While appearing on The Breakfast Club, famous comedian Chris Rock condemned cancel culture and talked about how it ruins comedy.
He said:
I see a lot unfunny comedians, I see unfunny TV shows, I see unfunny award shows, I see unfunny movies ’cause no one’s — everybody’s scared to, like, you know, make a move. You know, that’s not a place to be. We should have the right to fail. Because failure is a part of art. You know what I mean? It’s the ultimate cancel, but now you got a place where people are scared to talk, that’s not — especially in America — you’re scared to talk, but that’s what people want, you gotta make adjustments and, you know, let’s do it.
This comes on the heels of podcasting legend Joe Rogan saying something very similar.
“You can never be ‘woke’ enough. That’s the problem. It keeps going. It keeps going further and further and further down the line, and you get to the point where you capitulate where you agree to all these demands. It will eventually get to ‘straight white men are not allowed to talk. “[It won’t stop] because it’s your privilege to express yourself when other people of color have been silenced throughout history. It will be ‘you’re not allowed to go outside because so many people were imprisoned for so many years.’ I mean, I’m not joking. It’s that crazy.”
Both Rock and Rogan are spot-on. Not only are people being canceled and censored, but more ominously, people are self-censoring what they think because they’re afraid talking about what they believe might get them in trouble. That’s the sort of thing we’ve always seen in totalitarian societies and see it coming to a country where the idea of free speech is as entrenched as it is here is both sad and frightening. For a free society to function effectively, real freedom of speech is a must. An America where most people are afraid to say what they really believe is an America destined for failure.
John Hawkins is the author of 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know. You can find him on Parler here and Twitter here.
