Althouse: "When a Des Moines Register reporter on Tuesday helped expose racist tweets posted years ago by a local man who used his viral Internet fame to raise millions for a children’s hospital..."

September 27, 2019

"When a Des Moines Register reporter on Tuesday helped expose racist tweets posted years ago by a local man who used his viral Internet fame to raise millions for a children’s hospital..."

"... it inspired a vicious backlash against 'cancel culture' — and the reporter himself, who critics soon found had his own history of offensive posts. The Register announced late Thursday that the reporter, Aaron Calvin, no longer works for the newspaper.... Critics upset with Calvin for surfacing the old tweets dug into the reporter’s own timeline and found troubling posts that mocked same-sex marriage, made light of abuse against women and used a racial slur. Calvin began deleting the old tweets Tuesday evening and then apologized...."

From "Reporter who outed racist tweets by viral fundraiser leaves Des Moines Register after his own offensive posts surface" (WaPo).

Cancel, cancel, cancel... it's a dangerous machine. You might want to step back... unless you're sure you never did or said anything bad.

I made a tag for "cancel culture." I'd been avoiding it, but this story pushed me over the line. Sorry, I'm not applying this one retroactively. It would be nice if I never had to use this one again. What's wrong with us? So hateful in the fight against hate. What bizarre hypocrisy!

94 comments:

Tarrou said...: It is not hypocrisy to force one's opponents to live up to their own rules.

I'd be happy for this scum to keep his job, were it not the case that he's out there trying to cancel other people.

Since we do not live in that world, and justice is not an option, I'll settle for revenge.; 9/27/19, 7:32 AM
Mr. T. said...: It is extremely difficult and calls for a willing suspension of disbelief to accept the Des Moines Register's claim they did not know about Aaron Calvin's previous attack nature on social media.

The guy used to work for the libelous Buzzfeed and Vice.

That should have been their first clue he had no journalism ethics nor human decency.; 9/27/19, 7:38 AM
Ryan said...: As an attorney who has reviewed way too many emails, I abide by one simple rule: never put anything negative in writing.; 9/27/19, 7:39 AM
MadTownGuy said...: "Cancel culture" is yet another euphemism for censorship.; 9/27/19, 7:39 AM
iowan2 said...: Those racists tweets? They were a recounting of content from Tosh .O, on Comedy Central. Tosh .O is watched exclusively by 20 somethings. All AOC acolytes. They are perfectly attuned to the racist comedic stlyings of Tosh .O; 9/27/19, 7:41 AM
Ralph L said...: Does Daniel Tosh still have a career in comedy? It was his work that King quoted.; 9/27/19, 7:41 AM
rhhardin said...: Cancel culture is itself within soap opera. That's its entertainment value.; 9/27/19, 7:42 AM
chuck said...: The fight against hate is popular because it promotes hate. Hate is fun and group hate is the best.; 9/27/19, 7:45 AM
MadisonMan said...: I enjoy it when the holier-than-thous get hoisted.; 9/27/19, 7:45 AM
SDaly said...: What's wrong with us is that the universities have, for decades, been pushing identity politics - the focus of virtually every course is on "race, class and gender". You have been at the epicenter of this, and had no idea this is where it would lead? My college friends discussed this as the probable outcome back in the 80's.; 9/27/19, 7:45 AM
tim maguire said...: They merely pointed out his hypocrisy. To my knowledge, nobody demanded the newspaper fire him (most of the right-wing responses I've read this morning criticize the newspaper for firing him). The right is not (yet) fighting fire with fire, though they may be getting close.; 9/27/19, 7:48 AM
Seeing Red said...: This isn’t a fight against “hate.”

This is a vicious power grab by any means necessary.; 9/27/19, 7:48 AM
Shawn Levasseur said...: With the internet giving us all the opportunity to make asses of ourselves on the record, I have thought that stuff like this will escalate, to the point of it being weaponized, which sadly, it seems like we're there.

