothing to laugh about here. Move along. Only Comedy Central’s “South Park” regularly targeted the cultural scourge via PC Principal, trans athletes in women’s sports, and related gags.
Now, things are changing. It’s suddenly acceptable to mock the progressive overreach.
The new movie “Eddington” takes direct aim at woke, along with COVID-19 restrictions, conspiracy theorists and BLM sloganeering.
Director Ari Aster’s film isn’t one-sided or brimming with lectures. It takes us back to May 2020, a time when the George Floyd riots were raging across America and government rules made citizens mask up to stop the virus’ spread.
<div id="attachment_955565" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-955565" class="wp-image-955565 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738-1024x576.jpg" alt="Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in “Eddington” (2025) A24. Square Peg Productions. 828 Productions. IMDB." width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in “Eddington” (2025) A24. Square Peg Productions. 828 Productions. IMDB.</div>
The story unfolds in a fictional small town in New Mexico, one about to be rocked by dueling social contagions.
It’s uncomfortable to watch and often hilarious, mocking both Alex Jones types and white teens desperate to be woke. The latter ape the progressive talking points of their big-city peers, desperate to fit in and appear cool.
Heck, one newly woke teen just wants to “get” with a pretty girl, and he’ll virtue all the signals he can to make that happen.
The film’s biggest laugh? A white teen explains his “privilege” to his parents, and his father snaps back at him.
“Are you a f***ing retard? You’re white.”
Aster’s films aren’t blockbusters, but his arthouse musings represent mainstream artistic values. And, yes, he went there. So much so that a New York Times <a href="https://x.com/matthewschmitz/status/1947120245329576009">film critic</a> literally <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/ny-times-eddington-director-mocking-blm/">cursed him out</a> for inserting those gags in his film.
<blockquote>“F*** you, Ari Aster. Really, seriously. It’s so easy to mock these things. People are still dying from COVID. We may no longer be living in a pandemic… I just don’t find it funny, and I find it really important for people to, I think white people should interrogate their f***Ing whiteness, and I think Ari Aster should start.”</blockquote>
Triggered.
<div id="attachment_955653" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-955653" class="size-large wp-image-955653" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2215538204-864x576.jpg" alt="CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 17: (L-R) Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal, Ari Aster, Joaquin Phoenix and Austin Butler pose during the &quot;Eddington&quot; photocall at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 17, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2215538204-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2215538204-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2215538204-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2215538204.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Andreas Rentz/Getty Images</div>
The recent horror-comedy “Ick” from provocateur Joseph Kahn also tees-off on woke overreach. The story follows another small town where calamity strikes. This time, the danger comes from a mysterious plant-like substance that goes from benign to deadly.
The menace allows Kahn to satirize American culture, conspiracy mongers (again) and that woke mind virus. Virtue signaling takes it on the chin, as do students talking like an unproduced Lena Dunham sitcom.
It’s far from flattering.
Those eager for a deeper dive into woke excess can read “The Sandersons Fail Manhattan.&#8221; Author Scott Johnston’s biting satire follows a rich New York family caught up in the city&#8217;s progressive mania. A fancy prep school is desperate to recruit its first trans student, while the story&#8217;s patriarch must learn if his colleague is gay enough to satisfy key DEI requirements.
<div id="attachment_955657" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sandersons-Fail-Manhattan-Novel/dp/1250384788"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-955657" class="size-large wp-image-955657" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-384x576.jpg" alt="Cover Credit: St. Martin's Press" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-1360x2040.jpg 1360w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-12-42-PM-5680-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>Cover Credit: St. Martin&#8217;s Press</div>
While “Eddington” and “Ick” take shots at woke, “Manhattan” is a full-on assault against Identity Politics and its cultural tendrils. No apologies.
Even comedians can shred woke pieties from major platforms without fear of reprisal and tell jokes that the woke mob deemed off limits.
Last year, the comedy roast format roared back to life with Netflix’s “tribute” to NFL great Tom Brady.
More recently, stand-up comic Shane Gillis proved that anew. Gillis, starring in Netflix’s rowdy comedy “Tires,” is a walking, talking testament to woke’s cultural decline. The comedian got hired, and promptly fired, by “SNL” for crude comments tied to Asian culture. Rather than fade into obscurity, Gillis went back to work, rebuilding his career.
His star rose so high that “SNL” invited him to host the program – twice – without censoring his rebellious streak.
<div id="attachment_955665" style="width: 835px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-955665" class="size-large wp-image-955665" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225471382-825x576.jpg" alt="HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - JULY 16: Shane Gillis speaks onstage during the 2025 ESPY Awards at Dolby Theatre on July 16, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)" width="825" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225471382-825x576.jpg 825w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225471382-300x209.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225471382-768x536.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225471382.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 825px) 100vw, 825px" />Kevin Winter/Getty Images</div>
More recently, he emceed the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shane-gillis-destroys-the-espys-and-wokeness">ESPY Awards</a>, mocking woke sacred cows like former soccer player Megan Rapinoe, a progressive scold synonymous with virtue signaling.
“Megan Rapinoe could not make it tonight … nice.”
A few media outlets grumbled about his “problematic” material. No Cancel Culture-style punishment ensued, nor was he forced to make a “hostage”-style apology.
Now, a rare voice eager to mock the woke mindset returns to do more of the same. “Beavis &amp; Butt-head” creator Mike Judge took an early swing at woke with his failed 2009 ABC sitcom “The Goode Family.” The show proved ahead of its time, teasing a hard-Left clan who strained to be better than, well, everyone.
Now, Judge is using his “King of the Hill” reboot to satirize gender fluidity, cultural appropriation and more on Hulu starting August 4.
Judge isn’t as merciless as Johnston, but his “Hill” gags give the game away. One episode finds wokesters attacking Bobby Hill, now a young man and overseeing a fusion restaurant. The menu in question sparks cries of cultural appropriation, leaving the Hill clan confused and upset.
The show finds a resolution, albeit one that illustrates the wobbly nature of woke criticism.
Has the pop culture dam finally broken on all things woke? The re-election of Donald Trump pushed the pendulum, hard, in that direction. We’re seeing the fruits of that shift now in pop culture.
More may follow.
And, if “SNL,” late-night TV and mainstream comedies continue to avoid these juicy targets, their cultural clout will diminish even further. Just <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nyc-were-with-colbert-rally-draws-tens-of-people-even-cops-go-home">ask Stephen Colbert how that works</a>.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

