It’s no secret that conservatives are the David to Hollywood’s Goliath on the pop culture front.
Much of that isn’t their fault. The Heartland is mostly shut out of Hollywood, Inc. Conservative stories rarely get a close-up on screens of any size. The list of openly conservative stars remains microscopically small.
Yet conservatives may have hurt their own cause by going to war with “The Odyssey,” mostly sight unseen.
Director Christopher Nolan’s take on Homer’s epic poem drew endless online attacks from both Right-leaning YouTube creators and conservatives. It’s woke! It’s D.E.I. gone wild! The source material’s translator is a <a href="https://www.slashfilm.com/2219268/how-emily-wilson-feels-christopher-nolan-the-odyssey-adaptation/">woke feminist</a>!
A woke feminist, for what it’s worth, who had some unkind things to say about Nolan’s finished product.
Now, with the film generating rapturous responses from <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_odyssey_2026">film critics</a> and <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/odyssey-audience-cinemascore-even-beyond-031733557.html">audiences alike</a>, that knee-jerk response is looking worse. The film earned a whopping <a href="https://variety.com/2026/film/box-office/the-odyssey-box-office-christopher-nolan-opening-weekend-shatters-expectations-1236815861/">$264 million globally</a> in its opening weekend, and the subsequent numbers show little sign that it’s a one-weekend wonder.
Nolan isn’t your average Hollywood storyteller. He never weighs in on politics directly, lets his art speak for him, and once made a blockbuster that side-eyed the Occupy Wall Street movement – “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012).
He spent an entire Oscar campaign for 2023’s “Oppenheimer” without shouting “Free Palestine” or attacking a certain U.S. president. He’s also not a social media diva. He reportedly doesn’t own a smartphone and has his assistants <a href="https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/jaelaniturnerwilliams/christopher-nolan-no-smartphone-email">print out emails for him</a>. (Maybe we can all agreed that’s a bit much.)
That should have earned him some respect on the Right, the sense that this wasn’t your average Hollywood progressive weaponizing a classic against Red State USA.
No.
Social media allowed some Right-leaning souls to predict the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldGE53GwLlc">film’s financial doom</a> and slam the film sight unseen. Even Elon Musk entered the chat, pummeling the film for weeks prior to its release.
On one key front, the Right had a point.
Nolan cast trans actor Elliot Page in “The Odyssey,” but he and his team refused to explain what role Page played. That sparked rumors that the part was Achilles, known to all as a fearsome warrior.
Page is five-foot-one and slender.
No matter. That Fake News story ricocheted around the web, desperate for a fact check that took too long to arrive. It’s notable that Nolan didn’t immediately debunk the misinformation, nor did his marketing team.
The latter likely possess smartphones.
Casting Page deserved some raised eyebrows. The actor is intensely political, before and after the transition. Page’s on-screen appearance is a distraction, no matter where you stand on so-called “representation” and trans rights. Period. Good filmmakers should understand that, but like even the very best storytellers in Hollywood, Nolan isn’t perfect.
Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o co-stars as Helen of Troy, a character described as fair-skinned in the text and played by white actors in previous takes on the source material. It’s a race swap! Yes, yes, it is, but it’s a very minor point in a much larger story.
Some savaged the star for not being beautiful enough for the role, a characterization that is both subjective and silly. Plus, Nyong’o has little screen time.
Nolan spoke repeatedly of his attempt to “modernize” the epic tale for modern audiences. Nyong’o’s casting may have been part of that effort. Some other minor “Greek” roles also clashed with the time period. Was Nolan pulling a minor “Hamilton” move, where casting choices took a creative turn to say something about the culture at large?
Right-leaning podcaster Bridget Phetasy leveled the cruelest dig at the film’s conservative critics. She called their <a href="https://www.phetasy.com/p/walk-ins-welcome-400?utm_source=podcast-email&amp;publication_id=348276&amp;post_id=208139218&amp;utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&amp;utm_content=watch_now_gif&amp;r=2rv17&amp;triedRedirect=true&amp;utm_medium=email">attacks “liberal” in nature</a>:
<blockquote>
You had a criticism of making everything political for a decade, and now you haven’t seen the movie and you’re making it political and telling people not to go enjoy a good movie.
</blockquote>
That’s not to say some conservative arguments weren’t solid or leaned on little more than tired talking points to fit their agenda. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh skewered “The Odyssey” while bringing up salient arguments about the casting, the impact of Page’s character and more.
He actually saw the film and gave his two cents thereafter. Agree? Disagree? He stated his case well.
Andrew Klavan mostly praised the film but found the screenplay wanting, to put it mildly.
The Critical Drinker, who isn’t overtly conservative but leans to the cultural Right, served up a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_W0z6hZlrI">nuanced take</a> that mixed criticism with praise.
Conservatives should take great care in “jumping the gun” on pop culture matters. In a way, that’s what the Left often does. Consider the L.A. Times’ <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/la-times-daily-wire-run-hide-fight-racist/">recent assault on “Run Hide Fight: Infidels,”</a> a movie that doesn’t hit Daily Wire+ until the Fall.
The newspaper read a generic synopsis of the film, set on a college campus where Islamic radicals take charge, and declared the film deeply problematic. The film could inspire violence, the paper argued, while implying it should be censored.
The worst part of this ugly culture war battle? The anger and absolutism behind the critiques. “The Odyssey” is just a movie, albeit a massive one with cultural heft. We can love or loathe it, find it inspiring or wanting.
Walsh is right, to a degree. So is The Critical Drinker and the Left-leaning mainstream critics who adored “The Odyssey.”
Conservatives should still engage in the culture wars, create art on their own terms (when feasible) and not cede Hollywood to the modern Left. The latter would be disastrous.
They also should hold their fire until they see the art in question and bring vital context to their culture war crusades. The Right is working at a distinct disadvantage here. They shouldn’t make matters worse.
***
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>.

“The Odyssey” New York Premiere

Conservatives Lose A Culture War Battle Over ‘The Odyssey’

Andrew Klavan

Christopher Nolan

Culture wars

Elliot Page

Entertainment

Hollywood

Lupita Nyong’o

Matt Walsh

The Odyssey

Woke Culture

Punch-Odyssey-2

Is ‘The Odyssey’ A Sign America Is Post-Woke?