I call it Mutually Assured Humiliation, to take from the terminology of nuclear war.; 9/27/19, 7:48 AM
whitney said...: I am experiencing visceral pleasure knowing that reporter got fired; 9/27/19, 7:50 AM
MadisonMan said...: As an attorney who has reviewed way too many emails, I abide by one simple rule: never put anything negative in writing.
Yup. Never put something in email that you don't want seen on the front page of the paper.; 9/27/19, 7:52 AM
MadisonMan said...: BTW -- why is the Editor getting a free ride here? The Editor is the one who published the reporter's work. Isn't it the Editor's job to know what's in the heart of the people who work for him or her?; 9/27/19, 7:53 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: Cancel all the people.; 9/27/19, 7:58 AM
campy said...: "You have been at the epicenter of this, and had no idea this is where it would lead?"

Now ask a fish about water.; 9/27/19, 8:00 AM
Lyle Smith said...: Haven’t you noticed they don’t teach about hypocrisy in schools any more?; 9/27/19, 8:00 AM
Fernandinande said...: Carson King's jokes were from a TV program, "Comedy Central's 'Tosh.0'", that the hypocritical recreational drug company Anheuser-Busch advertised on.

All reporters should be fired about once year as a matter of principle.; 9/27/19, 8:01 AM
Susan said...: In the Register's defense, the editors have no doubt been driven mad by the sound of corn growing, squealing pigs and the thought of giant worms bursting through the walls.; 9/27/19, 8:01 AM
Lloyd W. Robertson said...: I think there is some benefit in interpreting political movements in the light of their idealism rather than their obvious self-interest or sheer nastiness.
1. Young people look around and see there are still problems. When I was young, something like "poverty" or "the way capitalism controls people's lives" may have reached the top of the list; now it is that people who lack privilege, and opportunities to be heard, suffer deeply from these problems. Whether or not this co-relates with material poverty or even any obvious lack of opportunity in the workplace or whatever, all of this should take top priority along with climate change.
2. Progressives diagnose, on the basis of very little information, what might cause these problems to persist. The obvious answer is hate. The old hates are much more powerful than mainstream people want to admit. Drastic actions like de-platforming and taking control of social media might be necessary to push back on the old hates.
3. Along the way, there is a lot to be said for the new hates to counter the old hates. This is what partisans of what is perceived as a new movement always think.
4. It is difficult to attribute the old hates to capitalism per se. It seems more a matter of the habits of old religions and white males. The old left-wing fears of "branding," strike breaking, and driving down wages give way to fears that people other than white males are still, after all these years, being made to feel really bad.
5. The one way in which capitalism is still attacked is on climate. Capitalists are obviously quite capable of making money from the climate scare.
6. As long as everyone genuflects before the new social or cultural agenda, there is no real impediment to the Koch brothers' agenda (open borders), combined somehow with Davos.
7. Women living in Western countries are probably the richest and most powerful women in history. It sometimes seems they are also the most pissed off. My favourite Sarah Jeong line: intersectionality means white women get to speak for everyone.; 9/27/19, 8:04 AM
tim in vermont said...: Their plan is to wipe out the entire artistic legacy of Western Civilization, and replace it all with their propaganda. Only their priesthood will be allowed to read stuff from the past.; 9/27/19, 8:06 AM
Leland said...: I agree that "cancel culture" is ugly and lots of tit for tat. Yet, this story is just bad for the editorial board of the Des Moines Register and particularly the reporter. They claimed the guys tweets from 7 years ago are newsworthy, but how? This guy was no paragon of virtue. He became viral for holding up a sign saying "Send money for beer". Yet, when the money came pouring in, he made a good decision on what to do with it. That's the new thing that makes it news.

Once the reporter made old tweets the news, then looking into the reporters past became newsworthy, except you didn't have to go so far back in the reporters timeline to find racist comments. It would be nice if the message was received this time, but I doubt it. We need better journalist.; 9/27/19, 8:11 AM
Lyle Smith said...: Ryan speaks the truth... we need to cancel lawyers. You motherfuckers are behind every case of this.; 9/27/19, 8:12 AM
Jeff said...: What's wrong with us? So hateful in the fight against hate.