MixCollage-01-Aug-2025-11-14-AM-5738

Triggered Yet? Pop Culture’s Woke Takedown Has Begun

Triggered Yet? Pop Culture's Woke Takedown Has Begun

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Last month, Marvin Lee Mutch, a convicted child murderer who was charged with drowning 13-year-old Cassie Riley in 1974, was arrested for possessing child sex abuse material, an illegally owned firearm, ammunition, and a controlled substance. After 40 years in San Quentin Prison, Mutch was released in 2016, thanks to the efforts of an organization called the Innocence Project. This isn’t the first time the group has argued for the release of a criminal who has gone on to harm new victims.
Consider Robert Roberson, a Texas death row inmate whose 2024 case flooded headlines. Described by the Innocence Project as a “child-like” autistic father, Roberson gained the sympathies of many prominent figures on both sides of the political aisle. Days before Roberson’s set execution date of October 17, 2024, CNN’s Jake Tapper conducted a sympathetic interview with the detective who worked on Roberson’s case, who called for Roberson to be spared the death penalty. Dr. Phil, RFK Jr., and Bret Weinstein, conservative allies whom I believe to be well meaning, also defended Roberson and called for a stay of his execution. The Innocence Project led the charge on Roberson’s behalf, persuading the public and Texas lawmakers that a grieving, autistic father had been wrongly blamed for the 2002 murder of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki. The group claimed Roberson’s conviction was based on “debunked” Shaken Baby Syndrome and an accidental bed fall. Who can blame one for rushing to Roberson’s defense when presented with this story? It tugs on the heartstrings and demands justice. However, to maintain this narrative that captivated so many well-meaning people, the Innocence Project left out the damning details that actually led to Roberson’s conviction.
Nikki, just 2 years old, died in Roberson’s care. According to the testimonies delivered during Roberson’s trial, Nikki’s injuries were consistent with brutal abuse. ER Nurse Andrea Sims testified Nikki had a handprint on her face, a “mushy” skull, and her entire brain shifted from trauma. Dr. John Ross, the pediatrician who examined Nikki, testified that he ruled out a fall, insisting the trauma had to have been caused intentionally. Nurse Kelly Gurganus described Nikki’s blue skin, unlike anything she’d seen, even in drownings. Dr. Thomas Konjoyan, the ER physician who examined Nikki, confirmed her brain was pushed to death by uncal herniation — an injury no bed fall could cause. 
It gets worse. Nurse Sims found three anal tears and abnormal rectal laxity, signs of sexual assault. Roberson confessed to a cellmate he put his penis in Nikki’s mouth and rubbed it on her. His ex, Della Gray, testified he abused her children, leaving bruises and a hickey on one. His own mother warned he’d kill Nikki. With 17 arrests, including felonies, Roberson is no victim. Yet the Innocence Project paints him as a misunderstood Forrest Gump.
Now, Roberson’s fate hangs in the balance as he awaits his new execution date. Attorney General Ken Paxton has signaled that he’ll continue seeking justice for Nikki. Will Texas legislators join him in this fight, or will they cave to IP’s anti-justice demands?
So why would the Innocence Project defend such a man? The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by O.J. Simpson’s lawyers Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, is a radical left-wing organization that uses these kinds of misleading cases of supposed wrongful convictions to erode public confidence in capital punishment. They freed O.J. despite blood evidence and use the same tactics to pursue their ultimate goal of abolishing the death penalty at all costs. And it seems to be working: since 1992, public support for the death penalty has dropped from 80% to 53%, fueled by their sob stories about “wrongly” convicted killers like Roberson. They erode trust in our courts, claiming a “broken system” while ignoring victims like Nikki.
Their leadership exposes their bias. Executive Director Christina Swarns, a former NAACP lawyer, saved cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose guilt is undeniable. Board member Alondra Nelson praises Black Panthers and pushes DNA testing for slave reparations. Yusef Salaam, of Central Park Five fame, campaigned for Kamala Harris. Cedric Alexander, an Obama advisor, demonizes January 6 protesters. Ekow Yankah wrote he won’t let his children befriend white people. Bankrolled by George Soros’s Open Society, Mackenzie Scott, and even taxpayer dollars through the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, they’re activists, not impartial advocates.
Conservatives should view The Innocence Project like BLM: a radical leftist group using toxic empathy to twist our compassion and godly desire for justice, just to push a dangerous agenda.
* * *
Allie Beth Stuckey is a conservative commentator, host of the podcast “Relatable,” and New York Times bestselling author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Toxic-Empathy-Progressives-Christian-Compassion/dp/0593541944/ref=sr_1_1?crid=UANYF7F4G527&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SR4Z9YTZBiD-LIyJWIe2NqrPQSJrs7v_SeJwqdKhprgz4bRzXt9yi_yz87GrsiKreKNDkh5cktyvWqnwYqCvq-AAWTJyW9idmKxIIFSxmJU.Q-uGoH9skFCMDxfjq4I70mRhShGY4nULiXDRrFrj1Nw&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=Toxic+Empathy%3A+How+Progressives&amp;qid=1749579102&amp;sprefix=toxic+empathy+how+progressives%2Caps%2C55&amp;sr=8-1">Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion</a>&#8220;
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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The markets are responding positively to a vast shift in the direction of the Trump economic policy direction (a little change that I&#8217;ve been calling for since well before Liberation Day). I&#8217;m very happy about it as well.
There’s a reason that&#8217;s vitally important: Right now, the Republicans have a lot of running room, and one of the reasons they have a lot of running room is because the Democrats continue to be insane.
I don&#8217;t just mean they&#8217;re insane in terms of their policy preferences, although many of those policy preferences are quite crazy. I mean, culturally speaking, the Democrats seem determined to do ridiculous things. People on the Left in big cities continue to push ridiculous policies and imagery that is going to make them more unpopular, which gives Republicans a lot of running room.
Here&#8217;s the latest bizarre example, although it&#8217;s symptomatic of a broader crisis inside the Democratic Party, courtesy of Times Square in Manhattan.
There is a brand-new 12-foot statue in Times Square titled “Grounded in the Stars” by an artist named Thomas J Price. What is this 12-foot tall statue that is “grounded in the stars?”
It appears to be a slightly to moderately overweight black woman wearing jeans that are too tight for her, wearing a T-shirt that she apparently got at Walmart, and staring angrily at the cashier at CVS.
There&#8217;s nothing about this that is aspirational. There&#8217;s nothing about this that is inspiring. This person is completely anonymous. We have no idea what makes her a hero or heroine.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2195-member-exclusive?elementPosition=2&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Apparently, just being kind of grumpy in front of a TSA agent is enough to make you one of the heroes of American society. The statue was meant to be a stark contrast to two other statues in Duffy Square: One of Father Francis Duffy and the other of George M. Cohan, the founder of Broadway, the Great White Way. 
Father Duffy was a Canadian-American soldier, a Catholic priest and a military chaplain who served in the 69th Infantry Regiment on the Western Front in France during World War I. Duffy Square is named for him.
These are actual-heroic and world-changing figures.
But the new statue is meant to be a contrast, because this person is just a person who might need a dose of Ozempic and looks frumpy and mad and uninspiring.
According to the website for this particular work, the statue was created with the idea of “disrupting traditional ideas.” The Left is constantly attempting to disrupt traditional ideas.
But perhaps a traditional idea is good, such as, “You should have to do something heroic for us to build you a statue.” It shouldn&#8217;t just be a random black lady, although I do understand that for the Left, the basic idea is that every hero of the past is actually a villain, and the only person for whom you put up a statue is a person who is completely anonymous, has no background, no bad social media posts, and never did anything. Those are the people to whom we should build statues.
There&#8217;s nothing from the statue that makes this person in any way important to anyone else, and yet this self-centered statue is supposed to represent the future of America and the future of Western civilization.
According to the website, “Price&#8217;s work offers viewers a unique opportunity to experience Times Square in a new light and share in a moment of personal reflection and empathy amidst the hyperactivity of the district.”
That&#8217;s ridiculous. The whole thing is ridiculous. If you just want to see random people standing around in Times Square, you could do that with random, actual humans. You don&#8217;t need a 12-foot statue to accomplish this.
It&#8217;s silly, but that silliness has an underlying depressing message: There is no such thing as heroism. There is no such thing as iconic status that can be achieved by accomplishment. The only thing worth worshiping is a bizarre narcissism of do-nothingism.
If that&#8217;s the sort of stuff the Left wants to embrace, the Right has a lot of running room.

