There’s shunning an influencer for saying something deemed politically incorrect and then there’s the United States government taking a beloved comedian off the air for expressing a dissenting opinion (“Look out for hypocrites on the left,” Sept. 24). The difference between these two scenarios is that one is protected by the First Amendment.
I’m perfectly able to “cancel” a wannabe political commentator on Instagram or even a real one on CNN if I so choose, because I, a student with no connections to the federal government, am not the body responsible for upholding the constitutional right to freedom of speech in America. However, when the government goes after a late-night talk show host to advance the political interests of a sitting president, it’s gross government overreach, a petulant power play by a man without a shred of respect for the U.S. Constitution.
Frankly, as a leftist, I don’t agree with cancel culture. I think the split-second labeling of someone’s personal view often stymies the intelligent, open-minded conversations it’s so important to have these days. But comparing the Trump administration’s deliberate and chilling suppression of free speech in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death to something as petty as cancel culture, and then calling out the left’s “hypocrisy” for drawing a line between the two, demeans the damage our president is doing to American democracy.
— Alex Cox, Gaithersburg