"Fighting" hate is virtue signalling. Other than that, it's a non sequitur. It's like the war on terror -- you can't fight an emotion, especially one that is occurring inside someone else's brain. You can only control your own emotions, and even that can be pretty difficult at times.

Words matter, and the lack of clarity in these common justifications for harming others is not accidental.; 9/27/19, 8:14 AM
CWJ said...: Because going out of your way to dox the subject of a feel-good story you're covering isn't "vicious."

I'm sorry it's come to this, and I hope it doesn't take many more examples to break the cycle, but the only way to stop bullying is to stand up to it. I only feel sorry for the reporter if, as I suspect, he did this at the behest of his editor, or because of then current editorial policy.; 9/27/19, 8:17 AM
Birches said...: WaPo, of course, misses the point of resurfacing the journalist's own tweets. It was a, "he who is without sin, cast the first stone" moment. The newspaper just came in and stoned him too. But if they're going to stone, they'd better stone their editors too. Doubt that will happen. Our elites are too dense to understand what the underlying outrage is about.; 9/27/19, 8:17 AM
Tank said...: Boing!

I got a shadenboner.

The old rules are dead. Killed by the left.; 9/27/19, 8:17 AM
iowan2 said...: The Reporter got fired. The Des Moines Register WAS a respected paper. The Mid west version of the NYT. That was decades ago.

Editors reviewed and edited that story. According to original reporting, the editors discussed the appropriateness of leaving the tweets of a 16 year old, quoting from a comedy Central show, out of the story. Made a conscience decision to leave the smear as part of the story. The DMR also said it is SOP to do a deep dive on all the subjects they do a story on.
Why did a reporter get fired for following news room accepted practices and why are the editors that did the final approval, getting a pass?; 9/27/19, 8:19 AM
CJinPA said...: So hateful in the fight against hate.

Popularization of the word "hate" in these matters didn't help. We have specific, more clear words to cover the topic: racism, bigotry, discrimination, prejudice, etc. When words are redefined to make language *less* clear, motives are suspect.

The newspaper gives a long explanation and says it is reviewing the policy of looking up old social media posts when doing stories on people. (What they did here is apparently routine in journalism.)

Its groveling aside, the paper’s explanation is worth reading.; 9/27/19, 8:23 AM
JAFC said...: Rule 4: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules".

Rule 12: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."

I didn't make the rules.

The truly culpable people here are the editors who put that into the story. They still haven't been able to say to their customers that what they did was wrong. They still have jobs. For now.; 9/27/19, 8:32 AM
wendybar said...: Progressives doing what they do best...ruining peoples lives.; 9/27/19, 8:37 AM
Dan in Philly said...: Even if you do nothing wrong, if you follow someone who can be accused of something wrong you will be cancelled.

Christianity preaches forgiveness. We're a post Christian works, I guess.; 9/27/19, 8:44 AM
Peter said...: Is it possible you are giving Calvin too much credit when you suggest hatred is his motive? Maybe he's just a lazy journalist who knows he can meet a deadline by delving into old tweets and making mini-scandals out of them? It's a very rich vein. Nothing personal, he just couldn't find the time to get out there and do some real journalism.; 9/27/19, 8:45 AM
William said...: I note that no one in the journalism community is drawing any useful lessons from this. People really are forming an extremely low opinion of reporters, and reporters are oblivious of this fact.; 9/27/19, 8:46 AM
AlbertAnonymous said...: It is pretty “Old Testament” this cancel culture.

If someone should be fired from their current job for tweets from years ago, then should they also be fired from the next job (if they ever get hired again)? Or does this firing wipe out the past sins? Can’t see where it ends.