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NPR chief exec. Katherine Maher is being likened to “the blonde version of Robin DiAngelo” after an exchange between her and a Texas Rep. went viral on Wednesday, revealing old tweets claiming that &#8220;America is addicted to white supremacy&#8221; and &#8220;How white of me.&#8221;
Maher appeared flustered as Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) confronted Maher with several tweets from before her tenure at NPR during a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-american-airwaves-gop-lawmakers-grill-nprpbs-execs-over-institutional-bias">congressional hearing</a> on Wednesday, one of which where she claimed to have taken time off to read &#8220;The Case for Reparations,&#8221; a 2014 essay by woke activist, Ta-Nehisi Coates.
When pressed about the contents of the text, Maher appeared flustered and said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever read that book, sir.&#8221;
&#8220;You tweeted about it. You said you took a day off to fully read &#8216;The Case for Reparations.&#8217; You put that on Twitter in January of 2020,&#8221; Gill countered, to which Maher responded, &#8220;I apologize. I don&#8217;t recall that I did. Okay. I&#8217;d no doubt that your tweet there is correct, but I don&#8217;t recall that.&#8221;
The hearing revealed an extensive backlog of controversial tweets from Maher; when questioned about a tweet claiming &#8220;America is addicted to white supremacy,&#8221; Maher acknowledged making the statement but claimed, &#8220;much of my thinking has evolved over the last half-decade.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Catching a Liberal White Lady tweeting in 2020 that she took a day off to fully absorb a v. important book about reparations, and making her admit under oath she probably didn&#39;t read it after all is an all-timer of Liberal White Lady moments. <a href="https://t.co/ErGUfVVN23">https://t.co/ErGUfVVN23</a>
&mdash; Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) <a href="https://twitter.com/mkhammer/status/1904966542712000942?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Gill pressed on with Maher’s greatest hits, with Maher doing her best to deflect: &#8220;I grew up feeling superior. How white of me&#8221; and another supporting reparations that read: &#8220;Yes, the North, yes, all of us, yes, America, yes, our original collective sin and unpaid debt, yes, reparations, yes, on this day.&#8221;
The exchange intensified when Gill questioned Maher about her views on looting during the 2020 protests. Though she eventually acknowledged looting is &#8220;morally wrong,&#8221; Maher initially described it merely as &#8220;counterproductive&#8221; and had previously tweeted, &#8220;It&#8217;s hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression.&#8221;
NPR receives approximately $30 million annually in federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with taxpayers contributing to an organization now led by an executive whose past statements have raised questions about objectivity in public media.
The congressional hearing revealed Maher appeared unprepared for questions about her digital footprint despite her leadership role at a major media organization.
When confronted with her own words supporting the controversial concept of reparations, Maher attempted to reframe her past advocacy.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t believe that was a reference to fiscal reparations, sir,&#8221; Maher testified when presented with her tweet explicitly supporting reparations.
&#8220;What kind of reparations was it a reference to?&#8221; Gill pressed.
&#8220;I think it was just a reference to the idea that we all owe much to the people who came before us,&#8221; Maher responded, prompting Gill to call her explanation &#8220;a bizarre way to frame what you tweeted.&#8221;
Right-wing commentators praised Gill on X, with Megyn Kelly <a href="https://x.com/megynkelly/status/1904986433581969533">saying</a> that she “could not love this any more,” and Christopher Rufo <a href="https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1904933514635862132">dubbing</a> Maher the “the blonde version of Robin DiAngelo.”