DW Opinion

Homer

Shane Gillis

Spencer Klavan

Weekend Punch

It was 30 years ago this month that a couple of college students in Kennewick, Wash., stumbled upon a rare archaeological discovery — one that would help trigger a war between science and racial identity politics, or what we now call “DEI.” Three decades later, it’s clear that if we don’t act quickly, it’s a fight science will probably lose.
What the students found was a 9,000-year-old skeleton that was soon nicknamed Kennewick Man. It was certainly one of the most precious anthropological finds ever. At the time, it was the oldest human skeleton ever found in North America, and it had signs of an injury from an arrow or a spear. More intriguingly, it seemed to have less in common with the skeletons of Native Americans than with those of ancient Japanese peoples, thus potentially changing our understanding of how humans first arrived in the New World.
But that’s when the federal government stepped in. Under a law called the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, skeletons found on federally owned land (as Kennewick Man was) must be turned over, or “repatriated,” to the Native American tribes they’re related to. NAGPRA was written in response to the actions of 19th- and early 20th-century archaeologists who sometimes engaged in practices that would be unacceptable today to acquire specimens, and it requires not only the “repatriation” of human remains, but also of “funerary objects” — that is, things buried alongside bodies.
Kennewick Man was far older than any existing tribe and not related to any of them. Nevertheless, tribal officials insisted that the bones be kept away from scientific study and turned over for reburial, which would destroy their usefulness for scientific research. In compliance with those demands, federal officials confiscated the skeleton and buried the Kennewick Man site under 600 tons of rock and fill to prevent any further discoveries.
Scientists sued, arguing that NAGPRA simply doesn’t apply to objects that old. After years of litigation, federal courts ruled in their favor. Indeed, the courts found that government officials had acted in bad faith and awarded the scientists $2 million in attorney fees. A year later, even though DNA research revealed that Kennewick Man was closest to South American indigenous peoples, an executive order by then-President Barack Obama forced the scientists to turn Kennewick Man over to a group of Northwest Coast Native American tribes who destroyed the bones forever.
That was bad enough, but in the years since, tribal activists and sympathetic politicians have taken increasingly aggressive positions in demanding the “repatriation” of specimens — many of which have no true connection to tribes, and others that aren’t even particularly old. Some museums have even “repatriated” artworks made in the 1980s and purchased from gift shops — as if these were sacred remnants of someone’s ancestors.
Today, in museums across the country, it has become common to see empty display cases, featuring signs like the one spotted recently at the San Diego Museum of Us: “As part of our decolonization process, these items have been moved to a sanctuary space.”
Equally absurd are cases in which scientists are forced to relinquish animal bones — literally the trash our ancestors threw away — on the theory that they’re somehow “funerary objects” that should be off-limits out of racial or religious sensitivities.
What’s more, some museums have adopted rules based on tribal practices to govern how scientists handle objects in their collections. These sometimes bar female scientists from handling specimens, since that’s sometimes prohibited by Native religious taboos. Museums are also required by federal regulation to have “advisory” committees that include practitioners of tribal religions. Christians, Jews, and Hindus aren’t given the same preferential treatment.
It’s hard to imagine a starker example of the collision between racial identity politics and the scientific rationality that our social and technological progress depends on. Out of deference to politically correct race politics and irrationally romanticized conceptions about “stolen land,” the institutions where science should reign supreme are being suborned into erasing the accumulated knowledge of centuries. In effect, an entire field of scientific inquiry has been placed at risk by an overzealous activist movement using the regulatory power of the state.
The study of human remains and artifacts isn’t just some antiquarian hobby. It provides critical insights about present-day issues like climate change and provides insights that can help police officers solve crimes. But entire areas of anthropological research may now be shutting down, thanks to the aggressive use and misuse of NAGPRA.
The science of anthropology can still be saved if we act now. Museum officials and state governments can push back. For one thing, many “repatriation” efforts aren’t actually required by NAGPRA. Museum leaders should refuse to be cowed by activist demands that fall outside the law. And states should adopt legislation prohibiting the return of specimens that are too old to be associated with a tribe or too young to be a “funerary object.” They should also forbid any museum from following rules that discriminate on the basis of sex or religion.
Science is too precious to be sacrificed to the political demands of DEI and the wishful thinking of angry activists who prioritize race over research, discovery, and progress.
***
Timothy Sandefur is the vice president for legal affairs at the Goldwater Institute’s Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation.
Elizabeth Weiss is a professor emeritus of anthropology at San José State University and author of the Goldwater Institute report, “<a href="https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/policy-report/the-reburial-of-the-southwest/">The Reburial of the Southwest: Closing Off Native History and Archaeology</a>”

FRANCE-SCIENCE-ANTHROPOLOGY-MUSEUM-PREHISTORY-RESEARCH

Identity Politics Is Burying Science

American History

Anthropology

Archeology

Kennewick Man

Native Americans

Natural history

Science

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

America 250

Cancel Culture

Enterainment

Great American State Fair

Nate Bargatze

When the Washington Commanders tweeted out an &#8220;<a href="https://x.com/Commanders/status/2061447683416412212">All Are Welcome</a>&#8221; graphic to mark the beginning of Pride Month, it seemed like just another professional sports team going through the woke motions. But the NFL franchise&#8217;s embrace of gay pride and similar issues could point to a much deeper problem within the organization, a Daily Wire investigation found.
Commanders owner Josh Harris is a client of BerlinRosen, a massive public relations firm that has openly embraced leftist views. When Harris purchased the Commanders from the Snyder family in the summer of 2023, BerlinRosen was openly bragging about how it helped facilitate what it called “the biggest deal in U.S. sports history.”
“BerlinRosen supported Harris with strategy and messaging support as he communicated directly with Commanders fans,” the firm <a href="https://berlinrosen.com/recognitions/prweek-how-berlinrosen-helped-score-the-biggest-deal-in-u-s-sports-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote at the time</a>. “This achievement with Josh Harris and the Washington Commanders exemplifies how Sports PR can drive transformative change and elevate impactful ventures like this.”
Outside the arena, BerlinRosen spends a lot of time pushing leftist causes. In 2021, the firm came out in support for the Movement for Black Lives, a Black Lives Matter offshoot with a long history of anti-Israel activism. The group has shared <a href="https://x.com/Mvmnt4BlkLives/status/1965819074979496388?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1965819074979496388%7Ctwgr%5E40a4c1244f9a36f8cc61b53aab11d8c3e1522390%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Floomered.com%2F2026%2F05%2F17%2Fthe-berlinrosen-grift-how-a-major-left-wing-anti-israel-consulting-firm-is-quietly-profiting-from-jewish-and-zionist-clients%2F">posts</a> on X accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and called for a &#8220;free Palestine.&#8221;
BerlinRosen does not seem concerned that its liberal bona fides will be hurt by its longtime relationship with Harris, who has extensive ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
In January 2026, the Department of Justice exposed communication between Epstein and Harris, <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/josh-harris-jeffery-epstein-latest-emails-20260130.html?query=epstein#loaded" target="_blank" rel="noopener">who became acquainted</a> on Wall Street. Between 2013 and 2016, the pair exchanged emails and phone calls and scheduled a meeting at Epstein’s Manhattan home. Harris reportedly attended the meeting alongside Bill Gates, another known Epstein associate.
Despite the emails between their client and the man charged with multiple counts of child sex trafficking, BerlinRosen stayed true to Harris, denying that there was an “independent relationship” between the Commanders&#8217; owner and the deceased pedophile.
BerlinRosen took a different tack with President Donald Trump, whom the firm worked to remove from the Colorado ballot in February 2024. On an internal call exposed by <a href="https://www.projectveritas.com/news/leaked-call-pr-firm-berlin-rosen-celebrates-efforts-to-remove-trump-from-ballot">Project Veritas</a>, staff boasted that they “save[d] democracy&#8221; and “knocked it out of the park” for getting Trump kicked off the state’s ballot as part of their work with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a far-left activist group backed by George Soros.
While he is not their client, BerlinRosen has a direct relationship with Soros, who has contracted them to help elect progressive prosecutors over the years.
Nor are Soros-funded groups the only leftist organizations BerlinRosen has worked for. In 2014, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) paid BerlinRosen roughly <a href="https://freebeacon.com/issues/the-one-percenters-behind-fast-food-protests/">$3 million</a>, an organization that supports democrats and even organizes protests across the country. They followed this up seven years later, stating their continued work with SEIU on X.

