The Woke Right Comes Of Age
And you thought they were in favor of free speech!
Let’s talk for a second about what Jimmy Kimmel actually said that got him yanked off the air:
We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang 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.
Break it down: Kimmel said it was a “new low” when Kirk’s assassin was described as being on the left — i.e. this was a MAGA lie even worse than so many others. The falsehood was, Kimmel said, a “desperate” attempt to distract attention from the fact that the killer was actually “one of them,” i.e. MAGA.
This isn’t comedy. It isn’t even “ill-advised speculation.” There’s no basis for it at all but wish-fulfillment. And Kimmel wasn’t alone. Several left outlets speculated that Robinson was a “Groyper” acting out an internecine right-wing grudge. Crazier types blamed the Mossad. I mean: why not? Substack super-star Heather Cox Richardson wrote definitively that Robinson was “not someone on the left.” That’s a narrative for you! Cannier propagandists are unable to grasp if “I had enough of [Kirk’s] hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out” is coming from a left perspective.
The difference between Kimmel and the rest, of course, is that Kimmel is on a broadcast network, which is supposed to serve the “public interest” and is subject to government licensing. And what those networks have done these last few years — especially in late night — has been to become aggressive, partisan opponents of Trump and MAGA and subsequently, much more unforgivably, craven apologists — and even propagandists, in the case of Colbert — for Biden. They decided to cater to only one half of the country, and relentlessly mock, ridicule, and demonize the other half. Johnny Carson, they ain’t.
The networks’ public legitimacy was thereby sacrificed on the altar of these men’s vanity and convictions, and the pretense of neutrality evaporated more explicitly than ever before. I guess it felt good and noble at the time. But the hangover? Not so much. Legitimacy matters — especially when you need to defend yourself, as the tides of opinion shift. But along with so many other institutions dependent on broad public legitimacy — universities, foundations, major corporations, large media entities like the NYT, WaPo, or NPR — the networks chose in the last decade to delegitimize themselves with the center.
Almost all abandoned the veneer of neutrality. The View, anyone? The 1619 Project? “Democracy Dies In Darkness”? The woke screeds that were passed off as news reports for years? And yes, veneers matter. We all became used to soft-liberal bias on TV and newspapers for years like background music, and it didn’t delegitimize them entirely. We let it go. They kept up a veil of respectability, a wispy fig leaf of balance over their leftist privates. We sighed and kept subscribing and watching. But the full-on neo-Marxist propaganda of 2020? And far-left disinformation at the Kimmel level in the wake of an assassination? Well, the veil slipped, didn’t it, and here we are.
I say all this merely to note the full context. This hasn’t come out of nowhere. It’s a ratcheting dynamic of tribal illiberalism, fueled by Trump after 2016, and by the woke after 2020, and now by Trump again — with a vengeance. My hope was always that these institutions could slowly re-balance after Trump, moderate, permit diversity of opinion, win back public trust. They had a chance under Biden — as did Biden, of course — but by then they were drunk on their own supply, and threw that chance away. They went far left — just as Biden did. (For added value, we found out this morning that Kimmel was not planning to apologize for lying, but to go on the offensive against his critics. The Hollywood bubble is tight.)
So Trump’s re-election means the tit-for-tat dynamic is now ratcheted up again, and what’s left of liberal democracy gets another pummeling. In the words of former free-speech warrior, Chris Rufo:
[W]e cannot accept the idea that history started in 2025 or that only the Left can legitimately use state institutions. The only way to get to a good equilibrium is an effective, strategic tit-for-tat.
The only remedy to past cancel culture is present cancel culture, says Ibram X Rufo.
But the tit-for-tat is at Orbán levels now, with state institutions directly canceling private entities. That is a difference in kind, not degree. It’s where cancel culture becomes outright authoritarianism. FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s mob-like threats against broadcast networks this week — we can do this “the easy way or the hard way” — were pure Budapest. Nexstar needs FCC blessing for a merger, so within hours of Carr’s encouragement, they and their 60 affiliate stations balked at Kimmel’s lie. Disney, faced with losing 40 percent of a late-night audience that had already declined by almost half in 2025, swiftly caved.
And the Trump right isn’t coy or shy about any of this. They love cancel culture, they now declare, and want the state to be fully involved in it. The leverage is federal and immense: funds for universities and schools, contracts with law firms, IRS and DOJ investigations of critics, ICE arrests of immigrant students for criticizing Israel, visa revocations for the ideologically problematic, and now open threats to broadcast licenses if they don’t please Trump.