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In Classic 'Liberal White Lady Moment,' NPR CEO Mocked For Old Tweets: 'How White Of Me'

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Road crews got to work on Monday destroying a massive street mural with painted lettering that read, “Black Lives Matter,” leading directly to the White House in Washington, D.C.
In videos and pictures that surfaced on X, construction workers with large construction equipment such as skip loaders started jack-hammering the 35-foot bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza, which were initially constructed along 16th Street NW, just down the street from the White House, following the death of George Floyd in 2020.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="LIVE: Washington, D.C., to remove &#039;Black Lives Matter&#039; street mural near White House" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BpilFvBTwEQ?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>
Fox News’s <a href="https://x.com/KatiePavlich/status/1899132556101976200">Katie Pavlich</a> wrote on X, “Black Lives Matter Plaza is being dismantled in Washington D.C.” Her post included videos of a machine tearing into the brick road and breaking up the bright yellow mural with the words “Black Lives Matter” painted on the strip of road that went for blocks. 
In another shot, a construction worker uses some kind of tool to continue breaking up the road.
<a href="https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1899112407647076638">Libs of TikTok wrote</a>, “After Trump demanded action and threatened to withhold funding:
– DC cleared out homeless encampments last week
– Black Lives Matter Plaza torn down today
Trump is making our Nation’s capital safe and beautiful again!”
One <a href="https://x.com/FordFischer/status/1899081363589911022">viral post</a> shared on social media read, “Right now: work crews just North of the White House to dismantle Black Lives Matter Plaza, 4.5 years since receiving this designation by DC local government. DC Mayor Bowser agreed to retire BLM Plaza following threats to federal funding from Congress.”
Several accounts noted that “America is Healing,” with one post that <a href="https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1899085434313113823">read</a>, “NOW: Crews have been deployed to Black Lives Matter Plaza outside the White House to DISMANTLE it. America is FINALLY healing!”
<a href="https://x.com/Huberton/status/1899133777143800197">One video</a> captured the machines ripping out the numerous <a href="https://x.com/OliLondonTV/status/1899139742752559590">black poles</a> in the road that lined both sides of the pathway.
The dismantling of the BLM Plaza comes after Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) proposed the city would lose federal funds from the government if it was not renamed to &#8220;Liberty Plaza,&#8221; as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sanity-is-making-a-comeback" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>. Following the comments, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser agreed to take apart the two-block-long plaza.
Bowser later shared a post on <a href="https://x.com/MayorBowser/status/1897039109434364388">X</a> that read, “The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a very painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference.”
Work will soon get underway to reconstruct the area with a project dedicated to celebrating the country’s 250th Anniversary next year, the <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/watch-dc-crew-begins-dismantling-black-lives-matter-plaza/">Free Beacon</a> noted.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sanity-is-making-a-comeback" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sanity Is Making A Comeback</a>

House Minority Leader McCarthy Hosts Back The Blue Bike Tour

WATCH: Black Lives Matter Plaza In D.C. Being Completely Demolished

Black Lives Matter

D.C.

