Rolling Stone Tries to Reject the Cancel Culture They Once Believed Was Good for Democracy

On June 3, 2020, Emmanuel Cafferty was driving home from his job as an underground line locator for San Diego Gas & Electric, as he always did. On this particular day, he had his left arm hanging out of the window of his work vehicle and cracked his knuckles. Unbeknownst to Cafferty, another motorist snapped a picture and sent it to his employer, claiming Cafferty flashed a "White power" symbol. San Diego Gas & Electric, undoubtedly feeling pressure in the midst of the summer of BLM fired Cafferty. Four months later, Cafferty, who is Mexican, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission while he struggled to find work. The man who made the accusations later withdrew the complaint and said he never meant to get Cafferty fired.

For years, the American Left pushed the idea of cancel culture. They used it as a tool for political power and social conformity, and would turn even the slightest infraction into a federal case. In the wake of the assassination of conservative Charlie Kirk, some Leftists who celebrated his death on social media were reported to their employers and fired.

Suddenly, Rolling Stone finds that objectionable.

The MAGA right says Charlie Kirk is a martyr for freedom of expression, but still want people to lose their jobs for criticizing his rhetoric

More: https://t.co/V87bc06YUI https://t.co/V87bc06YUI
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) September 12, 2025

They write:

Prominent members of the MAGA movement are using Kirk’s death to call for a “civil war” with leftists they accuse of inciting violence. And the Republican establishment — along with a fair number of Democrats — are mourning him as a martyr for the American values of debate and civic engagement, even while critics argue that he was often divisive and extreme.
Some of those critics have already faced severe consequences. Matthew Dowd, a political analyst for MSNBC, found himself out of a job today after on-air comments about Kirk in the immediate wake of the shooting, long before confirmation of Kirk’s death.

Here are Dowd's "on-air comments" about Kirk: "You can’t stop with these awful thoughts you have and then say these awful words and then not expect awful actions to take place." The backlash was so severe, MSNBC issued an apology before firing Dowd, calling his remarks "inappropriate, insensitive, and unacceptable."

Cancel culture has leveled the playing field for those who can’t always rely on the government to protect them. Right now, bigots are protected under the First Amendment to fuel disgusting rhetoric without state-sanctioned consequence. The America that tolerated white supremacy in their policies and laws is the same country that wants to remind us how such forms of hate are still legal via free speech. Cancel culture is the poison to those in power that have benefited from unchecked free speech.
When conservatives on Fox News declare that it’s a “free country” and that cancel culture is “un-American,” they forget speech works two ways: It allows for discourse to take place but grants all voices can be heard. In other words, straight white men and other people with power aren’t used to getting pushback for the ways they conduct themselves—and cancel culture has reset the ways society can react. Those who fear cancel culture may claim they fear suppression of speech, but it’s accountability that they want to avoid.

Ah.

When the Left uses cancel culture, it's "accountability" and a way to "level the playing field" because totalitarians can't issue "state-sanctioned" consequences. This, of course, simply applies to people who say things the Left doesn't like or, as in the case of Emmanuel Cafferty, happen to run across a woke scold eager to score virtue points by getting someone fired.

When the Right uses that same method to hold accountable people who are cheering the death of Charlie Kirk and calling for more violence against conservatives, it's no longer "leveling the playing field" but an attack on "free expression."

If the editorial staff at Rolling Stone didn't have double standards, they wouldn't have any.

Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.

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