JD Vance brazenly lectured Europeans about free speech this year, while Rubio was busy setting up an online AI program to monitor non-citizen students to deport them for speech he didn’t like. Now, like a super-woke-lefty from 2020, Vance is urging Americans to report any untoward comments they hear about Kirk to their employers. Get those lefties fired! Vance actually said on Fox this year: “Are we willing to defend people even if we disagree with what they say? If you’re not willing to do that, I don’t think you’re fit to lead Europe or the United States of America.” Why then, one wonders, has Vance not resigned yet?
Yes, Biden overstepped by direct attempts to meddle in social media around Covid. He was rightly called out for it. But the impulse, however foolish and creepy, was an attempt to arrest a pandemic. Not even that faint public-health excuse can be made now. If you were worried about Biden leaning on social media to suppress some views, you should be livid about what Trump is attempting.
And yet Pam Bondi declared: “It’s not free speech when you come out and you say, ‘it’s OK what happened to Charlie.’” Stephen Miller, a man who would have been very much at home in Stalin’s cabinet, said: “The path forward is not to mimic the ACLU of the mid 90’s. It is to take all necessary and rational steps to save Western Civilization.” Libs of TikTok bragged: “Due to our reporting and helping to amplify others, MULTIPLE radical leftists have been FIRED from their jobs after we exposed their vile online comments.” Sweet!
Trump-whisperer and fascist conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer insisted last January: “I’m a free speech absolutist. Sorry that’s so hard for people to understand. I’m against censorship and debanking. Sticking up for free speech isn’t ‘aligning’. It’s called having principles.” This week: “So many people have been fired. I’m so proud of you guys.” It’s laughable.
Mercifully, some on the anti-woke right have stayed solid. The Free Press should take a bow. Ditto the WSJ and Kimberley Strassel. Taibbi and Greenwald — not on the right — get it. Ditto Tucker Carlson. But Ben Shapiro and Chris Rufo? Yep, you guessed it. Authoritarian frauds.
Then there’s the Big Guy. In his inauguration speech this year: “I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America. Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents.” Trump now: “The [networks] give me only bad publicity, press. I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away.” And this: “That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”
Of course this is no big surprise. Trump is a tyrant in every cell of his lardaceous body. There is a reason he bonded with Kim Jong Un and has a soft spot for Putin and Xi. He envies their total control, and, more importantly, the opportunities for cruelty that come with it. He despises any speech critical of him and intuitively, instinctually seeks to punish it. Look how he responded to Jon Karl this week, when Karl asked a simple question about Bondi’s statement about prosecuting “hate speech”:
She’d probably go after people like you! Because you treat me so unfairly! You have a lot of hate in your heart. Maybe they’ll come after ABC. Well, ABC paid me $16 million recently for a form of hate speech, right? Your company paid me $16 million for a form of hate speech, so maybe they’ll have to go after you.
Trump doesn’t just support shutting down “hate speech” — he wants more of it! He has now sued CBS, the De Moines Register, the WSJ, the NYT, and Penguin Random/House for lèse majesté — something unimaginable for any president before he came along. CBS surrendered and is now busy turning itself into a Trump-Netanyahu network. ABC gave in over Stephanopoulos and CBS surrendered over a Kamala interview — both absurd concessions. The WaPo has killed a diverse op-ed page, in favor of an entirely right-leaning one. The WSJ and the NYT are currently being sued for a total of $25 billion for telling the truth about a public official. And still Trump wants more. Of course he does. Appeasing tyrants merely whets their appetite. And if this is after eight months, imagine what the next three years will bring.
I guess it’s clarifying, at least. Wokeness — with its censorious attempt to control minds by threats — is not dead. It’s just on both sides now — and involves government. Cancel culture has leapt from the social and horizontal to the political and vertical.
Kancelkulturkampf! Or should that be in Hungarian?
(Note to readers: This is an excerpt of The Weekly Dish. If you’re already a paid subscriber, click here to read the full version. This week’s issue also includes: a chat with John Ellis about the news and GOP history; reader dissents over my Charlie Kirk column; listener dissents on multiple fronts; 13 notable quotes from the week in news, including Yglesias Awards for Matt Walsh, Stephen King, and Ezra Klein; 12 pieces on Substack we recommend on a variety of topics; a Mental Health Break of a Burner parody; a blazing window from El Paso; and, of course, the results of the View From Your Window contest — with a new challenge. Subscribe for the full Dish experience!)
A Dishhead writes:
I renewed my subscription a few days ago just because I receive columns like the one you wrote last week on Charlie Kirk. So well-articulated in the midst of all the rhetoric. Thank you, and blessings always.
Another: “You fucking nailed it with that column. So happy I subscribe.” One more:
I am so grateful you wrote this about Charlie Kirk. I am someone who does not agree with many of your viewpoints, but I am a subscriber to the Dish because I find you to be fair and honorable.