Donald Trump

Politics

Washington

White House

Just a few days after BLM and Antifa set fire to a church outside the White House in the summer of 2020, the mayor of Washington D.C., Muriel Bowser, issued an emergency order. This wasn&#8217;t an order about restoring law and order to the streets of the nation&#8217;s capital, or punishing the vandals who had just destroyed property and assaulted Secret Service agents, or anything like that. Instead, Bowser made the decision to hire an elite team of eight artists — yes, eight artists — to meet up at around 3:30 a.m. in the morning. These artists&#8217; mission, if they chose to accept it, was to paint the words &#8220;BLACK LIVES MATTER&#8221; on two blocks of road, in giant fifty-foot-tall letters, just a few blocks from the White House. This street painting would be referred to as a &#8220;mural,&#8221; to give it some sense of grandeur, even though it&#8217;s really graffiti. Nobody knows why it required eight artists to paint three words in Times New Roman font. Maybe they needed one to do the painting and the other seven for spell check. It’s not clear.
But it was clearly a very deliberate decision to have this graffiti painted in secrecy, under the cover of darkness, like they were planning the Bin Laden raid. Apparently the reasoning was that white supremacists would be less likely to jump out of the bushes on 16th street and mess up the paint at 3:00 a.m., because as we all know, at that hour the white supremacists are too busy hunting for the cast of &#8220;Empire&#8221; in Chicago. So the BLM graffiti could be painted in peace. And then, by morning, everyone would awaken to see &#8220;BLACK LIVES MATTER&#8221; on the ground, and racism would be defeated. All of the klan members in Washington D.C. would see the words on the street and say to each other, “Geez, you know what, black lives really do matter.” And then they would throw off their pointy hat hats and go get jobs at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Of course, the actual plan was a lot more modest than that. The real goal was simply to annoy Donald Trump and impress &#8220;The Resistance,&#8221; which applauded any effort — no matter how petty — to advance the BLM scam. To that end, Muriel Bowser renamed the area with the alleged &#8220;mural&#8221; as &#8220;Black Lives Matter Plaza.&#8221; And then she <a href="https://x.com/MurielBowser/status/1269090846160412672" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted this message</a> on social media: &#8220;We turned on the night light for him so he dreams about #BlackLivesMatter Plaza.&#8221; Yes, according to Muriel Bowser, the plan was to have Donald Trump &#8220;dream about&#8221; some words they painted on the ground. And people loved it. This is the kind of tweet that, on Old Twitter, got tens of thousands of &#8220;likes&#8221; and non-stop praise in the replies. Anyone who disagreed was banned for hate speech.
Given that recent history, it&#8217;s actually kind of astonishing to see how Muriel Bowser and Democrat activists have reacted to Republicans&#8217; latest effort to get rid of BLM Plaza and the street graffiti. Congressman Andrew Clyde of Georgia recently introduced legislation that would strip D.C. of most of its federal funding unless they eliminate BLM plaza, rename it &#8220;Liberty Plaza,&#8221; and get rid of the graffiti. And instead of fighting back in any way, Democrats are rolling over. Muriel Bowser has already announced that the BLM writing is going to be removed from the street. Apparently the current plan is to replace it with artwork commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which is coming up next summer. And as various local news outlets are reporting, it&#8217;s not just the mayor who&#8217;s fine with this. One of the artists involved in creating the so-called &#8220;mural&#8221; doesn&#8217;t really seem to care either. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 BLM MURAL REMOVAL IS TOTALLY FINE" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o_jpuoDnDg8?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>
At this point, you have to go out of your way to find anyone in D.C. who cares about this graffiti being wiped away. The people who created it are now distancing themselves from the whole idea. So are a lot of local activists. We went from Mitt Romney saying &#8220;Black Lives Matter&#8221; as he marches along with Left-wing activists, to watching Left-wing activists pretty much disavow the whole thing. And it only took a few years.
To be fair, I did find at least one woman who seemed upset that this beautiful mural is being erased. Here&#8217;s what she told a local news station. As you&#8217;ll see, this woman is wearing a shirt about D.C. statehood, and she begins by talking about DEI, so it&#8217;s safe to say that the BLM mural isn&#8217;t exactly her primary focus. But she eventually gets around to implying that erasing the big yellow words on the street is a really bad idea. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 SOME SAY BLM MURAL REMOVAL TRAGIC" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fskega-onIo?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>
It&#8217;d be interesting to get this woman&#8217;s take on all the statues that Democrats have torn down over the years. That&#8217;s the kind of history she wants to see &#8220;erased.&#8221; But some words painted on a street five years ago — a monument to the total disaster of the BLM movement — is something that we supposedly need to preserve at all costs.