Nope, you must walk through the village yelling “Unclean! Unclean!” So that no one touches you.; 9/27/19, 8:46 AM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Love it. When leftwing cancel culture boomerangs. More please.; 9/27/19, 8:47 AM
bleh said...: It’s not hypocrisy. It’s a purposeful demonstration of power; it’s MAD.

That said I would have been a lot more pleased with the DMR if they had instead apologized for their trash journalistic and editorial standards and let the journalist keep his job. Then you’d know they had learned their lesson. Oh and they should of course apologize to Mr. King and the sick children of Iowa.; 9/27/19, 8:52 AM
Browndog said...: whitney said...

I am experiencing visceral pleasure knowing that reporter got fired

The editors that chose to publish remain anonymous. How do we know the editors didn't assign this reporter to digging up dirt on this guy?

Also, it is the policy of the Des Moines Register to protect the identity of a minor accused of bad behavior. This 16 yr. old, now an adult, didn't commit a crime. He posted wrongthink on social media.

The saving grace is Iowans are furious with the newspaper, not the reporter.; 9/27/19, 8:57 AM
William said...: I just recently watched an episode of Black Adder, the old Rowan Atkinson series. Here was the premise of the plot: Black Adder is commanded by his father,the King, to marry the Spanish Infanta. The Spanish Infanta turns out to be fat and ugly. The Black Adder dresses up as a gay man so the Infanta won't be attracted to him. However, it turns out that the Infanta thinks that he dresses up that way in order to look Spanish and her ardor for him increases....So there you have it: a television show that makes fun of fat women, gays, and Spanish men. I can't tell you how shocked I was to see this deep dive into intolerance and hatred on Amazon. I think Rowan Atkinson should apologize for this past indiscretion and the Amazon executive who allowed this on the air should be fired. I myself laughed at the show. I think this disqualifies me for any future employment, and I will remain retired to demonstrate my penance.; 9/27/19, 8:57 AM
Ken B said...: Not a “vicious” backlash, a virtuous one.
I think the response of the Register have made its owner, publisher, and editors fair game. Let’s play.; 9/27/19, 8:59 AM
MBunge said...: The editors at the Register feel like they're better than their Iowa audience. They were afraid of looking like small town hicks in the eyes of this former Buzzfeed reporter, so they let him put something in a story that had no business being there. Now the reporter is fired and the newspaper is going to take a real financial hit. All because of ego.

Mike; 9/27/19, 9:00 AM
Ray - SoCal said...: Mututally Assured Cancelation

Sweet.

https://mobile.twitter.com/robbysoave/status/1176927591195955201; 9/27/19, 9:02 AM
Big Mike said...: Thought #1: Overall the response of the Register’s response to the pushback after their ridiculous decision to publish Carson King’s old posts was pure snootiness. I read it as “yeah, we fired the reporter, but we’ll continue practicing ‘gotcha’ because it’s a routine practice of this newspaper.”

Thought #2: Anheuser-Busch had an opportunity to score a huge publicity windfall, and blew it, big time. Corporate leadership in the United States needs to be replaced with people who actually want their respective firms to make money.; 9/27/19, 9:03 AM
TrespassersW said...: Birches said...
WaPo, of course, misses the point of resurfacing the journalist's own tweets. It was a, "he who is without sin, cast the first stone" moment. The newspaper just came in and stoned him too. But if they're going to stone, they'd better stone their editors too. Doubt that will happen. Our elites are too dense to understand what the underlying outrage is about.

For an allegedly educated and literate bunch, there seems to be a lot of point-missing amongst the J-school bunch.

See also: petard, hoist with his own; 9/27/19, 9:12 AM
Gusty Winds said...: Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.; 9/27/19, 9:14 AM
Ken B said...: Big Mike point 2
Indeed. There is a widespread principal agent problem in America. This is an example of it.; 9/27/19, 9:18 AM
Earnest Prole said...: Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.; 9/27/19, 9:18 AM
Fernandinande said...: What's wrong with us is that the universities have, for decades, been pushing identity politics - the focus of virtually every course is on "race, class and gender".

