The American right discovers that it loves cancel culture, too

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This is not cancel culture, the right insists, as it scours the internet, searching for heretics. Iconoclasts will be identified – shamed, reported and maybe even investigated – to ensure they are punished for their unacceptable opinions. This hunt is not limited to those who celebrated the assassination of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk, which is arguably legitimate grounds for termination (indeed, publicly endorsing murder should be considered something of a red line), but also include those who spoke ill of him posthumously, or who quoted him inaccurately, or who said they won’t personally be mourning his death. Those people are being hounded and fired from their jobs, too.

But it’s not cancel culture, we hear – not like the left-wing cancel culture that peaked around 2020, anyway, when, for example, a data analyst was fired for tweeting a link to research about the harms of violent protest, or when comedians, professors and other professionals were investigated or fired because of past alleged racist or homophobic comments.

The difference, American right-wing commenter Matt Walsh attempted to explain on X, is that “the left cancels you for saying things that are true. To the extent that the right cancels you, it is for saying things that are abhorrent and sick.” Another way Mr. Walsh could have phrased that: “The left cancels you for saying things I don’t find offensive, and the right cancels you for things I do find offensive.” It is an important distinction, as Mr. Walsh says.

Jimmy Kimmel’s on-air suspension marks a new chapter in Trump’s culture war

So it’s not cancel culture, Mr. Walsh and his allies contend, that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has been pulled off the air because of his Monday night monologue. At the time of airing, less was known about the background of Tyler Robinson, who has been charged with aggravated murder in Mr. Kirk’s death, and so Mr. Kimmel erroneously described him as a right-wing ideologue.

“The MAGA gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Mr. Kimmel said. He then mocked U.S. President Donald Trump for professing to be grieving over Mr. Kirk, and then talking about the White House ballroom-expansion project in the same breath. “Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief,” Mr. Kimmel quipped: “Construction.”

That was enough to suspend Mr. Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely, but please, don’t call it cancel culture. Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary under George W. Bush, posted on X that “Liberals want to make this firing about ‘free speech.’ Did it ever occur to them the issue might be accuracy? Mr. Kimmel told his viewers that Charlie Kirk was murdered by MAGA.”

The problem with that explanation is that Nexstar Media Group, which owns ABC affiliates that run Mr. Kimmel’s show, explicitly said the decision was made because of tone – not accuracy. “Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive,” Nexstar broadcasting president Andrew Alford said. It’s about feelings, in other words – not facts.

There is one important difference between the moral panic that engulfed the left five years ago and the one that has swallowed the right now, however: the explicit authorization – and indeed, the outright incitement – to cancel people for their words from the highest levels of the American government.

Trump vows crackdown on left-wing groups after Charlie Kirk’s assassination

Vice-president Kamala Harris wasn’t urging Americans to dig up their neighbour’s old tweets and listen in on their barbecues so they could report them for blasphemy, but J.D. Vance has told Americans to pay attention to those celebrating Mr. Kirk’s death and to “call them out, and hell, call their employer.”

Florida Congressman Randy Fine said that anyone aware of such behaviour should make a report to his office, and added that those types of people should be “thrown out of civil society.” On Wednesday, Brendan Carr, Mr. Trump’s pick for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), threatened to revoke ABC affiliate licences if networks didn’t “take actions on Kimmel” because of his remarks; later that day, Mr. Kimmel’s show was taken off the air.

In that sense, what’s happening now isn’t just right-wing cancel culture, but something much worse: a nationwide hunt of heretics, pursued at the behest of government, where the power of the state may be engaged to levy punishment. It is the antithesis of everything America – and in particular, the American right-wing – purports to stand for, which includes freedom of speech, freedom to offend and freedom from government surveillance, intervention and censorship.

The right is currently engaging in the worst excesses of the left, but with the might of the American government behind it. Its proponents can try to call it something else, but this is absolutely cancel culture. Apologies if that offends.