Of course, most people in the Democrat Party don&#8217;t think that way. They&#8217;re trying to distance themselves from this &#8220;mural&#8221; as quickly as they can. BLM — which was once a core, unifying pillar of the Democrat Party — has suddenly become a major political liability for Democrats. They can&#8217;t run away from it fast enough. This is progress, of course, in one sense. It&#8217;s a sign that Democrats are abandoning a movement that caused more than a billion dollars in property damage, resulted in multiple murders, suspended the right of self-defense in parts of the country, and kickstarted a nationwide de-policing effort that made this country far more dangerous.
At the same time, Democrats are not abandoning BLM because they&#8217;ve adopted a new, coherent ideology to replace it. They&#8217;re not committing themselves to a more responsible platform or anything like that. Instead, they’re flailing around in a state of total disarray, without any guiding principles whatsoever. They have no leadership and no direction of any kind. We are witnessing anarchy in the Democrat Party, after years of lockstep, disciplined messaging. And it&#8217;s not just the downfall of BLM Plaza that illustrates the chaos that&#8217;s unfolding.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mws-ep-1550-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
Last night the Left-wing outlet Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/03/06/democrats-disrupt-trump-speech-reaction" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that, in the wake of Donald Trump&#8217;s address to Congress, Democrats in Washington are now fighting among themselves about how terribly they came across. Apparently Democrats&#8217; leadership in Congress didn&#8217;t want any kind of props to be used, nor did they call for any kind of interruptions or heckling. And of course, all throughout Trump&#8217;s speech, Democrats were waving their little paddles around, making noise, turning their backs to Trump, rushing out of the chamber, and so on. So there was a complete breakdown of leadership, by all accounts. Axios quotes several Democrat congressmen, including Jared Golden and Tom Suozzi, as saying the outbursts were a major mistake. One Democrat put it this way: &#8220;Not standing for Trump would have been a fine strategy, but you need to separate him from the kid with cancer.&#8221;
But that’s the way it played out, because the Democrats are totally beholden to the most radical elements of their party. This is &#8220;ideological capture,&#8221; and the consequences are a lot more far-reaching than Democrats might like to admit. The issue for them is not simply that voters find their party to be completely unappealing, even though that&#8217;s obviously a serious problem. The bigger issue for Democrats is that voters are now going back and re-assessing how Democrats got to this point. Voters are thinking about everything else Democrats have said over the past decade or so. They&#8217;re wondering what other scams the party has been running.
That might explain why, according to a <a href="https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/econTabReport_uHE5Cxl.pdf#page36" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent poll</a> from The Economist and YouGov, only 48% of Americans support the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage. 38% of Americans oppose it, and the rest are unsure. To restate: Less than half of adult Americans want same-sex marriage to be recognized nationwide. Among political &#8220;moderates,&#8221; support for the nationwide legalization of gay marriage sits at just 51%. Among conservatives, it&#8217;s down to 20%. This is from a poll that was conducted just a few days ago, in the first days of March. Even among self-described liberals, support for gay marriage isn&#8217;t unanimous. It sits at around 84% in that demographic.
Just three years ago, YouGov <a href="https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/43775-51-34-americans-would-back-congress-passing-law-le" target="_blank" rel="noopener">measured</a> much stronger support for gay marriage, when people were asked the same question. A majority of Americans backed it. In other words, things are now so bad that Democrats are even losing ground on an issue that they thought was settled. They viewed gay marriage as a stepping stone to gender ideology, without realizing that the insanity of gender ideology would eventually make people take a closer look at gay marriage. And that was a major tactical error, because when it comes to the culture war, no argument is ever really settled. People on our side have said for years that the marriage debate is over. We lost. There’s nothing we can do. But that’s not true. It’s never over. After all, the “traditional” definition of marriage — which is to say the actual definition — was settled for thousands of years. Until it wasn’t.
The reality is that, just as quickly as America was overtaken by the moral panic of BLM and the emotional blackmail of trans activists, we can return to some semblance of sanity. It doesn&#8217;t take much. What conservatives need to do, as quickly as possible, is to capitalize on Democrats&#8217; weakness and start passing laws that reverse the derangement that&#8217;s been so dominant for so long. If conservatives do that, they might be able to drag more concessions out of Democrats than we ever thought possible. After all, no one thought they&#8217;d cave on the BLM movement as quickly as they have. But they did. And it stands to reason that they can be beaten on gender insanity and voter ID and open borders and all of their other &#8220;must-have agenda items&#8221; just as thoroughly. All Republicans have to do now is take advantage of their position of power and apply pressure, just like the congressman from Georgia did. In response, Democrats might howl and stomp their feet and wave paddles around. But in the end, they will lose.

