Longtime “Bachelor” host Chris Harrison is back for a new dating reality show after he was targeted by cancel culture in 2021 for defending a contestant who attended an Antebellum-themed party.
The teaser trailer for “The Vow,” which premieres November 11 on FOX Nation, subtly takes aim at his former gig, which launched the popular reality show host’s career. In the trailer, a man is seen adjusting his suit before the camera reveals his identity.
“Expecting someone else?” Harrison says as the words “Roses fade. True love lasts forever,” appear on screen. In the video, Harrison almost steps on a single red rose, which is a recognizable symbol from the long-running “Bachelor” and “Bachelorette” franchise.
The premiere season of “The Vow” will follow 30-year-old bachelor Jace Cates as he dates 10 women seeking marriage and long-term commitment, as the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/09/17/media/chris-harrison-teases-dating-show-return-with-roses-and-a-wink-at-his-bachelor-past">reported</a>. The series will reportedly focus on faith, family, communication, and shared values. 
“I’m so excited to be back helping people find love,” Harrison said, calling this project “the most authentic dating show on television today.”
Harrison added that it was inspired by the “faith-driven renaissance happening across America.”
The former “Bachelor” host posted on Instagram earlier this year that casting was open for the series, which was advertised as “dating for traditional marriage,” The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-bachelor-host-returns-to-tv-for-traditional-marriage-dating-show">reported</a>.
Harrison told The Daily Wire, “I will be coming back to TV to do what means the most to me: helping people find love. I want to do a show that is actually about finding that true love. I think that’s been lost, and I think we all want it back. Will there be drama along the way? Absolutely, but in the end it will always be about love.”
“The response to our casting announcement has been incredible,” the longtime reality show host continued. “People are talking, discussing, debating love and relationships; that’s what great reality TV is about. As for what the show is all about… I’ll turn to one of my favorite lines here: you’ll find out, after the break.”
Harrison parted ways with “The Bachelor” after 19 years of hosting the series following controversy stemming from his defense of a contestant accused of racism. 
The longtime host was attacked for defending Season 25 contestant Rachael Kirkconnell after she received backlash for attending an Antebellum-themed party before being cast for the show. 
“The picture was from 2018 at an Old South Antebellum party. That’s not a good look,” former bachelorette Rachel Lindsay told Harrison during an interview with “Extra” in February 2021.
“Is it a good look in 2018, or is it not a good look in 2021?” Harrison replied.
He said that the audience should “have a little grace, a little understanding, a little compassion” for Kirkconnell attending a party in 2018 when social etiquette was very different. These comments led to extreme backlash and eventually to Harrison resigning as the show’s host and issuing a formal apology.
In 2023, Harrison said leaving the show ultimately had a positive impact on his life.
“I still look at this as a blessing in my life. It was hard at first, obviously, it wasn’t immediate where I felt great about everything because what I went through was tumultuous. I don’t wish it on anybody,” Harrison said during a podcast interview in 2023.
“But, with that said, I knew I had to remove myself from what became a very toxic situation, and I did, and that was a very difficult situation,” he added. “I’m proud of that decision. I’m proud that I handled it the way I did and I still look at it as a blessing because it changed my life on so many levels.”

Chris Harrison

Former ‘Bachelor’ Host Attacked By Cancel Culture Announces New Faith-Inspired Dating Show

cancel culture

chris harrison

lifestyle

reality television

the bachelor

One of the cardinal rules I have for op-ed writers is to avoid opening lines that list three newsy things before introducing the unrelated subject you want to discuss.
“With a war in Iran, rising inflation, and a looming AI apocalypse, it can be easy to forget about railroad maintenance.” Something like that. It’s lazy and cheap, like opening an essay with “since the dawn of time.”
But today, I’m breaking my own rule. Because with a war in Iran, rising inflation, and a looming AI apocalypse, people on the right seem mostly concerned with a film adaptation of “The Chronicles Of Narnia.”
Are you kidding?
“Lady Bird” director Greta Gerwig is producing a movie version of “The Magician’s Nephew” for Netflix, a project with built-in buzz thanks to Gerwig’s last film, “Barbie,” another adaptation of a classic children’s property.
Things went haywire this week when it was confirmed that Meryl Streep would voice Aslan, the titular lion from “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” and one of the protagonists of the Narnia series.
Based on how conservatives reacted to this news, you would think that Ms. Gerwig dug ol’ Clive Staples Lewis out of his grave and used his bones in an X-rated puppet show.
It’s woke! It’s an attack on Christianity! It’s poisoning the youth! Aslan is Jesus and Jesus is a man so the lion has to be a boy!
Do you hear yourselves?
Before I really get into it, let me clarify a few things this piece is not. This is not some self-righteous argument that we shouldn’t care about the adaptation of a Christian fable because Christians are being persecuted in China (although, come to think of it, that’s not a bad argument). But no, culture is important. The stories we tell ourselves matter. I actually much prefer talking about culture than about things like macroeconomics. But that’s not why this is silly.
Nor is this a Christian apologetic in which I point out that, no matter how much Greta Gerwig tries to blaspheme Our Lord, He remains the King of Kings. Although, again, the latter is definitely true. But I don’t think Greta Gerwig is trying to subvert Christianity; I think she just wanted to cast Meryl Streep. And, even if she were, having a symbolic Christ voiced by a woman is at least the fourth worst thing ever to happen to Jesus, after <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ">Piss Christ</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godspell">Godspell</a>, and, you know, the Crucifixion.
No, this freak-out is not worth our time because we’re talking about a film adaptation of a children’s book about an anthropomorphic lion.
Yes, I know Aslan is supposed to be Jesus. But he’s not. He’s a lion. And they’re different. The reason I know they’re different is that every Sunday when I take my family to church, we don’t kneel before a wooden carving of the king of the jungle.
I want to say this again, because I really don’t think conservatives who like “The Chronicles of Narnia” have internalized this. The lion is not Jesus. So, when commentator Kangmin Lee <a href="https://x.com/HumanEvents/status/2100655693850087609?s=20">says</a> the Gerwig adaptation is “a desecration of Lewis&#8217;s work,” I say: No, it’s not! You can’t desecrate that which isn’t sacred. And a fairy tale, no matter how inspired it may be by Christian teaching, is not holy.
So, no, you can’t get this mad that Greta Gerwig’s riff on Narnia is a David Bowie-inspired, gender-bent kaleidoscope. That’s what happens when you write fiction that enters the public domain or, as is the case here, is licensed to directors by the corporation that manages your estate.
It’s baffling to me that conservatives don’t get this. We Republicans are the party of reason, of reality, of “facts don’t care about your feelings.” We stand up and say that men can’t be women and criminals should go to jail and countries need secure borders and all these important things — and then we threaten to kill ourselves on social media because a hipster cast a lady to play a lion.
This isn’t just about this particular adaptation. Conservatives of a certain stripe are bafflingly obsessed with all of Lewis’s novels, as well as his pal J.R.R. Tolkien&#8217;s “The Lord of the Rings” franchise. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as nerdy as the next guy, and I like these books fine. But folks on the Right have imbued these retellings of the Bible with such meaning that they have a news cycle’s worth of a meltdown whenever someone dares change or criticize them.
This is dumb, just like it was dumb to freak out that “Hamilton” said our first Treasury secretary was a rapping Puerto Rican. Artists are generally liberal, and liberals love to do things like this. Some, like “Hamilton,” are good. Others, like most modern adaptations of Shakespeare, are bad. I don’t know where Gerwig’s “Narnia” film will fall, but I’ll tell you this: I would much rather my children watch a movie with a female Jesus lion than see any of the tantrums my fellow conservatives threw about said big cat.
Last month, liberals lost their collective mind when a golf company released an ad that depicted a man body-checking a woman. Our editor-in-chief Brent Scher rightly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maybe-we-shouldnt-destroy-an-entire-golf-brand-over-one-dumb-ad">chastised</a> the woke mob, saying, “Did I miss the time machine back into the height of cancel culture idiocy?”
He was right then, just as I’m right now. We on the Right tend to be better than most about this stuff, but when it’s our favorite things at stake, we clutch our pearls as ferociously as any blue-haired bozo. But we are, and ought to be, better than that. Some things — most things — matter more than Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia” movie. On some level, we all know better. We should act like it.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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Aslan Isn’t Jesus. He’s A Lion.