There were several creatures on NPR the other day bragging about indoctrinating kindergartners and first-graders about slavery and white privilege.

"Fighting" hate is virtue signalling.

Just like "anti-racism" is anti-white racism, fighting hate is fighting white people: who else gets "cancelled"?

Not NYT editorial board member Sarah "dumbass fucking white people" Jeong.; 9/27/19, 9:19 AM
Original Mike said...: Blogger SDaly said..."What's wrong with us is that the universities have, for decades, been pushing identity politics - the focus of virtually every course is on "race, class and gender". You have been at the epicenter of this, and had no idea this is where it would lead? My college friends discussed this as the probable outcome back in the 80's."

Yeah, when "multiculturalism" started way back when (the 80s seems about right), it was clear to me where it would lead (and I'm not particularly bright). It's turned out even worse than I expected.; 9/27/19, 9:23 AM
JCA1 said...: Wasn't it Ben Rhodes who said reporters literally know nothing? For once, I agree with him. But they still have deadlines so this is what you get when their only skill is digging around on the internet/social media for dirt.

I'm beginning to think that being able to major in "journalism" is the worst thing that ever happened to the profession. Journalists now have no experience or training in any of the subjects they cover. They are only trained in "journalism" and then immediately try and get a job in "journalism." No education or real world experience in any of the subjects they will have to cover. So, again, this is the type of stuff that you get.; 9/27/19, 9:25 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: Cancel is as cancel does. This was a real lapse in judgment by the reporter, but particularly by his editors. A 16 year-old boy doesn't have much experience and by definition is learning to exercise judgment. Why would you publish a 16 year-old's harmless mistakes? The reporter is a nitwit, and the editor is a coward--she was probably worried about being scooped by some twitter-wit. There is one more person at the Register that needs to lose her job.

I certainly would not want my self as a 20-year-old presented for inspection in 2019.; 9/27/19, 9:25 AM
doctrev said...: If you want cancel culture to be proportionate, Aaron Calvin should be dragged from his car and beaten in the streets by enraged Iowans, as should his former editors at the Register. Not only are these people the enemies of nationalists trying to better the country in the face of decades-long mismanagement, but they obviously hate decent human beings going above and beyond to help sick children. No punishment is severe enough for the bottom feeders called journalists. Treat them all like outlaws.; 9/27/19, 9:27 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: Re: Anheuser-Busch: Corporate leadership was always shaky and is now cowardly.

Congratulations ARM, readering, and Inga: the Business Roundtable is now on your side, and they are scared to death of their customers.; 9/27/19, 9:28 AM
Original Mike said...: I really don't understand Anheuser-Busch's decision. They decide it's in their best interest to stop contributing to sick children? Really?; 9/27/19, 9:31 AM
iowan2 said...: Is it possible you are giving Calvin too much credit when you suggest hatred is his motive? Maybe he's just a lazy journalist who knows he can meet a deadline by delving into old tweets and making mini-scandals out of them? It's a very rich vein. Nothing personal, he just couldn't find the time to get out there and do some real journalism.

Fox had a picture of Calvin. Yes I pre-judged the reporter before I had any facts, but, he is exactly what I imagined. An emaciated 20 something. One side of his head shaved, the long hair on top all flopped over to the other side, tshirt, and skinny jeans. Beta to Carson Kings Alpha.
At that level its personal. Calvin vs Carson King. I have a visual of both now. I have the writing of Calvin, writing a big local story about (grit teeth) An Iowa State, white, toxic masculinity emitting, male. It is a big story that had already gone viral, but for all the wrong reasons, to the mind of Calvin. White alpha male, begging for beer on national TV, finds himself a hero for raising more than $100,000 for Stead Family Childrens Hospital. (boy that's hard to swallow) The Children's Hospital is internationally famous, not because of their, best of the world medicine, delivered to children of Iowa, the nation, and the world, but...a bunch of beer swilling low brow football fans, taking a break at the end of the 1st quarter to wave at the children recieving treatment. The Wave, is an organic happening conceived by a couple of tailgaters at Hawkeye Football game, and spread by friends through facebook. Not an Elite in sight.
Compared to Carson King. A man that has conducted himself with nothing but grace and honor. Taking everything in stride, and holding resentments against none.