Washington Commanders v Green Bay Packers

How An Epstein-Linked PR Firm Helped The Washington Commanders Go Woke

Jeffrey Epstein

Sports

Washington Commanders

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.
***
The massive Pride campaigns that Target and Bud Light splashed across their stores and cans a few years ago have quietly disappeared. Not because the culture moved on, but because those brands never truly believed in the slogans. They believed in revenue, and rainbow branding looked like an easy shortcut. When it backfired spectacularly, they walked away.
Woke corporate stances are merely pragmatic: marketing strategies dressed up as moral crusades. There’s nothing authentic or altruistic about them. At bottom, it’s always been about profits, and performative progressivism seemed like an efficient way to court younger consumers.
Though it started in the 2010s, woke capitalism took over in 2020 with the Black Lives Matter explosion and black squares all over Instagram. But since then, consumers have noticed it was all a bunch of bull.
Now people are just exhausted by brands that preach values they don’t practice. Faux-generous brands claim to take the harder right over the easier wrong, when in fact it is the opposite. The minute the numbers shift, they drop the social justice stance.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with chasing profits. Businesses exist to make money. The problem is when campaigns erode trust by promising principles they abandon at the first sign of trouble. It’s the misrepresentation, the lying, that is the problem.
A growing number of shoppers are demanding something simpler: brands that are honest.
As the founder of XX-XY Athletics, I started this brand with the idea that we would be the first pro-woman, pro-truth brand that champions female athletes, even when it’s hard. We would also promise to make our product ethically. We didn’t promise all made in the U.S. — because we didn’t know if we could pull it off given reduced capacities here at home. So we didn’t lie about it. But we continue working to make it a reality.
On the other hand, Nike makes money pretending to champion female athletes. In reality, when Allyson Felix, the most decorated female track athlete of all time, became pregnant, they proposed cutting her pay by 70%. When junior elite runner Mary Cain joined Nike’s Oregon Running Project, she was bullied for her weight and psychologically abused to the point of considering suicide.
Beyond the hypocrisy in the athletic category, fast fashion has changed everything in the clothing business. We buy twice as much and wear it for half as long as we did 20 years ago, and it all ends up in the landfill.
We used to shop twice a year: in spring and fall. Fast fashion brands created today’s modern demand cycle, which is basically always on. Buy more, buy it now, who cares if the quality sucks, you’ll just get more next week.
The average American buys close to 70 new items a year. More than 50% of those items remain unworn and go straight to the landfill. But that doesn’t stop major fast fashion brands from pretending they are “green.”
“Values-led” branding in fashion is especially performative. Fast fashion’s self-created economic reality makes real alignment an impossibility: chasing volume and low prices clashes with genuine sustainability or ethical labor.
But the fashion hypocrisy is everywhere. Take Everlane, once celebrated as a beacon of “radical transparency.” Founded in 2010, it built a loyal following by revealing production costs and factory details for basics such as t-shirts and jeans. It told us we deserved to know how and where our goods were made. And it promised to transform the industry through its “radically transparent” approach.
Guess what happened next? In May, after years of slumping sales and debt accrual, Everlane <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-fashion-company-millennials-loved-just-got-bought-by-americas-rival">sold</a> to ultra-fast-fashion giant Shein for about $100 million. The brand that sold a conscience is now under the roof of a company notorious for the opposite model. Shein has been cited as one of the biggest apparel polluters in the world, not to mention the well-founded allegations that the brand uses forced labor from the Uyghur Muslim minority in China.
H&amp;M offers another textbook case. Its “Conscious” collection and ambitious goals — 100% recycled or sustainable materials by 2030, climate positive by 2040 — sound impressive in marketing. Yet the core business remains a fast-fashion volume machine churning out massive overproduction, waste, and pollution. The brand has faced lawsuits and criticism for misleading claims on polyester-heavy items marketed as eco-friendly. It also brags about its recycling program, offering discounts to encourage consumption to those who bring in products to dump in its bins. Talk sustainability; walk disposability.
Then there’s Lions Not Sheep, which wrapped itself in pro-America, patriotic messaging only to get fined by the Federal Trade Commission for ripping out “Made in China” tags and replacing them with fraudulent “Made in USA” labels on imported apparel. The penalty was over $211,000. Patriotism as costume.
Marketing fake values goes both ways, it seems.
Wellness brands such as Prime market themselves as clean and health-focused while drawing scrutiny over ingredients and formulations that don’t fully match the hype.
Even Patagonia, long hailed as the gold standard for environmental activism because it has touted itself as such, relies heavily on petroleum-based synthetics. No brand is perfect, but when your image vastly outpaces your practice, it’s greenwashing.
Brands that claim values must live them, especially when it’s hard, or they will lose the trust of their fans. Consumers should demand to know more about what they wear every day: where it comes from, how it’s made, and whether the company actually stands for anything beyond the next quarterly report.
Shoppers are waking up. They’re tired of being sold conscience by companies that treat principles as optional marketing strategies. Real values aren’t flexible. They don’t vanish when the market shifts.
Brands that understand this — the ones that align strategy with substance — will be the ones that endure. The rest are just full of it.
***
Jennifer Sey is the CEO of XX-XY Athletics. She is an author, filmmaker, and retired national champion gymnast.