greta gerwig

meryl streep

narnia

netflix

opinion

When historians look back on this moment in America, one event will define it: the Lindsay Clancy trial. It epitomizes a profound social bifurcation fueled by years of rising tension between Truth and &#8220;My Truth&#8221;; autonomy and cancel culture; virtue and validation. It exposes a culture that trades enduring principles for moral hierarchies built on identity and outward symbolic preening — favoring performative social justice over actual justice, and victimhood over courage. Twenty-five years after 9/11, when we vowed to “Never Forget,” we have done exactly that — willingly. This collective amnesia is not just about the events of that day or the wars that followed, but the abandonment of a fundamental belief in America itself, a rot that has permeated every aspect of society.
Our heroes have left, except for one. He is the avatar of what is missing: a man who refuses to bend the knee to a coven of emotionally self-indulgent victim-mongers, breaking the race-trained guilt mind simply by being Black. Marvel couldn’t write a better character to shatter progressive priors if it tried. It is unsurprising that the white, senior-citizen jurors practically choked over their acknowledgment of Juror #5’s skin color. After all, they were cast straight from central casting for the last decade’s worth of Kendi-style performative anti-racism scolding. How dare he not comply with their narrative? Even Gayle King had to reckon with this inconvenient truth.
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NEW: Lindsay Clancy juror Paula Devlin reveals on &#8216;CBS Mornings&#8217; that the lone, male holdout juror who voted to find Clancy guilty of murdering her children was the *only* person of color &#8212; a black man.
The 11 not-guilty jurors &#8212; who hectored him for a week to cave &#8212; were all white.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://x.com/CurtisHouck/status/2098380024369811488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Yet, hundreds of women at the courthouse and thousands more in the digital sewer of social media supported a murderer — unabashedly, proudly, and loudly. When the trial concluded in a mistrial due to a lone holdout, Juror #5, a collective gasp rippled across this deranged sisterhood. It is an indictment of our culture that only one person possessed the courage of his convictions to stand up to a jury room ready to grant Lindsay Clancy more compassion and sympathy than the three children she ruthlessly killed.
After the trial, one juror recalled evidence proving that Clancy “loved her children” and was, by all accounts, a “good mother.” Her kids were unavailable for comment.
Another juror suggested the prosecutors did more harm than good by “just not thinking about Lindsay.” Apparently, Juror #5 missed the memo that the perpetrator should be the primary focus of compassion.
Now this man, who should be lauded as a hero, has joined the ranks of the “problematic.” This is the crux of our modern crisis: society&#8217;s hero-villain dynamic is completely inverted. We arrived here because ordinary people decided it was best to prioritize a weaponized form of &#8220;compassion&#8221; where no one should ever feel unwelcome, where standards and judgments are dismissed as cruel, and where villains are merely misunderstood victims of an underlying systemic failure. This heroic juror is treated as the trial’s villain simply for daring to see Lindsay Clancy not as a victim, but as the murderer she confessed to being.
When a mother brutally and cruelly murders her own three young children, it is the act of a monster. I have three kids who are nearly the exact ages Cora, Dawson, and Callan were when their mother strangled them to death. This is the architecture of nightmares: that the last thing these precious children experienced was the person who gave them life, snuffing it out. In an America where right and wrong were objective and shared principles, justice for these three babies would have been swift and definitive. Instead, it devolved into a circus — a symptom of the clown-show society we have built on the ruins of our own complacency and indifference.
Twenty-five years after 9/11, it isn’t a foreign power or nuclear war that threatens to end us, but the systematic destruction of our heroes and the slow death of common sense to indulge a false concept of “inclusivity.” This brand of inclusivity is merely cover for codependent and cowardly people to hide behind so they never have to appear mean. Those who crave power and control have weaponized this weakness against an America that traded strength and confidence for peace without defense, and love without boundaries.
As Walker Percy wrote, “You live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.” America has lost the plot. We no longer distinguish the heroes from the villains. Three thousand innocent Americans die in the terrorist attacks of September 11, and our primary anxiety must be caution over “Islamophobia.” A nation’s cities are burned after a street criminal dies, and we apologize to the arsonists. Daniel Penny defends passengers against a violent threat, and he is the one put on trial. A woman murders her children, and we shield her behind a clinical label while demanding public sympathy. We end the lives of thousands of innocent babies in the womb and call it choice. We allow men and boys to invade women’s spaces and call it inclusion. We graduate millions of poor and minority kids from public schools without teaching them how to read or write and call it equity.
What America needs is to stop the nonsense. We must quit the empathy addiction. We must defend the heroes and condemn the villains. We need an America where Juror #5 is the norm, not the anomaly. Percy was right; we live in a deranged age. If we refuse to correct course, we walk a straight line toward the world Michel Houellebecq envisioned in Submission: “No doubt the Romans had felt that theirs was an eternal civilization, right up to the moment their empire fell apart. Were they suicides, too?&#8221;

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The Clancy Trial’s Juror #5 And The Last Stand For American Justice

