Whoopi Goldberg & Joe Rogan: Two Very Different Cancel Cultures

Whoopi Goldberg, suspended for two weeks by ABC for her comments about the Holocaust, had an opinion. She, like many people these days, is unable to properly contextualize history or see it outside her own contemporary leftist worldview. But Goldberg is a talk-show host with no power. No one is really “hurt” by her words. She should be able to express herself without fear of losing her job. As should Joe Rogan and Ilya Shapiro.

That said, the slap on the wrist, probably intended to keep Goldberg out of the public eye to weather the storm, is also performative. No one really believes Goldberg’s career is in danger. And everyone knows that if Goldberg were a conservative, her career in mainstream entertainment would be over and the nation would have been plunged into another insufferable “conversation” about the right-wing menace and the dangers of unfettered speech. Yet Whoopi Goldberg gets suspended, and suddenly, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are troubled about cancel culture.

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David Harsanyi

David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner.

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Whoopi Goldberg, suspended for two weeks by ABC for her comments about the Holocaust, had an opinion. She, like many people these days, is unable to properly contextualize history or see it outside her own contemporary leftist worldview. But Goldberg is a talk-show host with no power. No one is really “hurt” by her words. She should be able to express herself without fear of losing her job. As should Joe Rogan and Ilya Shapiro.

That said, the slap on the wrist, probably intended to keep Goldberg out of the public eye to weather the storm, is also performative. No one really believes Goldberg’s career is in danger. And everyone knows that if Goldberg were a conservative, her career in mainstream entertainment would be over and the nation would have been plunged into another insufferable “conversation” about the right-wing menace and the dangers of unfettered speech. Yet Whoopi Goldberg gets suspended, and suddenly, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are troubled about cancel culture.