Actor Hannibal Buress is the latest comedian to incur the wrath of woke left-wing purists after he dared to disagree with Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders over the issue of rent control.
The stand-up comedian and The Secret Life of Pets 2 star has faced a barrage of social media harassment after he replied to Sen. Sanders’ (I-VT) demand on Twitter that “we need a national rent control standard now.”
“Wrong,” Hannibal Buress replied in a tweet that has since been deleted. He also tweeted a link to a landlords’ rights group.
The comedian’s one-word reply unleashed a torrent of online mudslinging that focused on the fact that Buress is a property owner in Chicago.
The Chicago Tribune reported two years ago that Buress “works as a landlord because he rents out units of his Chicago building on Airbnb.”
Among the online harassers was Live Science writer Rafi Letzter, who replied to Buress by snarkily demanding to know “how much is appropriate to tip your landlord do you think.” Letzter encouraged his social media followers to “ruin a landlord’s day,” linking to a tenants’ activism site.
Others have accused Buress of abandoning his working class roots — the comedian once worked as a door-to-door salesman — once he became rich and famous.
“Yet another dude who was one of us til he got enough zeroes on the end of his bank account,” wrote one Twitter user.
Buress replied by calling the user a “broke dummy.”
The online abuse became so bad that Buress posted a YouTube video response on Thursday in which he denied that he is a landlord but acknowledged that he has put units in his building on Airbnb.
“It’s kind of wild seeing young white kids get upset at you for owning property. Also with minimal information,” he said. “It’s weird being called a landlord when you don’t think being a landlord is inherently evil, which I don’t.”
“But just to sum it up: I’m not a landlord. I don’t think being a landlord is completely evil,” he said in conclusion. “And this shit is totally wild just because I’m being made to feel like an asshole by twenty-something white kids for trying to secure my financial future as a black man.”
Woke activists and their allies in the mainstream media recently ganged up on comedian Dave Chappelle over his Netflix special Sticks & Stones, in which he poked fun of “cancel culture” and made politically incorrect jokes about transgender individuals.
Other comedians to take a stand against woke cancel culture include Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Marlon Wayans.
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com
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