crime

daniel penny

jury misconduct

lindsay clancy

A decade ago, putting Milo Yiannopoulos’ name on a university speaking calendar meant inviting violent student riots and salacious national headlines. Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him at the New Orleans airport and deported him to the U.K. It’s such a perfectly scripted ending to his American career that it almost seems ghostwritten. Which, in Milo&#8217;s case, would be appropriate.
&#8220;It was physically degrading. It was frightening. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever been frightened like that before,” Yiannopoulos said in an interview with Piers Morgan, a privilege not bestowed upon the average ICE deportee. In a piece in the Spectator, Yiannopoulos claimed that the ICE facility he was in was empty and that the Trump administration’s deportation policy was akin to a chess board lacking its pieces. But the experience, he said, opened his mind and his heart. &#8220;In the past,” he said, “I think I&#8217;ve been a little blasé when people talked about their trauma.&#8221; 
You think? Yiannopoulos dined off trauma for years, which briefly made him one of the most controversial figures in American politics. And now, we live in the world he helped make. 
The rise of a provocateur
After dropping out of university, Milo worked at the Catholic Herald, then moved into tech journalism around 2009, writing and blogging for the Daily Telegraph and contributing to TechCrunch. He cultivated a reputation as a nasty theatrical gadfly of the London startup scene. By 2012 Wired UK was literally describing him as a “provocateur” who liked to “provoke and irritate, often for its own sake.”
Then in late 2011 he co-founded The Kernel, a gossip publication whose pitch was basically: British technology journalism is timid and clubby, and we’re going to be meaner and more aggressive. It covered startups, internet culture, and media but also specialized in picking fights with people in the British tech establishment. In a 2012 profile, The Observer called him the “pit bull of tech media.” Forbes, rather grandly, called him “Digital Media’s Citizen Kane.” He enjoyed, he told Forbes, “seeing the wicked suffer.” 
Enter Gamergate, an internet pile-on against leftism (and sometimes just women) in the video game industry, which allowed Milo to discover that the same provocateur act had vastly greater commercial and political potential when aimed at feminism, political correctness, and the American culture war. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t recognize the potential of GamerGate to give the left a bloody nose,” he said in a 2015 interview. 
On September 1, 2015 Milo published a Breitbart piece titled “Feminist Bullies Tearing the Video Game Industry Apart.” “It’s easy to mock video gamers as dorky loners in yellowing underpants,” the column went in part. “I enjoy upsetting the right people,” he told the L.A. Times in 2015, adding that he wanted to push the boundaries of permissible online speech.
By 2016 Milo had gone from Gamergate provocateur to an enthusiastic Trump surrogate — not officially, but culturally. He called Trump “Daddy” and himself a “Trump-sexual.” He consciously designed this to irritate people. Asked why he called Trump Daddy, Milo said: “I wasn’t particularly attached to it until I saw how much it wound up liberals. And now I do it all the time.”
In July 2016, he told the Washington Post: “My career has taken off exponentially.” He called Trump “a perfect storm of everything I love in life.” The Washington Post noted that Breitbart Tech was publishing so many stories about Milo himself that it was effectively part news operation, part publicity machine.
Milo’s 2016-2017 “Dangerous Faggot Tour” made various college stops, hosted by groups including College Republicans, Young Americans for Liberty, and Turning Point USA. The presentation was deliberately theatrical. At UC Santa Barbara in May 2016, Milo entered a packed hall on a golden throne, wearing pearls, with a life-size Trump cutout waiting onstage. But there was a real constituency underneath the spectacle. One UCSB student told the campus newspaper: “I stopped being ashamed of my opinions and conservative values, so thank you.”
Campuses became an absurd flashpoint when Yiannopoulos appeared, culminating in a February 1, 2017, riot in Berkeley. About 150 masked agitators set fires, lit fireworks, broke windows, and attacked police. The university evacuated Milo and canceled the event. Trump threatened Berkeley&#8217;s federal funding over the canceled speech, leading Bill Maher to say “liberals always take the bait.” 
Twitter permanently banned Milo in 2016 for making fun of actress Leslie Jones’ reaction to bad reviews of her all-female &#8220;Ghostbusters&#8221; reboot. His followers unleashed a fusillade, causing her to leave Twitter with the sad message, “I have been called Apes.” From Milo’s point of view, this was a publicity bonanza. In front of a roaring crowd at an RNC party he was hosting in Cleveland, he said, “I just got banned from Twitter.” 
By December, Simon &amp; Schuster was offering him a reported $250,000 book deal. Milo&#8217;s description of that meeting is almost embarrassingly on-theme: “I thought they were going to have me escorted from the building.” Instead, he said, they offered him “a wheelbarrow full of money.” He added, “I don’t care about politics. I only talk about politics because of Trump.” 
But politics was also going to bring on his rapid downfall. 
Too much trolling
In 2016, Milo appeared on the Drunken Peasants podcast, discussing relationships between adult men and teenage boys, attacking age-of-consent laws, and speaking about his own sexual experiences with an older Catholic priest. On Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017, the conservative anti-Trump account The Reagan Battalion pushed the old footage back into circulation specifically as Milo was about to appear at CPAC. Milo found himself backed into the tightest of corners, forced to say, “I do not support pedophilia. Period.”
By the next day, CPAC had rescinded his invitation. Chairman Matt Schlapp said: “There is no disagreement among our attendees on the evils of sexual abuse of children.” The day after that, Milo lost his book deal. Then, on Tuesday, Feb. 21, he resigned as Breitbart&#8217;s senior editor. He insisted, “This decision is mine alone,” although the Washington Post reported that Breitbart staffers had been discussing leaving if he remained. His public explanation was that his “poor choice of words” was distracting from his colleagues&#8217; work.
Milo still had an audience after the crash. He self-published &#8220;Dangerous&#8221; in July 2017. Then he sued Simon &amp; Schuster for $10 million for breach of contract. The litigation became embarrassing when the publisher&#8217;s editorial notes on his manuscript entered the record; by February 2018, Milo abandoned the suit. He said he didn&#8217;t want to spend his book profits and another two years litigating it. 
By late 2018, documents assembled by former Australian tour promoters indicated that Milo was more than $2 million in debt. The alleged creditors included $400,000 owed to the Mercer family, $153,215 to former lawyers, $76,574 to longtime ghostwriter Allum Bokhari — and $20,000 to Cartier. Milo disputed the characterization, saying these were “company debts, not personal” and claiming he was earning $40,000 a month.
He pleaded for money on Patreon, saying, “I’ve had a miserable year or two, banned and de-platformed and censored and blacklisted.” In 2022, he revealed that he was “ex-gay” after going through Catholic conversion therapy. He became an unpaid intern for Marjorie Taylor-Greene. In 2022, he entered Kanye West&#8217;s chaotic political orbit, becoming involved with Ye&#8217;s prospective 2024 presidential campaign alongside Nick Fuentes. He was fired, later rehired in 2023 as Ye&#8217;s director of political operations, and eventually became Yeezy’s chief of staff.
And now he’s a deportee, who — in his time — was ahead of his time. 
The modern political influencer who suddenly changes positions without integrity, manufactures stupid feuds, treats attention as ideological capital, converts cancellation into marketing, and makes his personality more important than his ideas is utterly normal now. Milo looks dated and pathetic in 2026 partly because the culture has thoroughly absorbed the techniques that made him freakishly novel in 2015.
In ICE, the great proto-troll finally encountered an institution that wasn&#8217;t arguing with him, quote-tweeting him, protesting him, interviewing him, or buying tickets to hate-watch him. It just put him on an airplane. No one waved goodbye. 
***
Neal Pollack, “the greatest living American writer,” is the author of 12 semi-bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction and is a three-time “Jeopardy!” champion.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

&lt;&gt; on August 31, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Rise, Fall, And Deportation Of The Original Political Troll