I teach high school students literature and written rhetoric, and they debate issues in class in the Socratic-method style. I emphasize everyone’s right to speak and to express a dissenting viewpoint so that we all can understand an issue better and try to seek the truth together.
The Dish way is the healing way. It gives me hope that this society may not end up in anarchy and outright hate-fueled violence. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart!
Since almost everyone disagrees with something I hold, the Dish would not exist without that kind of intellectual and ideological generosity. I am deeply grateful to all of you, in ways hard to express adequately. Liberal democracy may be dying out there — but not here, not at the Dish.
New On The Dishcast: John Ellis
John is a journalist, media consultant, old friend, and George W Bush’s cousin. He’s worked for NBC News as a political analyst and the Boston Globe as a columnist. In 2016, he launched a morning brief called “News Items” for News Corp, and later it became the Wall Street Journal CEO Council’s morning newsletter. News Items jumped to Substack in 2019 (and Dishheads can subscribe now for 33% off). John also co-hosts two podcasts — one with Joe Klein (“Night Owls”) and the other with Richard Haas (“Alternate Shots”).
Listen to the episode here. There you can find two clips of our convo — on the nail-biting Bush-Gore election that John was involved in, and Trump’s mental decline. That link also takes you to commentary on last week’s pod with Jill Lepore on the Constitution, and we hear from a ton of readers on the Charlie Kirk catastrophe.
Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: Wesley Yang on the trans question, Michael Wolff on Epstein, Karen Hao on artificial intelligence, Katie Herzog on drinking your way sober, Michel Paradis on Ike, Charles Murray on finding religion, David Ignatius on the Trump effect globally, and Arthur Brooks on the science of happiness. As always, please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.
Dissents Of The Week
A reader writes:
While I largely agreed with your column, Charlie Kirk was merely pointing out that Leviticus “cuts both ways”? Kirk follows his reference to stoning gays by saying that the Leviticus stoning chapter “affirms God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matter.” Seems pretty obvious what his point was. He didn’t need to choose that passage, yet he did.
Kirk did not support stoning gay people to death is all I’m saying. That short clip — not his finest hour — has been pored over millions of times over the past week. But check out Kirk’s heated exchange with an anti-gay Republican:
Money quote from Kirk when that debate turns Biblical:
What it means to be a Christian, my friends, is to be open-minded but firm in your belief. So you can have that belief, but if you say there’s something inherently wrong with communicating or associating [with gays] just because they make different personal decisions than you, then you, sir, are not a conservative.
Read another dissent and my response here, for paid subscribers. More dissents are on the pod page. As always, please keep the dissents coming: dish@andrewsullivan.com.
In The ‘Stacks
This is a feature in the paid version of the Dish spotlighting about 20 of our favorite pieces from other Substackers every week. This week’s selection covers subjects such as Trump’s bald bribery, the FCC, and “woke-baiting” ads. Below is one example, followed by a brand new substack:
As child custody becomes more fair to fathers, will divorce rates drop?
The Economist launches a ‘stack for data journalism.
Here’s a list of the substacks we recommend in general — call it a blogroll. If you have any suggestions for “In the ‘Stacks,” especially ones from emerging writers, please let us know: dish@andrewsullivan.com.
The View From Your Window Contest
Where do you think it’s located? Email your guess to contest@andrewsullivan.com. Please put the location — city and/or state first, then country — in the subject line. Proximity counts if no one gets the exact spot. Bonus points for fun facts and stories. The deadline for entries is Wednesday at 11.59 pm (PST). The winner gets the choice of a VFYW book or two annual Dish subscriptions. If you are not a subscriber, please indicate that status in your entry and we will give you a free month sub if we select your entry for the contest results (example here if you’re new to the VFYW). Contest archive is here. Happy sleuthing!
The results for this week’s window are coming in a separate email to paid subscribers later today. From the weekly report from our resident biologist last week:
Choosing the animal was way easier than finding the window. I only had to stick my head out my window on this lovely, early fall evening. Crickets!
I hadn’t thought much about crickets since the exciting year when a whole box of them escaped into an elevator at school, where they could not be ignored as their chirping echoed up and down the shaft. Those of us who didn’t know the cricket’s song learned to know it all too well, and that the chirping rate decreased with the temperature. As I went up and down in the racket, I assumed they did it by rubbing their legs together, but nope — it’s their stubby little wings.
This short video for kids shows you the exact structures:
China has at least 331 species of crickets; and they’ve been a big deal since the 600s, when many people kept them as pets to enjoy their songs.
Probably the best-known aspect of Chinese crickets, though, is cricket fighting. In the fall, farmers catch field crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus) and sell them to insect markets. Here’s a Vice Sports video of the world championship of cricket fighting:
See you next Friday.