Sanity Is Making A Comeback

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Muriel Bowser

President Trump

Same-Sex Marriage

Washington D.C.

There is one person that President Trump should pardon from federal charges forthwith. It would be incredibly controversial, but I think it is absolutely necessary.
That person is Derek Chauvin. President Trump should pardon Chauvin of federal charges. If we are talking about reversing the evils of the last several years in American life, COVID and its handling was obviously a massive evil; it destroyed the economy, set us on a path to fiscal insanity, disrupted children’s education and lives, and led to massive health-related cover-ups. It was horrifying all the way around.
But when it came to Black Lives Matter, the inciting event for the BLM riots that <a href="https://fee.org/articles/george-floyd-riots-caused-record-setting-2-billion-in-damage-new-report-says-here-s-why-the-true-cost-is-even-higher/">caused</a> $2 billion in property damage in the United States and set America&#8217;s race relations on their worst footing in my lifetime was the railroading of Chauvin in the death of George Floyd.
The evidence demonstrates that Chauvin did not, in fact, commit murder of Floyd. Floyd was high on fentanyl and had a significant preexisting heart condition. Floyd began saying he could not breathe while still in the car. Chauvin, for a large segment of the tape footage of the incident, had his knee on Floyd&#8217;s shoulder or back, not on his neck.
The autopsy of Floyd showed that he had no damage to his trachea, and he likely died of excited delirium. Even at trial, there were no accusations that Chauvin had committed a hate crime against or targeted Floyd because of his race.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2150-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Nonetheless, on the basis of extraordinarily scanty evidence and while there was massive pressure on the jury, the mayor of Minneapolis paid a settlement to the Floyd family. Jurors were being openly threatened and admitted as much. In the end, Chauvin was convicted on federal charges, pleading guilty to federal charges. 
Chauvin should be pardoned on those federal charges. It is worthwhile to remember that there is a man who is rotting in prison because the media decided — in the middle of 2020 — to turn a tragic law enforcement stop that ended with the death of a man (who had a significant problem with drugs and preexisting health problems) into the raison d’être of the entire 2020 election.
It led to vast chaos. It led to the destruction of racial comity in the United States, $2 billion in property damage, and a man rotting in prison who, the evidence demonstrates, certainly was not guilty beyond reasonable doubt in that case.
President Trump should really seriously consider pardoning Chauvin from federal charges.