MoveOn PAC Commissions Billboard Truck To Circle Target HQ In Minneapolis On Pride Weekend, Calling For The Company To “Reinstate Pride Merch”

The Truth Behind The Disappearing Rainbow Logos

Bud Light

LGBT

Target

Upstream

Halo Studios, the developer of the beloved classic shooter game, celebrated &#8220;Pride Month&#8221; with an update to Halo on June 1. 
“Wear your #Pride all month long with the Unity armor coating, visor and emblem, available in the Halo Infinite Exchange,” Halo Studios wrote on social media, showing how gamers can change their armor skin and player icon to be adorned with rainbow colors.
Halo blocked comments on the post, silencing the reactions of their fanbase. However, quote retweets are allowed on X, and gamers didn&#8217;t hold back in roasting the company.
Many users called out Halo for being too weak to keep replies open. 
Some argued that the game&#8217;s protagonist Master Chief would disapprove of gay &#8220;Pride&#8221; and complained about woke activists seemingly infiltrating the beloved franchise to turn it into a propaganda machine.
&#8220;Dear Halo, It&#8217;s time to just start firing people who push for this to happen yearly, and then fire the artists because these suck,&#8221; one person wrote.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Wear your <a href="https://x.com/hashtag/Pride?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Pride</a> all month long with the Unity armor coating, visor and emblem, available in the Halo Infinite Exchange. <a href="https://t.co/Qu0z79tUMD">pic.twitter.com/Qu0z79tUMD</a>
— Halo (@Halo) <a href="https://x.com/Halo/status/2061510595455697006?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>
Some users dubbed the game &#8220;Gaylo,&#8221; using AI to <a href="https://x.com/Captain_toke/status/2061562882048086096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2061562882048086096%7Ctwgr%5E0f97ea7298e16ffe5bbb4278e425f7c790ad83b7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnotthebee.com%2Farticle%2Fhalo-locked-the-replies-to-its-gay-pride-post-but-it-forgot-about-the-quote-tweets">reimagine</a> the game with safe diversity, equity, and inclusion objectives, such as safe spaces and pronoun affirmation. Other social media users posted a GIF of the scene from &#8220;The Godfather,&#8221; where Vito Corleone laments, “Look how they massacred my boy.” 
Former Blizzard Entertainment executive Mark Kern, known by his hundreds of thousands of social media followers as &#8220;Grummz,&#8221; has been a vocal advocate against DEI in video games. 
In a recent <a href="https://x.com/Grummz/status/2061885611473342959">post</a> on X, Kern pointed out that many major gaming companies have decided to avoid celebrating Pride Month, calling 2026 a “massive June month win for gamers.&#8221; 
&#8220;A year ago [these gaming companies] would have been all skittles,&#8221; he wrote. 
Kern reminded gamers that even though Halo might still be woke, many other gaming companies are not anymore.

Experience: HALO by Xbox 360

Gamers React After Popular Shooter Game’s ‘Pride’ Update

Gaming

LGBTQ

Pride

Twitter

Video Games

A patriotic middle school assembly celebrating America’s upcoming 250th birthday sparked protests and backlash from left-wing parents in Southern California this week after critics objected to the event’s alleged ties to organizations like Turning Point USA and The Heritage Foundation.
The event, dubbed “History Rocks 250,” was held at Canyon Hills Junior High School and focused on American history, the country’s founding principles, and civic pride ahead of the United States’ 250th birthday celebration next year.
But before the assembly even began, protesters gathered outside the school holding signs reading “No politics in school,” while some parents reportedly kept their children home entirely over fears the presentation would push a conservative political agenda.
Much of the controversy centered on reports that organizations affiliated with Turning Point USA and Heritage Foundation had helped coordinate the broader “History Rocks! Trail to Independence Tour,” which is tied to America’s semiquincentennial celebration.
“I’m concerned about the views of Turning Point USA and the Heritage Foundation, which produced Project 2025,” grandparent Debra Esquivel said while protesting the event.
Parents <a href="https://abc7.com/post/controversy-surrounds-history-rocks-250-assembly-canyon-hills-junior-high-chino/19066944/">interviewed by local media</a> expressed fears that conservative ideology was being inserted into the classroom under the banner of civic education, despite school officials repeatedly stating the assembly would simply focus on American history and the nation’s founding.
“The things they teach and the ideas that they like to bring into communities and into students are concerning to me,” parent Kristi Hirst said. School officials and district leaders pushed back forcefully on the criticism, insisting the event contained nothing political or controversial.
“They will be learning about the founding documents and also about the American Revolution,” said Sonja Shaw. “This is nothing new. It’s in our curriculum.” The assembly itself appeared largely straightforward and patriotic in nature.
Students and faculty opened the event with the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem before participating in history-themed trivia games and presentations about the American Revolution and the country’s founding ideals.
One student emcee asked classmates questions about colonial America, while another delivered remarks praising the United States as a place where generations of immigrants came seeking freedom and opportunity. “What makes America special is that for generations families all over the world have come here, searching for freedom, opportunity and the chance to build a better life,” one student said during closing remarks.
Featured speaker Katharine Gorka, a senior adviser for civic education at the Department of Education similarly emphasized America’s openness and national identity. “We are the most welcoming country on earth, and I love that about this country,” Gorka told students.
After the assembly concluded, multiple students reportedly said the event felt like a normal school rally focused on American history rather than partisan politics. “I think they politicized something that’s not political,” Gorka later said.
The backlash puts a fine point on how reflexively hostile some have become towards conservative organizations and overt expressions of American patriotism, even when the actual content presented to students remained centered on basic civics and national history.
The reaction highlights the increasingly polarized atmosphere surrounding patriotism, civic education, and American history in schools — particularly in deep blue states like California, where even celebrations tied to the country’s founding can quickly become ideological flashpoints.