The contrast is stark; 9/27/19, 9:51 AM
n.n said...: Cancel culture. Selective-person.; 9/27/19, 10:03 AM
Larry L said...: We would all be better off if everyone would heed the old maxim about living in glass houses.; 9/27/19, 10:14 AM
Charlie Currie said...: Cancel Culture the next stop after Civility Bullshit.; 9/27/19, 10:15 AM
Rick said...: The worst actor in this is the Des Moines Register editor. She fired the reporter because anything else required she admit her own error in publishing the original article.

Media takes another step in its long road to extinction. Eventually it will be dead enough that something useful can fill the gap they leave. But that can't happen until all the current employees are dead and the journalism schools close shop. Any alternative which starts now will inevitably be corrupted by people already infected by these tainted institutions.; 9/27/19, 10:20 AM
Bill Peschel said...: It occurred to me that we can repurpose racist jokes for journalists:

A journalist suspected his wife of infidelity. Coming home from work early, he burst into the bedroom and caught her in bed with a CNN correspondent. Crazed with grief, he put a pistol to his head.

"Don't laugh!" he shouted when his wife giggled. "You're next!"

(Source: Truly Tasteless Jokes, 1985); 9/27/19, 10:22 AM
Howard said...: No one cares; 9/27/19, 10:24 AM
SDaly said...: Now the executive editor of the Des Moines Register, Carol Hunter, is herself part of the story. So under the DMR's policy, we should do a deep-dive background on her so that readers will have a full picture of the person making this decision.; 9/27/19, 10:25 AM
Temujin said...: So glad that none of my past comments in the Althouse blog will get in the way of my future political aspirations.; 9/27/19, 10:34 AM
Annie said...: "Vicious backlash"? And what this 'newspaper' did to this young man and great thing he was doing would be called what? It appears to me that what they did was the vicious act. The backlash was pointing out their hypocrisy and how irresponsible they were in doing it. For one, did they ever think about what kind of danger they put King in for something he was riffing on at the age of 16? This kid could have taken that money for himself but he instead donated it to sick children and this newspaper, with the idiots at Busch, stopped that 'common good'.
King should have never apologized and pointed out how the newspaper stopped a great charitable cause. Busch should have pointed out the silliness of dredging up old Comedy Central riffs from someone's youth, and that they'd continue to donate to the hospital.
But alas, we have been taken over by Lord of the Flies mentality. There are no adults in the room.; 9/27/19, 10:39 AM
CJinPA said...: Dan in Philly,

Greetings from CJinPA who used to be CJinPhilly; 9/27/19, 10:48 AM
Mary Beth said...: Their excuse for publishing the tweets was that King had already publicly apologized for them. To me, that's a reason to not quote them.; 9/27/19, 10:49 AM
glenn said...: “Now the executive editor of the Des Moines Register, Carol Hunter, is herself part of the story. So under the DMR's policy, we should do a deep-dive background on her so that readers will have a full picture of the person making this decision”

Actually some Wag is posting the names and contact info about the whole Register staff. And urging that we make the whole staff play by their employers rules. I’m not sure how this ends but I’m guessing it won’t be good.; 9/27/19, 10:51 AM
CJinPA said...: Corporate leadership in the United States needs to be replaced with people who actually want their respective firms to make money.