deportation

gamergate

milo yiannopoulos

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I wasn’t trying to desert. As a storyteller and special education (SpEd) teacher, more kid whisperer than liberal hack, I was sickened by my St. Paul, Minnesota bosses at Como Park High School cutting programming for vulnerable kids while blood, fights, and prostitution spread. In one Facebook post on February 29, 2016, about school iPads being used for bullying, drugs, fights, and whoring, I freaked parents out and wrecked my career.
I was patient zero in the oncoming race-plague that peaked with George Floyd’s death and the Summer of Love and ended with millions of dollars of destruction, thousands of reputations ruined, and the cruel deaths of people during what Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez so flippantly referred to as “Woke 1.”
Every year since I started teaching in 1999, the district has poured tax dollars into problems and failed. My boss called kids “scholars” and cut their programming minutes in 2012; cut my minutes; cut adult living skills like learning their Social Security numbers, using deodorant, and riding the bus; administrators dropped them into algebra when they couldn’t subtract, into analyzing “Raisin in the Sun” when they couldn’t read. Kids were bullied, scared, crying at me to do something, and those who didn’t started fights.
I wrote to my boss in 2014 about illegal placement and bullying; she told me to get with it, or she would “find someone who would,” meaning fire me; I wrote to the union and school board in 2015; there was a forest fire coming, and no one smelled the smoke. I wrote to parent social groups. But what parent would speak up for their “special,” slow child?
In a December 2015 SpEd meeting, I heard a colleague tell another that the whole Como Park football team lined up in a train for $10 blowjobs on school property. This was in the midst of Como making TV news too often because of police calls, guns in lockers, and riots.
I found myself caught in a shocking crunch. I asked on Facebook if someone would show me this “school-to-prison pipeline?” I warned parents that we had no recourse with fights, drugs, and “whoring,” and they freaked out. It was horrifying. Rather than confront the truth of my questions, they labeled me a racist and a white supremacist.
Security took my laptop, keys, and badge and marched me to the parking lot, and my life was immediately turned upside down.
Television, radio, and social media went insane. Fox and CBS called. Radio stations asked my brother for my contact information. Friends in Italy asked if I was okay. At home, I shut off the lights and closed the shades. My union lawyer, Meg Luger, called my fiction stories racist, and gagged me. Police offered protection from cars slow-rolling my house. My wife left to care for her dying mom. I had to shop at midnight. Friends and family who first supported me have long since unfriended and blocked me. The only leftist friends remaining I can count on one hand. Meanwhile, conservatives welcomed me despite my liberal leanings.
After 250 applications, I found three more teaching jobs and was fired from each one. At the last school where I worked, a state union leader spotted me in Grand Marais, 250 miles from home, squinted, and said, “I know you from somewhere.” Three weeks later I was fired, despite good job reviews. Minnesota pulled my license in 2019, but though I fought it and got it reinstated, I couldn’t work anymore. I was dead.
I didn’t mean to desert, but I left the Left. Then I wandered the woods eyeing tree branches for rope to hang myself, and might have, were it not for a reticent therapist and a job counselor who said she’d found jobs for paroled murderers and pedophiles.
Now, I’m fine. New York Times reporter Sabrina Tavernise spent over three hours in 2019 buying pizza and interviewing me, but none of it made the paper or The Daily. It’s history; Woke 1.
Except that Chauntyll Allen, the Black Lives Matter leader and school board member who called me racist in 2016, now faces federal felony charges for storming Cities Church during the ICE surge in January, and in June, called for dogs to “piss on white corpses” in “white Christian cemeteries.” When I confronted her last month, she invoked the memories of Melissa Hortman, the former DFL Speaker of the Minnesota House, and her husband Mark, and asked if I hadn’t harassed them, too, before they were murdered.
So, what are we to do when Rep. Ocasio-Cortez appears on ABC’s “This Week” and says, “<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6026317-aoc-reflects-on-woke-era/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6026317-aoc-reflects-on-woke-era/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1788389997119000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2z7ZujSWV18T3abE2ImKxl">Woke 1 was crazy</a>,” laughing off 2020, while she supports the insane policies to <a href="https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-aoc-34-members-urge-biden-reform-immigration-policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-aoc-34-members-urge-biden-reform-immigration-policies&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1788389997119000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2jIEkHL6Xc766erCYr8Edn">decriminalize illegal immigration</a>, <a href="https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/media/in-the-news/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-was-asked-about-defunding-police-and-her-answer-went" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/media/in-the-news/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-was-asked-about-defunding-police-and-her-answer-went&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1788389997119000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2jbNeNrLEAp9ajwFpxHT7r">defund police</a>, and <a href="https://youtu.be/VrFALy_NxDk?is=J9PbIJYOHRczScCR" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://youtu.be/VrFALy_NxDk?is%3DJ9PbIJYOHRczScCR&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1788389997119000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3Jk-3q_9sFHfblVZjNtKyo">let kids medically switch genders</a>? It’s not funny to let criminal immigrants walk free, not funny to take cops off the streets in poor neighborhoods, not funny to permanently mutilate healthy girls and boys.
Wokeness was deadly when antiracist lecturer <a href="https://www.hrreporter.com/focus-areas/compensation-and-benefits/school-principal-takes-own-life-after-alleged-bullying-by-anti-racism-trainer/378345" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hrreporter.com/focus-areas/compensation-and-benefits/school-principal-takes-own-life-after-alleged-bullying-by-anti-racism-trainer/378345&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1788389997119000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1Z4pvNuEdX8rBEZJQ-4ACr">Kike Ojo-Thompson</a> repeatedly mocked liberal Toronto Principal Richard Bilkszto until he leaped to his death off a building ledge. It wasn’t funny when NBC’s Minnesota affiliate Kare 11 News leaked an email to Minneapolis police, got worker <a href="https://libcom.org/article/al-ditty-working-class-hero" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://libcom.org/article/al-ditty-working-class-hero&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1788389997119000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0ls1aikedwXlajjt_x7K-z">Al Ditty fired, and he hung himself</a>. It was not funny when I looked for the right tree branch to hang myself neatly.
In the blink of an eye, my life and the lives of countless others were destroyed by a season of horror and destruction. It bears remembering how “crazy” that time was, and only the foolish or the cruel would rewrite that history to absolve themselves of responsibility.
In 2016 I lost my job, reputation, livelihood, and for a time, my will to live. In 2016, AOC was 26 and pouring drinks. She still should be.
***
Theodore Olson is a writer and former special education teacher living in St. Paul, Minnesota.
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Anti-Racism Protests Held In U.S. Cities Nationwide

I Was Patient Zero Of Woke 1 And It Nearly Ended My Life

alexandria ocasio-cortez

black lives matter

minneapolis

woke movement

Good Good is in a bad bad news cycle.
The golf company’s latest ad campaign, a collaboration with industry giant Callaway, featured a man tackling a woman to stop her from touching his driver. Here’s the <a href="https://x.com/MarkPavelich/status/2093174945094447318?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">full ad</a>, which was taken down and is now only available through recordings on social media.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
So all you idiots are O.K with this?
Good Good built the ad, cast the shove, wrote the ‘do not touch my driver’ line that’s not a lapse, that’s a creative choice they greenlit start to finish.🚦Callaway still signed off on it before it aired, so they own it too.
Two companies,… <a href="https://t.co/1FpNznmdVi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/1FpNznmdVi</a>
— Mark Pavelich (@MarkPavelich) <a href="https://x.com/MarkPavelich/status/2093174945094447318?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">August 28, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js"></script>
The joke didn’t land with a lot of people, myself included. Apparently the ad was spoofing “Obsession,” the popular, violent horror movie, which I haven’t seen.
So what we have here is a viral video attempt that didn’t land, which is pretty par for the course on the internet these days. But instead of just panning the spot, people lost their minds. Good Good, a rising star in the golf space, has been dropped by nearly all of its major partners. Dick’s Sporting Goods and its subsidiary Golf Galaxy yanked all of Good Good’s clubs and merchandise from their shelves.
Did I miss the time machine back into the height of cancel culture idiocy?
Worst of all, Callaway, a $3 billion company that approved the ad, disavowed its partner and pledged a million dollars to support organizations working to prevent violence against women in an effort to make right with the woke mob.
Stunning and brave.
If you came away from that ad thinking that Good Good and Callaway were advocating for violence against women, you are an idiot. The woman tackled in the ad is Alexis Miestowski, a golfer and influencer who works for Good Good. She was acting in the skit, not a random act of violence.
The response is completely unprecedented. Remember the Snickers commercial where the elderly Betty White gets tackled?
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5syJjBQ_k6o?si=wLALSpX2wmIQIg_m" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
As our friend Robby Starbuck points out, nobody accused Snickers or Mars of elder abuse or violence against women. Want to know why? Because that was 2010 and society hadn’t lost its mind yet. It was around the same time that Reebok was busting out a Super Bowl commercial with Terry Tate, the “Office Linebacker,” who leveled both women and men.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kg5cdZ-Fnpc?si=hts_7jtlpsG5N9mn" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Yeah, there were zero complaints.
Good Good is a great company. It’s one of the things making golf fun for the next generation of golfers, and it was being brought into the golf establishment. It was collaborating on a new driver with Callaway. The collab has been canceled. It was about to sponsor a major PGA Tour event. Good Good withdrew. It was about to bring Big Break, the golf competition reality show, back to television on the Golf Channel. That premiere has now been scrapped.
Good Good is being thrown under the bus by everyone, certainly based on advice from corporate public relations professionals. These are the same professionals who told every company they needed to put up black squares in place of their logos to support riots during Black Lives Matter, wall-to-wall Pride Month promotion to celebrate transgenderism in June, and put newly-hired DEI stooges in charge of all company decisions.
Many think the worst of cancel-culture is behind us now, and I tend to agree. It’s on all of us to keep it there. So let’s not cancel a great company for telling a joke just because some of us didn’t get it.

