Cancel Culture Calvacade

 A week or so back, Dr. Suess Enterprises, the company that manages the legacy and printed works of one Theodore Geisel, AKA Dr. Suess, decided to no longer keep in print 6 Dr. Seuss books due to racist imagery.

The hysteria from Fox News and Republican Congresspersons was immediate.

DR. SEUSS HAS BEEN CANCELLED!!!! THE LIBERALS ARE TAKING AWAY DR. SEUSS!!!!!

Here is the list of books Dr. Suess Enterprises is pulling 

• And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937)
• If I Ran the Zoo (1950)
• McElligot's Pool (1947)
• On Beyond Zebra! (1955)
• Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953) 
• The Cat's Quizzer (1976). 

On that list, I think I've heard of If I Ran the Zoo. These books are not among the heavy hitters in the Dr. Suess bibliography.

Dr. Suess Enterprises said that these books "portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong" and are no longer being published due to racist and insensitive imagery. 

Around the same time, Disney+ announced that A certain episode of the Muppets would have a parental advisory.

Not sure why. Maybe there's an episode where Gonzo finally fucks a chicken? 

Oh,  it seems the offending episode contains a Confederate flag.  

(let me get out the ol' cut 'n' paste) 

The hysteria from Fox News and Republican Congresspersons was immediate.

DR. SEUSS HAS THE MUPPETS HAVE BEEN CANCELLED!!!! THE LIBERALS ARE TAKING AWAY DR. SEUSS THE MUPPETS!!!!!

Apparently, Warner Bros. has decided that their classic cartoon skunk Pepe LePew will not be in the new Space Jam movie. 

Cue outrage! 

The hysteria from Fox News and Republican Congresspersons was immediate.

DR. SEUSS HAS THE MUPPETS HAVE BUGS BUNY HAS BEEN CANCELLED!!!! THE LIBERALS ARE TAKING AWAY DR. SEUSS THE MUPPETS BUGS BUNNY!!!!!

Here is the basic plot of a Pepe LePew cartoon. 

• Black cat wanders into Paris. 
• Black cat wanders by a painter. 
• White paint adds a stripe to the back of the black cat.
• Pepe LePew spends the rest of the cartoon trying to fuck that cat.  

Pepe LePew and Gonzo are in a support group.  

For more on Pepe, click here for Mark Evanier's post on the subject.  

This has become a cliché, right wing persons going into apolectic hysterics over the slightest tweak as a full on assault.

One Republican congress-idiot breathlessly warned that Dr. Suess as being "outlawed".  

No, Dr. Seuss has NOT been cancelled and sure as hell has NOT been outlawed. The entire library of Seussian works are still available for print except for just 6 books. 

The 6 books were not pulled from active marketing and production by any outside force. The people actually responsible for Dr. Seuss's legacy made this decision.  

And no one is going around raiding houses to collect and burn those 6 titles.  

The Muppet are not cancelled. All their classic 1970s era series is still there to be watched on Disney+ as well as various movies and other Muppet stuff. 

Bugs Bunny and the gang are still in business and will be appearing with LeBron James in the new Space Jam movie, just without the date raping skunk. 

In each case, a corporate entity made a decision regarding product they own. Given the Republican Party's high regard for big business and their right to do as they please, it does seem counter-intuitive to gripe about big businesses making decisions regarding their own stuff. 

Of course, the right wing fear machine is trying to cast Democrats, liberals, progressives, antifa, Black Lives Matter and more as the enemy taking away your right to enjoy a cat fucking skunk in Space Jam 2.

Meanwhile, while the right wing fear machine kicked in the afterburners to fuel its rage over the "cancellation" of Dr. Suess, the Muppets and Looney Toons, Congress was passing a relief bill to help millions of Americans impacted by COVID-19. And when I say "Congress", I mean the Democrats. Not one Republican in the House or the Senate voted for this package. 

Yes, it costs a lot but there's a lot of hurt out there. People who have been unemployed for nearly a year, people making decisions between food or medicine or shelter.  

But while the relief bill was being debated in the House, Republican Kevin McCarthy posted a video of himself reading Green Eggs and Ham to an empty room. 

Which is an easier thing for McCarthy to do rather than do the work to get help to millions of Americans who need it. 

It's important to understand something about the current Republican Party. It used to be the party of limited government with a preference for things to be left to a free market economy. But over the last 3 or 4 decades, the party has been eating its own tail to the point that it's ideology is geared not towards limited government but NO government. Which means when there is a crisis of such epic proportions that the government is actually needed to intervene and this runs counter to Republican ideology, the party can do nothing more than rage about "cancel culture" and anything else that gets their mostly white, mostly male, mostly uneducated and mostly evangelical base all riled up. 

All this is not to say that the Democrats are perfect or that the relief bill is perfect. But whatever their flaws, they are trying to do something for people. 

But if you have an empty stomach and no place to go, rest assured the Republicans are fighting for your right, damn it, to dive into McElligot's Pool.