Minneapolis, Minnesota. People gather at the government center to wait for the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd.

President Trump Should Pardon Derek Chauvin

Derek Chauvin

George Floyd

Minneapolis

Minnesota

Below is my letter to President Trump urging him to pardon Derek Chauvin. You can join the effort by signing the petition at: <a href="https://get.dailywire.com/pardon-derek/?_gl=1*rr7jnp*_gcl_au*OTE0NjE0NDkwLjE3MzcwNTE1NjU.*_ga*NDc2ODcwMzI0LjE3MjM1NTkzNzA.*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTc0MTExMjYxMy4zMjIuMS4xNzQxMTEyNjE4LjU1LjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener">pardonderek.com.</a>
* * *
Dear President Trump,
We write to urge you to immediately issue a pardon for Officer Derek Chauvin, who was unjustly convicted and is currently serving a 22-and-a-half year sentence for the murder of George Floyd and associated federal charges.
As you know, this was the inciting event for the BLM riots that caused $2 billion in property damage in cities across the United States and set America’s race relations on their worst footing in recent memory. Yet the evidence demonstrates that Derek Chauvin did not murder George Floyd.
George Floyd was high on fentanyl. He had a significant pre-existing heart condition. He was saying he could not breathe before he was even out of the car. Derek Chauvin, for large segments of the widely circulated video of the encounter, had his knee on George Floyd’s shoulder or back, not on his neck; this was confirmed by the autopsy, which showed no damage to George Floyd’s trachea. There was no accusation at trial that Derek Chauvin targeted George Floyd for his race.
Perhaps most significantly, there was massive overt pressure on the jury to return a guilty verdict regardless of the evidence or any semblance of impartial deliberation. This pressure took the form of threats, coercion, and intimidation. The Mayor of Minneapolis pre-judged the outcome of the trial and immediately issued a large settlement to the Floyd family. Then-President Biden, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and others pre-judged the outcome of the trial and took to national media to create pressure on the jury to go along with their preferred narrative.
Under these circumstances, there was no opportunity for blind justice to work, and a man is now rotting in prison because of it.
Make no mistake—the Derek Chauvin conviction represents the defining achievement of the Woke movement in American politics. The country cannot turn the page on that dark, divisive, and racist era without righting this terrible wrong.
Thank you for your commitment to ending the weaponization of the American justice system.
Sincerely,
Ben Shapiro

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin Arrested For George Floyd Death

Pardon Derek Chauvin: My Letter To Donald Trump

Google is eliminating diversity targets in its hiring process and has begun an extensive review of the “risks” posed by the company’s DEI programs, marking a major pullback in the tech giant&#8217;s approach to workforce representation.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the tech giant <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/google-kills-diversity-hiring-targets-04433d7c?mod=hp_lead_pos1">will no longer</a> set specific targets for boosting minority representation in its workforce.
This marks a major shift away from Google’s 2020 pledge to raise the proportion of underrepresented groups in management by 30% within five years. Google made this commitment along with several other tech companies following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent riots.
In an email to employees, Google said it was reviewing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that “raise risk, or that aren’t as impactful as we’d hoped” and noted recent court decisions and executive orders by President Trump aimed at limiting DEI programs. The company is also evaluating whether it will continue releasing annual diversity reports.
Black employees comprised 5.7% of Google’s U.S. workforce in 2024, an increase from 3.7% four years earlier, while Latino employees rose from 5.9% to 7.5%.
Google’s latest annual report released on Wednesday has omitted a pro-DEI sentence that had been present in the report since 2021.
That sentence stated that Google was “committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve.”
Google’s decision follows that of other major players in Silicon Valley, who are making similar moves to unwind or modify their own diversity targets and efforts.
Meta recently eliminated a team overseeing its diversity programs and ended formal goals for bringing in more women and minorities, with one senior human resources official telling employees that the “legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing.”
Around the same time, Amazon indicated it would wind down certain diversity-focused initiatives, and references to “diversity, equity and inclusion” being “good for business” were removed from the company’s website late last year.
Some companies have also quietly removed diversity language from official documents and public reports, hinting at a broader shift that extends beyond the tech sector.

LGBTQA+ pride flags in the Google sign to celebrate Gay Pride Month, Manhattan, New York

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