NITORI LADIES – Round Two

Maybe We Shouldn’t Destroy An Entire Golf Brand Over One Dumb Ad

advertising

callaway

dick's sporting goods

golf

good good

A lead actor who stepped down from his principal role in a Broadway show earlier this week has now apologized for comments he made criticizing the transgender movement.
Producers for the Broadway show &#8220;Hadestown&#8221; announced on Sunday that Geno Segers would no longer be stepping into the lead role as “Hades” in the popular show on September 1.
“The producers of ‘Hadestown’ and Geno Segers have mutually agreed that Mr. Segers will no longer join the Broadway production. Additional casting will be announced shortly,” the statement said. While the production heads gave no specific reason at the time, the move coincided with resurfaced comments Segers made about trans people and pronoun use going viral online.
Clips of Segers&#8217; comments were shared by the industry publication OnStage Blog, as The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/arts/hadestown-geno-segers-transgender-departs.html">reported</a>, and originated on Segers’ YouTube page.
One clip shows Segers saying, “I’m not against anyone living out their lives the way they want, but I am against their rights superseding the rights of other people. That’s a little bit foul.”
“I don’t see transgender people becoming oppressed or being oppressed,” he continued.
The actor also railed against preferred pronouns, saying, “If you asked me what my preferred pronouns are and it’s not obvious to you that I’m a he/him, that I’m good with he/him, surely you don’t need any help. I’m not wearing a dress.”
As so many have done before, Segers has now issued a groveling apology for holding non-approved opinions about transgenderism.
“I wish to extend my most sincere apologies to everyone impacted by my words,” Segers wrote in a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Dbl74QpCBTT/">statement</a>. “While I never intended to inflict harm, I recognize that the impact of my statements is what matters most.”
“I am fully committed to listening, educating myself, and elevating my standards. I will work tirelessly to earn the opportunity to make things right.”
Segers went on to apologize to everyone involved in “Hadestown,” writing that he was sorry “for the stress my actions have brought to this production.&#8221; He added, &#8220;I accept full responsibility for my words and acknowledge the necessity of immediate accountability.&#8221;
The actor concluded his statement by saying, “I extend my wholehearted support to the cast, crew, and my replacement. I wish you all tremendous success during your run. I have complete confidence that each of you will be phenomenal.”

Geno Segers

Broadway Actor Loses Lead Role After Transgender Comments Resurface

arts

broadway

hadestown

transgenderism

There is sadness that comes from feeling isolated in your own community. It is the loneliness of keeping your mouth shut. Of nodding. Of editing yourself because you already know the social cost of candor.
Over the years, I have come to a difficult realization: Seattle thinks it is inclusive but may very well be the least inclusive city in America. The WNBA incident was a very typical Seattle moment and didn’t come as a surprise to those of us who live here.
This city has remarkable qualities. It is beautiful, economically vibrant, and filled with talented people. But a city is more than its skyline or its natural beauty. A home is where you feel free to be yourself—where you can speak honestly without wondering whether your neighbors, colleagues, or even friends will quietly decide you are a black sheep among swans.
I no longer have that feeling here in Washington State.
As someone who holds political views outside the prevailing consensus and who openly identifies as a Zionist, I often feel that parts of my identity are not merely disagreed with but are disdained. There is a profound difference between disagreement and exclusion. I welcome debate and expect criticism; what I will never understand is the sense that certain beliefs automatically place someone outside the bounds of what is considered “acceptable” in society.
That realization has changed how I think about my future.
For the first time, I know I will not spend the rest of my life in Seattle. That is not because I stopped loving the mountains, the water, or the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. It is because I no longer feel welcomed by a culture that believes there is only one way to think; a city cannot truly call itself inclusive if inclusion depends on ideological conformity.
I do not write these words out of anger. I write them out of sadness.
I wanted Seattle to remain a place of innovation, kindness, and opportunity — I wanted it to succeed. But it needs to rediscover something just as important: the ability to welcome people whose convictions differ from the majority&#8217;s. A confident society does not fear dissent. It invites it. That just isn’t the case here, and it starts at the top.
Until that happens, many will continue to live as quiet dissenters — carefully measuring our words, concealing ourselves, and wondering whether there is still a place for us in a city that prides itself on celebrating diversity while vilifying diversity of thought.
My hope is not that Seattle conforms to my views. My hope is that it becomes more curious. More considerate. More willing to believe that thoughtful, decent people can disagree without becoming enemies.
If Seattle truly wants to be known as one of America&#8217;s most welcoming cities, it should ask itself a simple question: Is everyone welcome — or only those who think the right way?
For me, the answer to that question has become painfully personal. It is why, despite everything I once loved about this city, I know I will never call Seattle my permanent home.
***
Jessica Piha resides in Kirkland, Washington, with her dog Evee.

