Dr. Seuss & Jake Tapper: Left’s Cancel Culture Slippery Slope

Jake Tapper went on a tiny Twitter tirade the other day in defense of de-publishing some Dr. Seuss books for being, in a phrase he used several times, “empirically racist.” Tapper strikes me as more reasonable (or at least less unreasonable) than most of the frothing lunatic conspiracist demagogues he works with at CNN, and I suspect (or at least hope) that an argument from reason might have some effect on him, so I’ll start by explaining that “empirical” means pretty much the opposite of what he thinks it means. Throw the word “racist” out there, and people jettison their faculties surprisingly quickly.

Empirical means scientifically observable based on data. Empirical means millimeters and decimal points and test tubes and other stuff from eighth-grade science. It does not mean variable according to opinion or judgment or taste or rapidly changing perceptions. It is objective, not subjective. Determining what is “racist,” on the other hand, varies from person to person, from culture to culture, even from moment to moment: Ten seconds ago, no one realized that these “empirically racist” Dr. Seuss books were in fact racist, just as, 45 seconds ago, no one thought ethnic depictions on The Muppet Show were so horrid as to require trigger warnings or that we should be alarmed by Pepé Le Pew cartoons.

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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Jake Tapper went on a tiny Twitter tirade the other day in defense of de-publishing some Dr. Seuss books for being, in a phrase he used several times, “empirically racist.” Tapper strikes me as more reasonable (or at least less unreasonable) than most of the frothing lunatic conspiracist demagogues he works with at CNN, and I suspect (or at least hope) that an argument from reason might have some effect on him, so I’ll start by explaining that “empirical” means pretty much the opposite of what he thinks it means. Throw the word “racist” out there, and people jettison their faculties surprisingly quickly.

Empirical means scientifically observable based on data. Empirical means millimeters and decimal points and test tubes and other stuff from eighth-grade science. It does not mean variable according to opinion or judgment or taste or rapidly changing perceptions. It is objective, not subjective. Determining what is “racist,” on the other hand, varies from person to person, from culture to culture, even from moment to moment: Ten seconds ago, no one realized that these “empirically racist” Dr. Seuss books were in fact racist, just as, 45 seconds ago, no one thought ethnic depictions on The Muppet Show were so horrid as to require trigger warnings or that we should be alarmed by Pepé Le Pew cartoons.