Big Mike, I think we have to face up to the fact that corporations that do this are NOT losing money. Remember the Gillette ad about Woke Men? The CEO said bad-mouthing a segment of its customer base went against everything he learned as a businessman, but that millennials expect Social Justice to be part of their brands, and he said he'd do it again.; 9/27/19, 10:51 AM
donald said...: I bet a lot of voters in Iowa care boy.; 9/27/19, 10:52 AM
Narr said...: We're in a three-way heat for mayor here--the incumbent straight white male (D), a straight black male former mayor (D), and a young black female radical (D) who was a main driver in the removal of the local Confederate statues and monuments recently. She's very clear that the incumbent (lawyer, life-member NAACP etc), now that he has had those sculptures hauled away, is a dedicated white supremacist.

But guess what! She posted things that are not IC* and is even less likely to win now than before.

Narr
*Intersectionally Correct -- you saw it here first; 9/27/19, 11:02 AM
Yancey Ward said...: One of the benefits of being retired is that I don't have to give one fuck about the things I have written on the internet. I have written probably close to 30,000 comments on-line, under my real name in the last 15 years on politics, economics, math, chess etc. I started in 2004 on Kevin Drum's Political Animal hosted at Washington Monthly at the time- the impulse to do so was Rathergate- and I got to Drum's site because he was just about the only lefty who actually seemed open to being convinced the memos were fake, which is a shocking condemnation of the left even then.

Even if I were still working today, I almost surely wouldn't change anything about how I write about politics and culture; and attempts to intimidate me wouldn't work anyway.; 9/27/19, 11:13 AM
iowan2 said...: Now the executive editor of the Des Moines Register, Carol Hunter, is herself part of the story.

She's virtue signaling. All the media Elite East Coasty's, have been in town covering the caucus, watching her. Seeing if she is pure enough be invited to their cocktail parties. This should be enough to to mover her up the the B listers. minimal collateral damage, just a disposable news transcriber,and some sick kids.; 9/27/19, 11:17 AM
Big Mike said...: @CJinPA, last July CNBC claimed that Procter & Gamble, the conglomerate that owns Gillette, took an eight billion dollar writedown on its Gillette brands. That looks a bit like losing money to me.; 9/27/19, 11:28 AM
Pianoman said...: Matthew 7:

1) “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2) For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3) “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4) How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5) You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.; 9/27/19, 11:29 AM
Nichevo said...: Howard said...
No one cares

Yet you keep posting; 9/27/19, 11:31 AM
Big Mike said...: I really enjoyed what Sarah Hoyt has to say about this. The money quote:

"However, this is where the culture war has got us. The left has turned a vast number of people into despicable creatures, incapable of doing anything good, but more importantly, DESIROUS of tearing down everything that anyone else does or achieves."

Note for ARM and a few others: the "despicable creatures" she points to are folks from your side of the political divide. Hoyt's take is that lefties (ARM, Freder, etc.) can't even imagine themselves giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars they've accidentally raised, so they have a deep need to find a way to tear down those people who not only can imagine it, but do it.; 9/27/19, 11:49 AM
SDaly said...: Yancey - If they can't get you, they will go after your children/family.; 9/27/19, 12:25 PM
daskol said...: "I know there people in this world who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that."

--Tom Lehrer; 9/27/19, 12:29 PM
daskol said...: Yancey is your real name? That boy Sue's got nothing on you.; 9/27/19, 12:32 PM
rehajm said...: I think we have to face up to the fact that corporations that do this are NOT losing money.

I've heard this too. Funny, there's been some big misses on quarterly reports (Unexpectedly!) for some other pretty woke companies, not long after they demonstrate their wokeness. Not to name names DisneyNikeNetflix but they're out there. Surprising drops in market cap, too (Unexpectedly!). Of course there's always the explanation the wokeness had nothing to do with it. Nothing. Of course not...

On an unrelated note the Emmy's the other night overt outrage was palpably absent. Unexpectedly...; 9/27/19, 1:17 PM
Jim at said...: The only way the cancel culture stops is when the left gets tired of being bludgeoned by the same rules they seek to impose upon the rest of us. And not a second before.

