And Then...They Apologized

It may be time to start keeping track of all the times people buckle under when the social justice mob publicly shames them for violating group think. I'll start. 

Mark Duplass, Actor/Filmmaker

The Actor's Tweet (Later Deleted)  

His Apology 

Charles Davis, Dean of the Journalism and Communications School at the University of Georgia (UGA)

The Professor's Tweet (Later Deleted)  

 His Apology

  

Anders Carlson-Wee, Author/Poet

The Poet's Tweet

 The Nation's Poetry Editors' Apology

The Poet's Apology  

There's an eerie similarity in the phrasing of each apology. All include some variation of, "I've heard...I'm listening...I've learned." There's a creepy sense of each having been re-educated and indoctrinated, à la Orwell's 1984, where the Thought Police are "not interested in the overt act: the thought is all we care about." I don't think that's too far off. Some among today's Thought Police are advocating for re-education. For example, here is an actor named Matt McGorry making his case for re-education of men. (The comments that follow are interesting).  

As genuine as the apologies seem, it's important to keep in mind that they were the result of merciless public shaming from the social justice warriors on Twitter, AKA, the mob. I have no problems with apologizing--when you're wrong. I do have a problem with obsequious groveling when the mob attempts to silence you. 

By the way, if you can find Mark Duplass' apology on Twitter, read the comments that follow. Not very complimentary. Poor guy can't please everyone. 

Here's a sampling: 

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In the Words of Katey Kontent

Just finished a lovely book. Here's the story's protagonist, Katey Kontent (pronounced kon-TENT), summing things up at the end of her reminiscences. I don't give anything away by sharing these paragraphs.  

A compliment to the author, Amor Towles, who happens to be a man. I marvel at writers who somehow are able to write from the point of view of the opposite gender. I never once felt Katey's voice to be inauthentic. This was Towles' first novel.

Remembering a Rabble-Rouser

Before Breitbart News Network became what it is today, there was Andrew Breitbart, rebel, rabble-rouser, visionary. I was organizing my bookmarks and came across this video. I had forgotten how much I liked him. 

The date on this interview is June 2011. He died unexpectedly of heart failure about a year later. I had only recently discovered him and had become a fan (here's a tribute I wrote a couple of years ago).

Something I learned as I was putting this post together: Earlier that same year (April 2011), Andrew apparently predicted the rise of Donald Trump. "Celebrity is everything in this country," he said on The O'Reilly Factor. "And if these guys [conservatives] don't learn how to play the media the way that Barack Obama played the media last election cycle and the way that Donald Trump is playing the election cycle, we're going to probably get a celebrity candidate."

Andrew Breitbart wasn't highly educated (he says he drank his way through college). But he was gutsy and cocky and funny and charming. All this, combined with his instinctive media savvy, made him a consequential adversary and an invaluable ally. Conservatives lost a good one six years ago.

My left-leaning friends (and their kids) should give this a listen.



Andrew Breitbart: Media War (interview with Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution). I'm including the original source as well as the YouTube link.