Indiana Fever v Seattle Storm

The Seattle Hellscape Is A Natural Setting For The Sophie Cunningham Controversy

seattle

sophie cunningham

wnba

zionism

The media wants you to get canceled and stay canceled.
Journalists didn’t complain about Cancel Culture during woke’s darkest days. Instead, they fed the beast. And they haven’t stopped, even if what Elon Musk dubbed the “woke mind virus” is fading.
Cancel Culture took down all comers for a good, long while. Think of those who committed legitimately awful acts (Louis C.K., Harvey Weinstein), comedians who shared “problematic” jokes (Kevin Hart), or singers saying ugly words off stage (Morgan Wallen).
For the worst offenders, the media insisted that the parties in question have no redemptive arc. Apologies were demanded but not accepted.
Louis C.K. is the poster child for this trend.
The “Louie” star was one of the most respected comics in the industry circa 2017. His FX series earned endless praise, his edgy stand-up material wowed critics, and he seemed poised for a Woody Allen-style directorial career with his upcoming film, “I Love You, Daddy.”
Then he confirmed reports that he had sexually exposed himself to multiple women. He apologized and said he’d go away for a while.
And he did, but not before his career collapsed. He lost that FX series, a role in “The Secret Life of Pets 2,” and any other gigs from his once-thriving career. Oh, and the distributor behind “I Love You, Daddy” yanked the film from the schedule. It remains unreleased.
C.K. eventually returned to comedy stages nationwide. He did so on his own, flexing his email list of supporters and trusting his comedy could lure some folks back to his side.
He suffered for his actions. He lost millions. He will never lose the label that many have affixed to him for his actions. And, of course, some fans will never support him.
That’s their choice, and it’s reasonable.
He still deserves the chance to win back an audience and make people laugh. And they came, slowly at first, and his audiences eventually grew large enough that he played Madison Square Garden.
But he’s not allowed that chance for redemption if the media has anything to say about it.
His new Netflix special, “Ridiculous,” is his first mainstream Hollywood project since the revelations went public nine years ago. Variety’s review suggests his comeback, both on Netflix’s part and the media reception, <a href="https://variety.com/2026/tv/reviews/louis-ck-ridiculous-review-netflix-1236797990/">remains problematic</a>:
<blockquote>
The release of “Ridiculous” also culminates a tour that saw C.K. make inroads with the kind of liberal-coded publications that once covered his reputational nadir, with favorable writeups in both The Times and The New Yorker.
</blockquote>
Other outlets have played a <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2021/12/louis-c-k-releases-new-stand-up-special-sorry.html">similar refrain</a> about his slow-motion comeback. The Guardian filled its “Ridiculous” review with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/jun/30/louis-ck-ridiculous-review-netflix">regret that the special even exists</a>:
<blockquote>
It’s less a triumphant return than a gradual slinking back, an unspoken assumption that no one really cares that much about his behavior; no particular defense or apology, just a shruggy emoticon. 
</blockquote>
Cracked.com, a far-Left site allegedly dedicated to pop culture, <a href="https://www.cracked.com/article_49913_louis-cks-new-special-shows-that-all-canceled-comics-need-are-bad-words.html">trashed C.K.’s fans</a> for laughing at the R-rated jokes told in “Ridiculous.”
Wallen’s cancellation story may be the most absurd. He was caught on camera using the “n-word,” but not aimed at anyone or, more specifically, targeting a black person. His career also collapsed overnight.
He donated thousands to black organizations to stem the career damage, apologized profusely and took a break from touring. He lost access to major awards shows, found his music stripped from radio stations and lost his representation.
The Washington Post used his cancellation <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/washington-post-cancel-culture-country-music/">to attack all of country music</a>.
He, too, slowly came back, and his fans were all too eager to forgive and forget. But when radio stations started playing his music again, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/morgan-wallen-banned-country-radio-1227035/">Rolling Stone magazine cried out in horror</a>.
In the end, Wallen’s massive fan base un-canceled him. He grew more famous, more unstoppable, and the media hand-wringing eventually subsided.
All for saying one ugly, offensive word.
Dave Chappelle’s sin proved the most bewildering. The comedy giant poked fun at the trans community during a 2019 Netflix special dubbed, “The Closer,” that wrapped with a moving tribute to a late trans comic.
The Cancel Culture mob ignored the latter and laser focused on the former. Chappelle’s skin color and comedy god status didn’t protect him from said mob. Netflix workers picketed their employer and media outlets turned on Chappelle with a ferocity that likely caught him by surprise.
His plans to release a documentary got canceled, a project that has yet to see the light of day several years later.
And, through it all, reporters piled on Chappelle.
Rolling Stone, once a free speech bastion, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/dave-chappelle-documentary-san-fran-tour-opener-1252836/">often led the charge.</a>
Despite the rightful criticism many have shared in the wake of that special’s release, Chappelle’s career seems to be doing just fine if the arena-wide standing ovation he received upon arrival on Thursday is any indication.
Darn it!
Others piled on, demanding he apologize for … jokes.
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1">Dave Chappelle Inducts Jay-Z Into Rock Hall With Unapologetic Speech: ‘He Is Hip-Hop’ (The Hollywood Reporter)</li>
</ul>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1">Dave Chappelle addresses Netflix controversy, remains unapologetic about anti-trans material: ‘I said what I said’ (New York Daily News)</li>
</ul>
In most cases, the obligatory narrative followed. Think variations of “What Cancel Culture?” That ignores the massive punishments the aforementioned stars endured along the way.
You’ll likely read just that as disgraced actors Armie Hammer and Kevin Spacey rebuild their professional careers.
The people who behave badly but don’t endure this brand of media attack? Democratic politicians like Graham Platner. He was never canceled by the press in the first place. That’s all you need to know about “cancel culture.”
***
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News&#8217; Big Hollywood. He&#8217;s also the host of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hollywood-in-toto-podcast-w-christian-toto/id1186449155">The Hollywood in Toto Podcast</a>. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto?lang=en">@HollywoodInToto</a>.