This cannot be repeated enough.; 9/27/19, 1:34 PM
Jim at said...: No one cares - Howard

Quite the opposite, Howard. You will be made to care. You leftists built this. Mutually Assured Destruction, indeed.; 9/27/19, 1:46 PM
Anonymous said...: Pianoman is on the right track. There is a way of life that allows for misbehavior AND forgiveness. If interested in such an idea you could probably learn about it by a web search using the words sin, cast, and stone.; 9/27/19, 1:47 PM
n.n said...: The Chamber's Pro-Choice quasi-religion progresses with a new system of judgment: cancel culture a.k.a. warlock trial.; 9/27/19, 2:04 PM
CJinPA said...: Big Mike said...
@CJinPA, last July CNBC claimed that Procter & Gamble, the conglomerate that owns Gillette, took an eight billion dollar writedown on its Gillette brands. That looks a bit like losing money to me.
--

But that was anticipated losses from the Dollar Shave online competition. It was not a result of the ads, rather the ads are a result of those losses.; 9/27/19, 3:01 PM
CJinPA said...: I've heard this too. Funny, there's been some big misses on quarterly reports (Unexpectedly!) for some other pretty woke companies, not long after they demonstrate their wokeness. Not to name names DisneyNikeNetflix but they're out there. Surprising drops in market cap, too (Unexpectedly!). Of course there's always the explanation the wokeness had nothing to do with it. Nothing. Of course not...

We'd have to be pretty cynical to think that, in five years, corporations would suddenly decide that losing money was a good idea.

You might be right, or there might be something going on you're not aware of.; 9/27/19, 3:04 PM
iowan2 said...: Hoyt's take is that lefties (ARM, Freder, etc.) can't even imagine themselves giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars they've accidentally raised, so they have a deep need to find a way to tear down those people who not only can imagine it, but do it.

Rush has passed $4,000,000 in donations to, "Tunnels to Towers". A charity that pays off mortgages of persons affected by the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Rush saw a need to fight back against that nitwit anti American, Kapernick, when he smeared the Betsy Ross Flag.
Rush created a Fight for Betsy Ross t-shirt. He thought he would generate a couple of hundred thousand.
$4 million and still climbing. Just like Carson King. Donating found cash to great causes.; 9/27/19, 3:08 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Fuck iggners.; 9/27/19, 3:42 PM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: Carson King has not been cancelled. Instead, I'm happy to say, Saturday has been proclaimed Carson King Day by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. His mother was a year behind me at Clarinda High School.

His fundraiser runs through Monday for those of you who want to support the non-cancellation of Carson King. To get Anheuser-Busch to match your gift, you may need to give through his Venmo Carson-King-25 account. If you don't want to sign up for that, you could also send a check directly to University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital.; 9/27/19, 5:10 PM
Achilles said...: I made a tag for "cancel culture." I'd been avoiding it, but this story pushed me over the line. Sorry, I'm not applying this one retroactively. It would be nice if I never had to use this one again. What's wrong with us? So hateful in the fight against hate. What bizarre hypocrisy!

Universities built this.

Feminist activism academia is one of the main supporting structures of cancel culture.

Ann.; 9/27/19, 9:49 PM
Ken B said...: I don’t think cancel culture has a single thing to do with “fighting hate”. It is part of competition for a positional good, viz a place in The woke hierarchy. In a positional competition for one to win others must lose. Hence the pile on. If you don’t join the pile on you end up being pushed down the hierarchy by those more actively and visibly woke.

What is great here is the push back by normal people. The governor named a day after him and a craft brewer named a beer after him, a lovely slap at annheuser Busch. Even reluctant bloggers have been pushed to an exasperated response.

The woke are NOT good people who have pushed a good idea too far. They are SELFISH people who have abused the charitable instincts of the rest of us when enough people twig to this their power will disappear.; 9/27/19, 10:40 PM
Banjo said...: The good thing is normal people are becoming aware of the threat the woke culture presents to our way of life. I wish someone would find the link to Soros in all of this. It's got to be there somewhere.; 9/28/19, 11:03 AM