19061769_canyon-hills-JHS-TN-img

Woke Parents Protest As School Dares To Celebrate America’s 250th Birthday

Woke Parents Protest As School Dares To Celebrate America's 250th Birthday

Education

Politics

Turning Point USA

During the two-decade run of &#8220;The Ellen DeGeneres Show,&#8221; its host would end each episode with the line, &#8220;Be kind to one another.&#8221; That was until the show got cancelled following allegations that DeGeneres created a toxic environment for her employees. Now, she spends her time in English exile complaining that President Donald Trump isn&#8217;t nice enough.
We all wish we had a nickel for every celebrity who vowed to leave the country if Donald Trump won the election. And then it happened twice. Ka-ching. 
Yet the vast majority of stars, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/cher-leave-the-country-trump-reelected-guardian-interview-1234856398/">like Cher</a>, never leave. They collectively memory-holed their vow while keeping up a “resistance” posture. Not Ellen DeGeneres. She followed through on the promise to leave. The disgraced talk show host literally left the country at the end of 2024 before Trump took office for greener pastures. Bucolic England, to be more accurate. And <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8d638rrndzo">she loved</a> her new home:
<blockquote>&#8220;We&#8217;re just not used to seeing this kind of beauty. The villages and the towns and the architecture — everything you see is charming and it&#8217;s just a simpler way of life … It&#8217;s clean. Everything here is just better — the way animals are treated, people are polite. I just love it here.”</blockquote>
Yes. The comedienne who was bounced from her own show for chronic cruelty is now a big fan of polite behavior, apparently.
<div id="attachment_949729" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-949729" class="wp-image-949729 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Ellen-DeGeneres-864x576.jpg" alt="Ellen DeGeneres" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Ellen-DeGeneres-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Ellen-DeGeneres-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Ellen-DeGeneres-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Ellen-DeGeneres.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Live Nation</div>
President Trump’s reelection weighed heavily in her decision to flee the country. She also worried Trump — who has appointed openly gay men to be key parts of his administration, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and adviser Ric Grenell — would end same-sex marriage in the United States.
That was then. A year and a half of Trump-induced exile was apparently enough. The &#8220;Finding Nemo&#8221; star is now using some of her American-earned royalties to buy a new home … back in America.
The comic and her longtime squeeze Portia de Rossi just gobbled up a $27 million mansion in Montecito, California. The plan, at the moment, is for the couple to split time between England and the United States. But it appears their return may <a href="https://pagesix.com/2026/02/04/celebrity-news/inside-ellen-degeneres-decision-to-buy-california-home-one-year-after-uk-move/">be temporary</a>.
Imagine having enough money to buy a California mansion with the plan to ditch it in the near future. 
<div id="attachment_1044981" style="width: 779px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1044981" class="size-large wp-image-1044981" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Montecito-ca-769x576.jpg" alt="Backgrid. NY Post." width="769" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Montecito-ca-769x576.jpg 769w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Montecito-ca-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Montecito-ca-768x575.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Montecito-ca.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 769px) 100vw, 769px" />Backgrid. NY Post.</div>
One would think a celebrity of her stature might have a debt of gratitude to a country that allows that kind of financial freedom. Perhaps she’ll realize life in the United States, even under a so-called “dictator,” still has its perks. 
Maybe not.
It’s also unclear what DeGeneres thinks about the recent crackdowns on free speech on British citizens, including <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/irish-comedian-recounts-shocking-arrest-over-anti-trans-social-media-posts">the arrest</a> of comedic colleague Graham Linehan at Heathrow Airport over a social media post about men entering women&#8217;s spaces. She’s yet to weigh in on the matter via social media, even though she’s been a stand-up comic for decades, a gig that demands all the free speech room Western culture can offer.
For now, a <a href="https://people.com/ellen-degeneres-missing-california-after-moving-to-england-buys-new-house-montecito-11898028">People magazine source</a> says the duo missed California’s weather and “horse scene.” They&#8217;ll hole up back in California while they build a massive horse stable and riding area at the United Kingdom estate. 
De Rossi is an animal enthusiast and appears to have put her extensive Hollywood career behind her. The “Arrested Development” co-star’s resume dried up in recent years with no new projects on the horizon.
The same may not be true for DeGeneres.
The comedian delivered a rare stand-up special late in 2024 on Netflix. It was her first attempt at explaining away all the terrible headlines tied to her ugly TV talk show exit on her terms, not any tabloid headlines.
<div id="attachment_1044967" style="width: 421px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1044967" class="size-large wp-image-1044967" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Ellen-netflix-411x576.jpg" alt="Netflix" width="411" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Ellen-netflix-411x576.jpg 411w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Ellen-netflix-214x300.jpg 214w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Ellen-netflix.jpg 450w" sizes=" (max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px" />Netflix</div>
No filters. Just DeGeneres and her considerable wit. Except the special didn’t capture the upbeat humor that entertained so many Americans over the years. And, when it came to addressing the elephant on the stage, her toxic behavior, DeGeneres fumbled.
Even Variety, a far-left outlet that might be gracious to any DeGeneres comeback given her legitimate status as an LGBT pioneer, <a href="https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/ellen-degeneres-netflix-special-review-for-your-approval-1236153600/">cried foul.</a>
It’s a spectacle of ego that seems at odds with the humble demeanor DeGeneres shows on stage — but then, that divide has lately been part of the whole Ellen experience.
And, it appeared, the special was her way of speaking her mind and bowing out of Hollywood, officially.
Then again, how many artists have promised to hang up their professional hats only to return a short time later? If DeGeneres truly embraced the kindness and beauty of her new British home, why not move to any of the other states in America, where she’ll find plenty of both? Why pick a city that’s less than two hours from Los Angeles, still a major Hollywood hub?
Her recent social media musings prove she’s still plugged in to American news headlines and, more importantly, remains on the same page as her former Hollywood denizens. She recently offered “<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DTquV4Ekoa1/">prayers</a>” to Minneapolis for the self-inflicted chaos engulfing the city over ICE arrests.
Perhaps DeGeneres is taking a page from the playbook of another former talk show host: Rosie O’Donnell. They’re both former comedians who fled the country thanks to President Trump, but neither can leave their old home’s politics behind.
<div id="attachment_1044987" style="width: 857px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1044987" class="size-large wp-image-1044987" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2209608348-847x576.jpg" alt="LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 10: Rosie O'Donnell and Carolyn Strauss attend Sky's UK Premiere of &quot;The Last of Us&quot; Season II at Vue West End on April 10, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Marsland/Getty Images for Sky &amp; NOW)" width="847" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2209608348-847x576.jpg 847w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2209608348-300x204.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2209608348-768x522.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2209608348.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 847px) 100vw, 847px" />Mike Marsland/Getty Images for Sky &amp; NOW</div>
O’Donnell’s unhinged rants over all things Trump have flowed steadily from her social media accounts despite living full-time in Ireland for the past year. She even questioned whether President Trump’s 2024 assassination attempt <a href="https://www.aol.com/rosie-o-donnell-angrily-rants-170206586.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALPU--JZlGu-3QIZUjsflhvuYeZX7XoyxpfJhyLNRnDIDk9HQL9hAPxOsPCgPQy9SswtbIx4ZnRpJGMKNouhyDFBJGmhF7-yioQ8-MHodua6LPGwGCthczcNsJ2FQQCqA6-bMXCmKzKUBcL4iEh6QiwcUag87dgV7xzqhfeN2Fsy">actually happened</a>.
And both DeGeneres and O’Donnell played up a sweet, friendly brand that proved to be anything but accurate. O’Donnell’s “Queen of Nice” shtick, along with her crush on Tom Cruise, proved to be pure Hollywood fiction.
And we all know how afraid “Ellen” staffers were to be near their boss behind the scenes.
Perhaps DeGeneres’ self-imposed American exile, along with her speedy return, will end up as stand-up fodder for her next comeback attempt. Turns out even self-exiled Hollywood royalty will eventually return to the kingdom that made her rich.
* * *
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>.