Louis C.K. Performance – 2025 New York Comedy Festival

What Cancel Culture Says About The Woke World Versus The Real World

dave chappelle

louis ck

morgan wallen

Armie Hammer is back. So are Kevin Spacey, Dustin Hoffman, Jonathan Majors, Louis C.K., Brett Ratner, and other canceled stars.
Cancel Culture, which tore through Hollywood over the last decade, is losing its grip. No longer do comedians fear that an old stand-up routine might “resurface” and crush their careers.
Artists with troubling pasts can work again, allowing audiences to judge whether they’re worthy of forgiveness.
That’s great news, but a strain of Cancel Culture remains very much in place. It’s purely ideological in nature, and it’s supported by mainstream media outlets, Hollywood, Inc., and the culture at large.
Embrace MAGA, President Donald Trump, or simply the Right, and watch it snap into action.
For some stars, being apolitical is seen as an unofficial conservative pose and, sadly, worthy of condemnation. Sydney Sweeney has faced media scrutiny for not formally embracing a political party. That intensified after press outlets learned she had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/03/sydney-sweeney-jeans-ad-republican-voter-registration">registered</a> as a Republican in Florida but refused to share her ideological beliefs.
That media focus intensified after her far-Left critics complained her American Eagle jeans ad, where she playfully said she had good &#8220;jeans,&#8221; was seen as a white supremacist dog whistle. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheMaineWire/videos/good-morning-america-actually-ran-a-segment-comparing-sydney-sweeneys-ad-campaig/783248864052637/">Media outlets</a> ran with the absurd attacks.
Another tiny example happened recently with the opening of the Great American State Fair. Singer Leonard Cohen’s estate <a href="https://variety.com/2026/music/news/leonard-cohen-estate-objects-trump-hallelujah-freedom-250-1236789752/">decried the potential use of the late singer’s “Hallelujah.”</a>
This particular event highlighted the enduring Cancel Culture movement.
The Great American State Fair originally hired a gaggle of fading music stars, including Bret Michaels, Young MC, and Vanilla Ice, to entertain the crowd. The media played up the event’s loose connection to Team Trump – the administration tasked with creating the event to honor the nation’s 250th birthday.
The assembled artists <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bill-maher-rips-artists-for-pulling-out-of-america-250-concerts">quickly fled the gala</a>, either suggesting the concert would be too political in nature (without evidence) or that they’ve been threatened with violence for appearing (<a href="https://variety.com/2026/music/news/bret-michaels-exits-freedom-250-concerts-washington-trump-1236761992/">Michaels</a>).
Comedian Bill Maher called foul on the artists’ decision.
<blockquote>
Wouldn’t it have been better to play this gig? … It’s a month-long gig, lots of people, like — just celebrating America. Can’t we all just celebrate America itself and leave Trump out of it?
</blockquote>
That misses the point.
The musicians want to keep performing, and they know that being associated with any event tied to President Trump might hurt their careers. Said careers weren’t exactly thriving to begin with, putting even more pressure on them to conform.
Yet roughly the same time, we saw a group of high-profile musicians, including U2’s Bono and The Edge, and Bruce Springsteen, <a href="https://abcnews.com/Politics/wireStory/springsteen-bono-stevie-obamas-open-presidential-museum-133989191">perform at President Barack Obama’s presidential museum opening.</a>
They didn’t fear professional pushback (nor should they). This wasn’t a patriotic event to honor a national holiday. The opening celebrated the most prominent Democrat in the nation, and in doing so, the musicians didn’t face violent threats or attacks on their professional future.
That’s as it should be. Yet there’s an extreme double standard in play. Just ask British singer M.I.A.
She joined Kid Cudi’s Rebel Ragers tour earlier this year as an opening act, but she quickly lost the gig for saying the “wrong” thing on stage.
She shared <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/may/04/kid-cudi-fires-mia-tour-republican-rant">Right-leaning opinions</a>, and in a New York minute, she was gone. The singer later filed a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/m-sues-kid-cudi-dropped-tour-says-was-fired-publicity-poor-ticket-sale-rcna347845">multi-million dollar lawsuit against Kid Cudi.</a>
The media reported the lawsuit but didn’t share any outrage over the singer’s free speech rights or the potential of wrongful termination. Nor did reporters note the irony of Springsteen creating an entire tour to spread his far-Left views while M.I.A. lost her job for sharing a fraction (of a fraction) of that political commentary.
Perhaps the best example of the media trying to cancel a superstar for aligning with MAGA came courtesy of Nate Bargatze. He’s the most successful comedian of the moment, a squeaky-clean stand-up who sells out arenas and never discusses politics on or off stage.
Bargatze attended the recent White House/UFC extravaganza, an event meant to honor the nation’s upcoming birthday and showcase the popular sport. Bargatze was not only on hand for the fights but snapped pictures with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and his wife, actress Cheryl Hines.
That sparked several media outlets to <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/nate-bargatze-maga-photograph-media-attack/">shame Bargatze</a> for the snapshots, including The Daily Beast and Parade magazine. They played up a small sample of “outraged” social media users to buttress their flimsy argument.
<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2026/06/16/nate-bargatze-trump-white-house-ufc-fight/90569424007/">“USA TODAY has reached out to Bargatze&#8217;s rep for comment.”</a>
What comment?
<blockquote>
Yes, I attended the event. No, I don’t refuse photographs from people, regardless of their political leanings.
</blockquote>
It’s absurd and tantamount to press bullying. And it quickly got worse. A few days later, far-Left comedian W. Kamau Bell slammed Bargatze for palling around with “fascists,” sparking a fresh wave of media coverage, <a href="https://variety.com/2026/film/news/nate-bargatze-maga-w-kamau-bell-fascist-photos-1236788337/">including Variety</a>.
The not-so-subtle message? Cozying up to MAGA in any way is like supporting fascism. That’s actually fascist.
Bargatze had to issue a public statement saying he’s a big UFC fan and remains apolitical.
Had Bargatze attended a similar event with a Democrat in the White House, the moment would have gotten little, if any, coverage. Or, it might have expanded his already huge career.
Why would the media pile on Bargatze? He’s technically too big to cancel, but it’s all about sending a message. Align with the Right in any manner, be it a social media post or a simple selfie, and you’ll be “outed” and punished.
The comedian will survive this news cycle. Lesser stars might not, and thus they’ll stay quiet moving forward.
None of this should be surprising. Actors like James Woods, Kevin Sorbo, Scott Baio, and more have faced retribution for simply leaning to the Right.
Hines hasn’t had an acting gig since her husband joined the Trump administration. She isn’t even a part of Larry David’s new HBO Max series, “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness.” That’s despite David working with stars he’s collaborated with over the decades on the show, including Jerry Seinfeld, Susie Essman, Vince Vaughn, and more.
And she’s not even conservative. Her crime? She’s married to a former Democrat who felt he could do some good for the country by joining the Trump administration.
It’s why Hollywood conservatives created Friends of Abe long ago. The secretive group once met to network, bond, and share horror stories about the professional pummeling they face for being on the Right.
The group still exists and remains an off-the-record affair.
The ironic part? Cancel Culture against conservatives has existed in Hollywood for some time. The term became popular when that punishment expanded to include anyone who ran afoul of the progressive narrative, AKA woke.
Now, as woke fades and Cancel Culture cases shrink, it’s back to where it originally thrived, punishing conservative stars who dare speak their minds or pose for selfies.
***
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News&#8217; Big Hollywood. He&#8217;s also the host of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hollywood-in-toto-podcast-w-christian-toto/id1186449155">The Hollywood in Toto Podcast</a>. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto?lang=en">@HollywoodInToto</a>.

Hollywood Exteriors And Landmarks – 2022

Cancel Culture Isn’t Dead Yet

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Nate Bargatze

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Comedian and actor Kevin Hart defended a fellow comic on Tuesday over a George Floyd joke he told at Netflix’s “Roast of Kevin Hart” earlier this month.
Hart said he didn’t like the joke from Tony Hinchcliffe that some people have deemed racist, but he stressed that this type of over-the-top comedy is exactly what always happens at roasts, and he will always &#8220;appreciate humor.&#8221; Hart even went as far as to say that Hinchcliffe had one of the best sets at the roast, if not the best set. 
“The George Floyd joke, it wasn&#8217;t a tasteful joke to our culture, to our audience, but … if you’re watching the roast, you get why they&#8217;re doing it,” Hart said on “The Breakfast Club.” “You get why the racial humor is on the table. I wasn&#8217;t shocked — that’s what they do! Go look at the Tom Brady [roast]. It happens every year when they do a roast.”
During the roast, Hinchcliffe said to Hart, “The black community is so proud of you. … Right now, George Floyd is looking up at us all laughing so hard he can’t breathe.”
“People are talking about that joke,” Hart continued. “Talk about the set! Tony Hinchcliffe arguably had the best set, or one of the best sets.” 
<div id="attachment_1102629" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1102629" class="wp-image-1102629 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/GettyImages-2275530431-864x576.jpg" alt="Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Netflix" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/GettyImages-2275530431-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/GettyImages-2275530431-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/GettyImages-2275530431-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/GettyImages-2275530431.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Netflix</div>
“I&#8217;m going to appreciate humor,” the comedian continued. “I don&#8217;t get affected by the attempt of humor. I get it.”
Hart also went on to ask what people were looking for from him. “What is it that you expect … to take a live production and stand up and fight Tony, or have a reaction? … Tony told a joke, it wasn&#8217;t a tasteful joke to us. We didn&#8217;t like it. Okay, &#8216;Hey man, f*ck that joke!&#8217; We move on.”
“It literally is, either you&#8217;re a fan of this level of content, or you&#8217;re not,” he added. “And if you&#8217;re not a fan, then you don&#8217;t watch it.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Kevin Hart is in Tony Hinchcliffe&#8217;s corner after the controversial comic was blasted for a George Floyd &#8220;joke&#8221; during Kevin&#8217;s roast.
🎥: The Breakfast Club <a href="https://t.co/gDtDTPcric">pic.twitter.com/gDtDTPcric</a>
— TMZ (@TMZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/TMZ/status/2059296457539387589?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
Hart himself had a run-in with cancel culture. Back in 2018, he was chosen to host the Oscars, but was threatened to be dropped if he didn’t make a public apology over past jokes that some deemed homophobic.
Though he did ultimately offer a public apology, Hart initially refused to apologize and said he had already addressed the old jokes in the past.
“So, I just got a call from the Academy, and that call basically said, ‘Kevin, apologize for your tweets of old or we’re gonna have to move on and find another host,’” he recalled at the time. “I chose to pass. I passed on the apology.”
“The reason why I passed is because I’ve addressed this several times,” he continued. “This is not the first time this has come up. I’ve addressed it. I’ve spoken on it. I’ve said where the rights and wrongs were. I’ve said who I am now versus who I was then. I’ve done it. I’m not gonna continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I’ve moved on and I’m in a completely different space in my life.”
“You live and you learn and you grow and you mature,” he added. “I’m in a space where all I can do is be better as a human being.”
Hart later said that he was sorry that he “hurt people” and was choosing not to host the Oscars so as not to be a “distraction.”

