marjorie taylor greene
When you first hear the words cancel culture, your mind probably drifts over to the world of the celebrity. At least mine does. Yet, lately, the phrase “cancel culture” has been seen infiltrating the political sphere — as political figures have started accusing their partisan opponents and the media of trying to expose the skeletons in their closets, tarnish their reputations, and, essentially, cancel their careers.
Specifically within the last year, it has been members of the GOP who have added “cancel culture” to their vocabulary in a particularly aggressive way, condemning so-called “liberal” efforts to “censor, cancel, and blacklist.” And perhaps the most recent and newsworthy high-profile Republican to claim that she’s been unduly cancelled is freshman U.S. Representative from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Both before she took office and during her tenure thus far, Greene made a number of controversial, conspiratorial, and hate-filled statements. In a 2018 video posted to YouTube, where Green was speaking at a conference on behalf of American Priority, a conservative organization, she questioned whether a plane had really flown into the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001, suggested that President Barack Obama has been hiding being Muslim, and accused the Clintons of being behind the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1999. Non-profit Media Matters discovered old Facebook posts created by Greene that argued that both the Parkland school shooting in 2018 and Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 were “organized false flag operations.” She harassed teenage Parkland survivor, David Hogg, and supported the execution of Congressional Democrats on social media. A New York Times article found that Greene has had past ties to multiple white supremacist militia groups, some of which partook in the January 6th Capitol insurrection. Before the 2020 election, Politico re-released videos Greene published in which she expressed racist, antisemisitic, and Islamaphobic views and offered support to the conspiracy group, QAnon. And, truly, the list goes on and on.
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I know — reading through that list can be overwhelming. And frightening. Especially when you remember that this individual is currently an elected, sitting member of Congress in charge of making and passing federal laws.
That’s the very reason why earlier this year, even when people had seen and known of these dangerous statements for a while, top Democrats began pushing for Greene’s removal from certain Congressional Committees, and ultimately, her expulsion from the House of Representatives. Yet, Greene largely attempted to avoid taking accountability for these comments and beliefs, instead twisting the narrative, trying to frame herself as the victim, and alleging that she was being taken down by “cancel culture.”
On February 4th, wearing a mask that read “Free Speech,” Greene took to the House floor to “apologize,” attempting to downplay her prior comments and involvement in conspiracy theories. She alleged that she has since “stopped believing QAnon posts,” insisted that “school shootings are absolutely real,” and assured people (many of whom absolutely never doubted it) that “9/11 absolutely happened.” But, above all, Greene launched a wide-scale attack on cancel culture, touting that “cancel culture is a real thing” and alleging that media companies need to be held accountable for their purposeful “misrepresentation” of people like her.
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While Greene’s politically-motivated critique of cancel culture may have received the most coverage in the press, she is by no means the only politician to allege that they’ve been unfairly silenced. These sorts of claims coming from the Republicans (and recently Democrats, too) have gotten so out of control that many political commentators argue that politicians have become “obsessed” and “infatuated” with being a part of the defeat of cancel culture. This isn't just a Marjorie Taylor Greene problem — it's an American politics problem.
And, really, I don't think those analysts are too far-off in making those sorts of claims. We’re seeing more and more politicians invoke the phrase “cancel culture” — seemingly using it as a sort of scapegoat for everything. Though she wasn’t removed from any of her Committees, Greene was suspended by Twitter for a period of time for violating its misinformation policy. In response to efforts to remove Greene from the House, and — even amid a pandemic — U.S. Representative Jim Jordan referred to cancel culture as “the number one issue for the country to address today,” even more recently calling for a House Judiciary hearing on the subject. Following criticism of his efforts to overturn the presidential election, Simon & Schuster cancelled the publication of an upcoming book by U.S. Representative Josh Hawley — that he argued was “an affront to the First Amendment,” which only happened as a result of cancel culture. Somewhat similarly, during the Congressional trial of the second impeachment of Trump, one of Trump’s defense attorneys outrightly referred to the attempt by Democrats to impeach the former President as “constitutional cancel culture.” And, just a week before this was written, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blamed cancel culture, not the multiple allegations of sexual assault and COVID data manipulation against him, for the recent calls for his resignation.
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Here, instead of owning up to or apologizing for what they have done or said, politicians have found it easier to just blame cancel culture for their slow demise. The phrase has been wholly overstretched to try and defend and excuse people who have said and done horrible things.
But, here’s some questions to think about: Does what happened to Greene or Hawley or Trump or Cuomo really boil down to toxic inflictions of cancel culture? Have these politicians truly been quieted? Or, rather, as I believe, are they merely (and finally) being held accountable for their dangerous speech by society, corporations, and the law in very public ways?
For, I see a very inherent and very striking irony in highly-influential politicians (having done and said terribly harmful things), who have thousands of unwavering supporters, huge social media presences, instantaneous press conferences and immediate press release capabilities, and the ability to stand on the House floor (literally one of the most powerful platforms in the world) in front of a microphoned podium claiming that they have somehow been unfairly silenced, censored, or cancelled.
And, finally, is cancel culture really capable of stifling free speech in the way that so many (namely those on the right) claim?
As long as the expression is protected by the First Amendment (meaning it’s not considered defamation, incitement, fighting words, or anything of the like) then, legally, people can say whatever they want. Yet, with that in mind, many politicians specifically still believe that they should be immune from any and all backlash. Let’s not forget that there is still a difference between being held accountable or told that you’re wrong and being out-of-nowhere attacked by an unwavering online mob. Those doing the “cancelling” have just as much of a right to free speech as do the “cancelled.” So perhaps it’d be beneficial for these politicians to keep that idea in mind the next time they merely get called out for doing or saying something thought to be outrageous. For, an inherent consequence of speech itself is debate.