Ellen DeGeneres

Why Ellen DeGeneres’s Public Image Is Still In Free Fall

Exile Interrupted — Ellen’s Sudden Return Comes With A Catch

California

Comedy

Donald Trump

Ellen Degeneres

England

Great Britain

Santa Barbara

Trump Derangement Syndrome

The SAS (Special Air Service), Britain’s most elite fighting force, is used to fighting in the shadows. It is world-renowned, most famously for the London Iranian Embassy siege in 1980, which boosted Britain’s confidence and reputation after Margaret Thatcher’s difficult first year in government. Now, however, it finds itself under threat, not from the enemies of King and Country against whom they have battled over the years, but from those nominally on their own side: activist lawyers in Britain and a government that is failing to protect them.
Sources have claimed that <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/ee5ad8ccb6d52614">“witch hunts”</a> by human rights lawyers have led to men in D and G Squadrons SAS applying for premature voluntary release. Although the number has been withheld by journalists for security reasons, some SAS sources described the scale of losses as “a threat to national security.”
These resignations are a result of war crime investigations into recent SAS actions in Syria and Afghanistan, as well as historic actions in Northern Ireland. These are often viewed as a vexatious hounding through the courts, with one case <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/16/judges-dismiss-ludicrous-legal-case-sas-killings-soldierb/">described as “ludicrous”</a> by the judge who heard it, but not before it cost the former soldier four years of legal battles.
Last month, <a href="https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15618847/Special-Forces-troops-WWIII-harassed-witch-hunt.html">a memo was shared</a> with the Special Air Service and Special Reconnaissance Regiment associations, which showed that 242 special forces soldiers — including 120 who are still serving—are under investigation as part of human rights inquiries which are costing £1 million a month.
Former regimental sergeant major George Simm has said that troops are increasingly afraid of a “knock on the door” from human rights lawyers, and feel betrayed that the government isn&#8217;t standing up for them.
Several of those resigning are believed to be senior warrant officers, the backbone of the SAS. Usually, these are the men who stay with the Regiment, as it is sometimes called, for most of their career. They provide a crucial combination of combat experience and cultural continuity. Yet, just before Christmas, a number applied to leave. Morale, unsurprisingly, is said to be extremely bad among those who remain.
At a time when Britain’s armed forces are in a weakened state, losing experienced special forces is a serious issue. British special forces are also integrated with American special forces, having worked closely together for decades. Any diminishment in British capabilities, therefore, has knock-on effects on U.S. security.
This is a depressingly familiar pattern. Over a decade ago, the lawyer Phil Shiner alleged that British troops in Iraq had committed systematic war crimes, leading to the five-year, £24 million Al-Sweady Inquiry. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30515369">It concluded</a> that the allegations were &#8220;wholly without foundation and entirely the product of deliberate lies.” Shiner’s firm, Public Interest Lawyers, was struck off. But the underlying laws remain.
One major issue is the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Ratified in 1951, it was intended to prevent a repeat of the human rights atrocities which occurred in the Second World War, as well as to safeguard European democracies from the Stalinist totalitarianism which then threatened them.
Over the years, however, the ECHR has expanded its powers, especially under the “living instrument” doctrine, which holds that the European Court of Human Rights, which adjudicates cases under the ECHR, can reinterpret the original text in light of changing attitudes. The result has been the Court inventing radical new interpretations. In addition, in 1998, the Court&#8217;s rulings became mandatory, meaning that human rights judges could tell nations like Britain what to do without any democratic mandate or challenge.
Crucially, the doctrine of “extraterritoriality” expanded the ECHR’s authority to any territory where a signatory had control, including warzones. Suddenly, SAS operations overseas were at the mercy of human rights lawyers, requiring soldiers to think about how they could justify split-second combat decisions for decades afterward.
The current Labor government has done little to protect the SAS. Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, is a former human rights lawyer, as is his Attorney General, Richard Hermer. They are currently trying to pass a new law which will remove the immunity introduced by the last government for veterans who served in Northern Ireland, leading to nine former military chiefs claiming that soldiers’ trust in the legal system had collapsed.
While British soldiers face being chased through the courts for the rest of their lives, a former terrorist who tried to blow up a church is standing for office. Shahid Butt <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wxwrxn877o">can’t be barred</a> from running, as his offense was so long ago. The same human rights laws also protect terrorists, such as Shah Rahman, who tried to blow up the London Stock Exchange as part of an Al Qaeda plot. He <a href="https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15750843/Terrorist-bomb-London-Stock-Exchange-stay-Britain-human-rights.html?ns_mchannel=rss&amp;ns_campaign=1490&amp;ito=social-twitter_mailonline">cannot be deported</a> back to Bangladesh because the ECHR protects him.
Although there are <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001ykkf/panorama-special-forces-i-saw-war-crimes">plausible allegations</a> that some British special forces committed crimes and that there were attempts <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce44ew9n22qo">to cover this up</a>, human rights law is being used to go far beyond that. Soldiers face persecution for doing their duty, while terrorists can use it for protection. No nation can demand that its soldiers defend it if it won’t defend its soldiers.
***
Guy Dampier is a senior researcher on Nationhood at the Prosperity Institute.