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Kevin Hart Disses Cancel Culture, Defends Comic Who Told George Floyd Joke

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This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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Sabrina Carpenter is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fan-disrupts-sabrina-carpenters-coachella-set-her-response-has-people-crying-islamophobia">canceled</a>. It&#8217;s surprising it took so long. The pop star famous for her bubbly, retro sounds is no stranger to controversy. She’s come under fire in the past for her performances simulating sex acts on stage, and her music videos routinely feature male murder fantasies. But now, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/sabrina-carpenter">Carpenter</a> has finally stepped on a progressive cultural land mine. During her headline Coachella performance, the singer committed a grave act of “xenophobia” when responding to a disruptive fan, and her carnivorous fan base has finally found an excuse to take out its queen bee.
Coachella 2026 was poised to be the highlight of Sabrina Carpenter’s meteoric rise to pop stardom. Her headline show, dubbed by fans “Sabrinawood” for its nods to Old Hollywood, was a star-studded affair with over-the-top stage production and cameos from iconic actors such as Sam Elliott. As initial videos of the performance trickled onto social media, the internet crowned her the reigning princess of Coachella.
Then the unthinkable happened. An interaction with a loud fan summoned the internet’s cancel culture vultures with accusations of racism and xenophobia.
X user <a href="https://x.com/PopBase/status/2043086112969646135/photo/2" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/PopBase/status/2043086112969646135/photo/2&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776194968072000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2_BViCcgPq7UnveoCCxZi1">Poppy</a> posted a clip of the incident, which has now been removed, showing a performance interrupted by what Sabrina Carpenter called a “yodel.” After being informed by the audience member that it was a cultural custom, Sabrina grimaced and responded, “That’s your culture?” Poppy’s caption expressed disappointment: “sabrina saying that she doesn’t like a cultural arabic cheer… this is so insensitive and islamophobic.”
The post garnered 30.9 million views and a response from Carpenter, who quickly <a href="https://x.com/SabrinaAnnLynn/status/2043076482529108262?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/SabrinaAnnLynn/status/2043076482529108262?s%3D20&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776194968072000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1EU5stybcQ2ES60TcDk80t">apologized</a> after being informed of the disruptor&#8217;s cultural background, “my apologies I didn’t see this person with my eyes.”
The fan was not from Appalachia or the Swiss Alps, as Sabrina likely assumed, and the noise was not a yodel, but a zaghrouta, a celebratory ululation used throughout North Africa and the Middle East. In the eyes of Sabrina Carpenter’s progressive fanbase, the offender was not a safe person to criticize.
“I’m in a complete shock,” one of the viral posts <a href="https://x.com/maxlldr/status/2043034137267777892" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/maxlldr/status/2043034137267777892&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776194968072000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3eXtFG8jGHuXlKOYLZksUN">said</a>, “I used to be a huge sabrina carpenter fan and now she’s mocking my culture and calling me &#8216;weird&#8217;, this is so racist and inappropriate and it made me feel uncomfortable. this white blonde racist woman should be cancelled.”
The speed with which Sabrina Carpenter’s fans were willing to condemn her is revelatory of the inner workings of “stan” culture, a pop-star-obsessed internet subculture. The name originates from Eminem’s 2000 song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMhN-hfMtY" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DgOMhN-hfMtY&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776194968072000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2-KABhGKzVyHq7gaWuTus9">Stan</a>,” which chronicles a fan’s obsession that devolves from sending letters into a murder-suicide. For “stans” to adopt this identity as their own, even if done ironically, indicates a destructive underbelly.
As I pointed out in <a href="https://x.com/maggiemoda/status/2043372428496195946?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/maggiemoda/status/2043372428496195946?s%3D20&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776194968072000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2DvwSFJPtN2eyAE1W1EeDy">this</a> post, the quick switch-up from fan to hater is often rooted in progressive politics. Over a decade ago, a Tumblr <a href="https://yourfaveisproblematic.tumblr.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yourfaveisproblematic.tumblr.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776194968072000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0_OoV2y0-bp_yAJ0snFloN">account</a> called Your Fave is Problematic became famous for its <a href="https://yourfaveisproblematic.tumblr.com/list" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yourfaveisproblematic.tumblr.com/list&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776194968072000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1w8v3IG9hlf6f5TqYkkkx3">lists</a> of celebrity transgressions. Even Katy Perry, the current girlfriend of former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was <a href="https://yourfaveisproblematic.tumblr.com/post/45579525968/katy-perry" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://yourfaveisproblematic.tumblr.com/post/45579525968/katy-perry&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776194968072000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2dd8t0fJ86A4JhSwpcRrMQ">“called out”</a> for transgressions such as “[demonstrating] unsafe binding techniques,” cultural appropriation, and &#8220;trivializing bisexuality” with her hit song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAp9BKosZXs" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DtAp9BKosZXs&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1776194968072000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3P8JKmdPGiWjiCdfhQCHUj">“I Kissed a Girl.”</a> As a pop culture-obsessed tween, I was introduced to progressive puritanism by blogs such as these.
Stan culture is inextricably linked with progressive politics. Once a star has misbehaved, the incident serves as cover for a variety of heinous comments and obsessive cyberbullying of both the star and her fans. Sabrina Carpenter will undoubtedly encounter this fate. Her fans now have a decision to make that feels consequential: call her out and distance yourself, or become problematic too.
This is an under-recognized entry point of the progressive radicalization pipeline: online stan culture. The participants are young and want to fit in, and participating in the cancelation mob is a moral duty in this environment.
While many have correctly pointed out that Sabrina Carpenter has cultivated this type of fanbase, it is nearly impossible to ascend to her level of stardom without engaging in progressive politicking. The danger is that progressives are more puritan than puritans themselves and offer no path to redemption. The stakes of offending them, which is laughably easy to do, are incredibly high.
For radical progressive pop fans, God is replaced by the pop star. In this role, it isn’t enough for Sabrina Carpenter to be exceptional; she must be perfect. If she is human, like the rest of us, then she doesn’t deserve the lights, the stage, the celebrity cameos, and most importantly, the money that comes with being at the top. In this light, Carpenter’s cancellation is completely predictable.
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Maggie Anders is a video journalist and political commentator. Her work explores international political movements, history, pop culture, economics, the cost-of-living crisis, and Gen Z social issues.

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