What’s happening to Will Smith’s career is not “cancel culture.” He is not a victim of a left-wing society growing more and more hysterical over opinions and words. In fact, I would argue that what’s happening to Will Smith is a rejection of cancel culture, which means there might still be hope to escape this generation’s version of McCarthyism.
But let’s start with this “Will Smith is getting canceled” nonsense…
In a lame-brained column, Piers Morgan defended Smith against “the cancel culture mob race to destroy him.” Morgan argues that Smith was merely defending his wife. Then Morgan describes his own experience with Smith “a few years ago” and tries to make Smith’s disturbing behavior “a few years ago” seem touching and chivalrous. What a ridiculous man Piers Morgan is.
What’s more, we’ve all seen headlines like this one: “Will Smith won’t be ‘permanently canceled’ by Hollywood but his brand is ‘forever tarnished,’ experts say.”
This whole idea that Will Smith is getting canceled is exactly wrong.
There is only one correct way to inject “cancel culture” into the Will Smith discussion, and that’s the way Angie Speaks did at Newsweek:
But lost in the conversation has been the precedent for Smith’s actions; Smith’s slap wasn’t the result of some outdated notion of honor culture but something much more mundane: political correctness shutting down comedy.
[…]
[The] Academy Awards controversy was yet another incarnation of this pernicious trend, but one that escalated to the absurd degree of resulting in physical violence. And while many are decrying the violence on display, the truth is that the incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock was the culmination of a precedent that has been culturally sanctioned by a powerful liberal elite to silence, slander and demonize comedians and commentators who dare to trigger cultural or political sensitivities.
Bill Maher also understands this:
But that was just out of line and it re-enforced the idea that jokes are the enemy. It was sort of like cancel culture encapsulated, because at first, you saw he was laughing at the joke, right? This is what happens a lot with cancel stuff. At first: ‘Oh, it’s funny.’ And then you look around: ‘Oh wait, I’m supposed to be offended.’ And then there’s the overreaction. He was like the Twitter mob come alive.
Simply put: Will Smith is not a victim of cancel culture, Will Smith *is* cancel culture.
True cancel culture is a culture caused by terrible parents who did not teach their children the basics of life. Things like “sticks n’ stones” and “speech is not violence” and if “you choose to be a rich and powerful public person, you are also choosing to be mocked by America’s court jesters, by our comedians.”
Oh, and then there’s this one: “There’s nothing chivalrous about assaulting a much smaller man who is no threat to you.”
All Chris Rock used were words. Words. And I’m done defending Rock by saying his GI Jane joke was a “mild joke” — because, you know what? It doesn’t fucking matter if the joke was mild or not. Jada Pinkett Smith is sitting there in the front row of the Oscars like a queen, sitting there by choice after spending 35 years doing everything in her power to accumulate power and celebrity, and that means she volunteered to be a target for satire.
Chris Rock did nothing wrong.
He did his job.
And his behavior since has been exemplary.
Will Smith committed a violent, unprovoked assault, and as someone who has always drawn an unmistakable red line between words and violence, the current dismantling of Smith’s career is exactly what he’s got coming.
And I say that as a Will Smith fan. Like the rest of the world, I’ve always liked the guy. And as someone who regularly laments the loss of that mystical beast known as the movie star, I was thrilled at his career resurgence and believed he deserved that Best Actor Oscar.
I have also, on countless occasions, defended leftists against cancel culture, including Bill Maher, Seth MacFarlane, and Woody Allen, among others.
This isn’t that.
This isn’t people feigning offense over boob jokes or insensitivity or, in the case of Woody Allen, a bunch of torch-wielding leftists ignoring due process and the lessons of To Kill a Mockingbird. This isn’t a pile-on over an “unacceptable” opinion or political point of view.
Will Smith committed an unprovoked assault against a comedian doing his job.
Will Smith is cancel culture taken to its inevitable violent conclusion, and the left’s increasing rejection of that, and watching the scales fall from their eyes, gives me at least a little hope.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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