UK Special Operations Forces Participate In Exercise Hyperion Storm

An Activist Witch Hunt Is Threatening Britain’s Elite Fighting Force

British Military

On Friday, Allie Beth Stuckey’s “Relatable” podcast featured a <a href="https://youtu.be/KYPlrX8qfHE?si=DsY47h65mwqjhMyC">debate</a> between her and New York Times columnist David French. What was significant about the debate was French’s willingness to confront one of his sharpest critics head-on. What is doubly significant is why they were even debating to begin with: Over the last several years, French, who bills himself as an evangelical Christian and conservative, has staked out positions at serious odds with the constituency he purports to represent.
The pair debated a number of topics, among them “toxic empathy,” gender ideology and pronouns, why David French voted for Kamala Harris, and his praise of progressive Christian James Talarico.
While I cannot rehearse every facet of the debate in a single essay, the main takeaway was that all the topics centered on what I will call a “truth-emotion continuum.” By that, I mean Stuckey and French seemed to emphasize different priorities in how they communicate and what they communicate. On virtually every topic, French kept returning to the need to show compassion and kindness and to extend empathy to those across the political aisle. Those are all valuable, noble, and necessary. The question is whether, on their own, they are sufficient to advance Christian witness in the public square. Stuckey, in contrast, questioned French about whether the emphasis on kindness and empathy can lead persons to adopt a posture of inoffensiveness and non-judgmentalism to the point that biblical clarity is forfeited.
Stuckey came out ahead in the debate for one main reason that colored every issue: She grounds her understanding of emotion and empathy in a biblical axis, whereas French elevates emotion and empathy to a disproportionate degree, subordinating biblical clarity to assuage the offended. The consequence of this approach leads, in the long run, to untethering emotions from truth. But here’s what needs to be said: Emotions need to be regulated by truth. Emotions are not self-regulating, nor should they be embraced without questioning their veracity.
Also clear were the rhetorical differences in their respective approaches to the truth-emotion continuum. In rhetoric, speakers tend to focus on either logos (reason) or pathos (emotion) to make their case. In the debate, Stuckey focuses more on logos; French, on pathos.
Stuckey succeeded by bringing in the missing element in rhetorical theory: ethos, the idea of the speaker’s credibility. Credibility refers to the ability to speak with authority on a given subject. In my view, Stuckey offers a more credible witness because her approach is more biblical and just as compassionate, whereas French’s view is all compassion but little clarity.
In debates over “toxic empathy,” truth gets pitted against compassion. But Stuckey demonstrated ethos by refusing to play the game of pitting love against truth (1 Cor. 13:6; Eph. 4:15). She’s obviously no less interested in kindness or empathy than French, but she is properly grounded in Scripture.
French’s focus on catering to emotional equilibria (and thus hewing to progressive niceties) results in him blurring biblical categories. We saw this, for example, in his unwillingness to call James Talarico a non-Christian despite Talarico abandoning core Christian doctrines. It’s ironic that outspoken atheists who at least know what Christianity teaches (but reject it) are better at assessing whether someone is a Christian than some Christians are. The avowed atheist Friedrich Nietzsche would have no problem calling Talarico a non-Christian because of the orthodox doctrines that Talarico rejects. Why can’t David French?
In truth, biblical cultural engagement requires both logos and pathos undergirded by ethos, but our engagement must be ordered and governed with a proper foundation in Scripture. And notably, French’s outsized empathy leads him to extend that empathy more typically in one direction, toward those to his left. While French emphasizes the need for all sides to listen to one another, it struck me how much more empathy was extended to the Left. They deserve the benefit of the doubt, while “MAGA Christianity” deserves only generalization and ridicule. As I scored the debate, Stuckey focused on objectivity, reason, and right and wrong as the grounds of what constitutes love and kindness, whereas French’s instinct was to defer to emotion and the unpleasant aesthetics of culture war.
But another element of the debate requires attention, namely, French’s somewhat dismissive relegation of Stuckey’s concerns to matters of triviality. In offering his own commentary on the debate, Baylor sociologist George Yancey (who sided more with French) argued that Stuckey seems unhelpfully preoccupied with topics like homosexuality and transgender issues, whereas French focused on issues of greater global significance, such as foreign policy. He writes that “it became clear to me that these issues are deeply linked to her theological framework and this makes them priority issues.”
While I generally appreciate Yancey’s work and perspective, I think he fails to understand what motivates Stuckey and the significance of these issues. There was one key phrase she used in her discussion that demonstrates why she is so concerned about issues of life, gender, and sexuality. She named these “creation order” issues. “Creation order” is Christian parlance for “natural law.” In particular, it speaks to the foundational principles necessary to ground society’s coherence, stability, and flourishing. What Stuckey is concerned about is not only one’s eternal state and biblical fidelity, but also what is true about human nature being reflected in law and upheld by broader society. In her thinking (and mine), if civilization fails to respect human beings at all stages of life, it undermines society as a whole. Human dignity, in principle, is jeopardized. If human civilization cannot lay out definitions and expectations for what it means to be male and female, it robs society of the most basic facet of our existence. And if civilization fails to uphold the sexual arrangements and familial arrangements that optimize human flourishing, we are sawing off the branch that makes society possible.
Far from abortion, homosexuality, and transgenderism being niche culture war topics, they are building blocks that speak to the most essential foundations of human civilization.
Regardless of how one scores this debate, the fact that figures like Allie Beth Stuckey and David French had this important conversation in person rather than online underscores the importance of individuals in different silos speaking to one another. While French’s and Stuckey’s disagreements remain stark, it was also apparent that they had much in common as they sought mutual understanding and clarity over one another’s views. And in this perpetually online age, we’re all better off for seeing an intense debate modeled with civility and charity.
***
Andrew T. Walker is associate professor of Christian Ethics and Public Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and managing editor of WORLD Opinions. He is a fellow at The Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Bible On Top Of Rainbow Flag

Allie Beth Stuckey-David French Debate Is A Study In Biblical Truth Against Toxic Empathy

Christianity

Conservatism

Toxic Empathy

Woke Hollywood is dead, or so we thought.
The new trailer for “Ladies First” is proof that La La Land won’t give up the woke ghost.
Sacha Baron Cohen, who traded his subversive “Borat” shtick for the <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/borat-subsequent-moviefilm-review/">anti-Trump Resistance</a>, stars as a chauvinist who suffers a blow to the head and wakes up in a new reality.
Forget the patriarchy. The matriarchy now runs things in this May 22 Netflix original. The laugh-free trailer is bad enough, but the sight of Borat leaning into feminist clichés is worse.
And it’s far from alone. That “woke mind virus” is on the comeback trail.
<div id="attachment_1080199" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1080199" class="size-large wp-image-1080199" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Ladies-Night-864x576.jpg" alt="Rob Youngson/Netflix - copyright 2026 Netflix, Inc." width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Ladies-Night-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Ladies-Night-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Ladies-Night-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Ladies-Night-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Ladies-Night-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Ladies-Night-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Ladies-Night.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Rob Youngson/Netflix &#8211; copyright 2026 Netflix, Inc.</div>
The proof that woke was on the run felt substantial. Real. Refreshing. Comedians were suddenly able to speak their minds without fear of reprisal. Comedy roasts made a shocking comeback, and Netflix couldn’t wait to line up rebel comics like Tony Hinchcliffe, Tim Dillon, Ricky Gervais and Shane Gillis for new projects.
Disney, the unofficial woke standard bearer, dialed down the messaging machine. The Disney+ series “Win or Lose” ditched a trans character. Big-budget releases like “Moana 2” and “Inside Out 2” left the lectures on the cutting room floor — and scored huge box office numbers along the way.
More recently, Disney-owned Pixar chief Pete Docter said his company <a href="https://variety.com/2026/film/news/pete-docter-pixar-lgbtq-storyline-elio-therapy-1236681692/">removed LGBTQ content</a> from 2025’s “Elio” because “We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy.”
Lesson learned. Or was it?
<div id="attachment_1080169" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1080169" class="size-large wp-image-1080169" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2219557935-864x576.jpg" alt="LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 10: (L-R) Jim Morris, President, Pixar and Pete Docter, CCO, Pixar attend the World Premiere of Disney and Pixar's &quot;Elio&quot; at El Capitan Theatre on June 10, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney/Pixar)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2219557935-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2219557935-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2219557935-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2219557935.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney/Pixar</div>
That “Ladies First” trailer feels like it came from a 2020 time capsule. So does “Starfleet Academy.” The latest “Star Trek” TV show got roundly mocked on social media and by YouTube cutups like Nerdrotic and The Critical Drinker, who combined have millions of followers.
The show featured a charcuterie board full of woke, from the barefoot captain curling up in her chair like a Portland librarian to a gay, cross-dressing Klingon.
Mainstream critics, who lean aggressively to the Left, praised the show while audiences stayed away in droves. The show’s second season was set in motion immediately, but the <a href="https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/star-trek-starfleet-academy-canceled-season-2-1236696816/">cancellation news came nearly as fast.</a>
Hulu just dropped a new mini-season of “Malcolm in the Middle,” the early 2000s hit about a quirky, dysfunctional clan. The streamer knew it had a nostalgia-fueled hit on its hands, which may be why <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/malcolm-in-the-middle-reboot-hit-with-backlash-over-woke-changes">the creators gave</a> the clan Kelly, a “non-binary” child.
Just a coincidence? Hardly. Executive producer Tracy Katsy told Deadline.com the <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/04/malcolm-in-the-middle-creator-ep-wife-lgbtq-kids-1236786214/">reason for the inclusion angle</a>.
“Three out of four of our kids are queer, and without making it a thing and without making an issue, I think it’s really nice to have a character that, that’s just a facet of their personality as opposed to the entire story.”
<div id="attachment_1080171" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1080171" class="size-large wp-image-1080171" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2270286421-864x576.jpg" alt="NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 07: (L-R) Christopher Masterson, Justin Berfield, Vaughan Murrae, Jane Kaczmarek, Frankie Muniz, Bryan Cranston, Keeley Karsten, Kiana Madeira, Caleb Ellsworth-Clark, Emy Coligado and Craig Lamar Traylor attend Hulu's &quot;Malcolm in The Middle: Life's Still Unfair&quot; New York Premiere at DGA Theater on April 07, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2270286421-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2270286421-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2270286421-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/GettyImages-2270286421.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Theo Wargo/Getty Images</div>
The diversity measure came with the de facto lecture sequence, too, along with the Mary Sue-style characterization.
Kelly uses &#8220;they/them&#8221; and is depicted as academically gifted, level-headed, and notably the only sibling without a police record.
No flaws, please. That’s another woke byproduct, removing flaws from characters meant to promote diversity and inclusion.
The show also made Stevie (Craig Lamar Traylor), who displayed heterosexual characteristics in the original series, a gay man in an interracial relationship.
The new action comedy “Normal” also squeezes a “non-binary” character into the story, played by Jess McLeod. The character, dubbed Alex, is given little backstory or depth, but Alex still plays a sizable role in the film’s second half.
This year’s “Frankenstein” reinvention, dubbed “The Bride!” featured a cavalcade of woke talking points. The titular creature inspired a wave of rebellious women fighting back against early 20th century oppression, and Jessie Buckley’s Bride literally shouts, “Me too” … twice.
And, yes, “The Bride!” may be one of 2026’s biggest box office busts with <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt30851137/?ref_=bo_se_r_1">a pathetic $12 million domestic haul.</a>
Woke isn’t just about forced, clumsy inclusion. It coaxes screenwriters to lecture viewers from a hard-Left perspective. No nuance or balance, please. There’s a PowerPoint-style message to share. It’s why shows like “Matlock” and “The Pitt” have spent serious screen time pushing an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hollywood-keeps-pushing-this-narrative-but-ignores-what-follows">aggressive, anti-ICE narrative</a> in recent weeks.
“The Pitt” also promotes an unabashed, pro-abortion agenda. The HBO Max series featured an episode with a 17-year-old pregnant teen (Abby Ryder Fortson) seeking an abortion, but she didn’t have her parents’ consent.
<div id="attachment_1080173" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1080173" class="size-large wp-image-1080173" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/pitt-noah-elevator-1024x568.jpg" alt="John Wells Productions. Max. R. Scott Gemmill Productions. Sky Studios. Warner Bros. Television. HBO Max." width="1024" height="568" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/pitt-noah-elevator-1024x568.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/pitt-noah-elevator-300x166.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/pitt-noah-elevator-768x426.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/pitt-noah-elevator-1536x851.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/pitt-noah-elevator.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />John Wells Productions. Max. R. Scott Gemmill Productions. Sky Studios. Warner Bros. Television. HBO Max.</div>
The baby in question is more than 11 weeks along, just beyond Pennsylvania’s cutoff for a legal abortion. Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) stepped in, offering to fudge the facts to secure the abortion in question. The doctors agreed that the teen deserves to have a life, as they framed it, ignoring the positive impacts of motherhood or potentially giving up the innocent baby for adoption.
The creative team behind “The Pitt” is leaning into the show’s ratings success, weaponizing the saga to advance leftist talking points as needed. It’s another familiar woke pattern — Hollywood finds success with an apolitical show or film, and later leverages that appeal to insert woke talking points.
One glaring example? Even a far-Left site like <a href="https://www.themarysue.com/endgame-girl-power-did-it-work/">TheMarySue.com cringed</a> when the once-mighty Marvel Cinematic Universe included a clunky, “girl power” moment during the epic “Avengers: Endgame” battle.
The MCU saga went woke thereafter and has yet to recover, financially speaking.
Despite these stark examples, woke isn’t the cultural force in Hollywood that it was just a few short years ago. Some savvy studio types realized that its cultural tentacles remain a financial risk, to put it bluntly.
Others are like <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220413-onoda-the-man-who-hid-in-the-jungle-for-30-years">Hiroo Onoda</a>, the Japanese soldier who kept fighting World War II for nearly 29 years after hostilities ceased.
That means it could take a few more high-profile failures for Hollywood to finally learn its lesson.
* * *
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>.

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