Meet Will Wilkinson. He's conservative writer for the Niskanen Center, a center-right think tank on the West Coast, with occasional op-eds and the like in the New York Times and elsewhere.
Will Wilkinson
At least he was. He was fired (canceled) by a sarcastic tweet. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that you almost have be moronic not see it as sarcastic, but the Niskanen Center leadership found a way.Glenn Greenwald, the iconoclastic, left-leaning, independent journalist, says it well in a recent post. It is worth your time. Are reading comprehension skills a victim of the pandemic as well? He's given permission to share it.
As many of my friends know, I am no stranger to doxing. It happened to me about two years ago. The usual ingredients were present - an intemperate tweet taken down from a wholly independent and personal account with a whopping 2,200 followers, followed by an organized outrage mob tweeting and emailing to an employer demanding retribution. The mob's usual allies in the corporate media, found at disreputable online publications like TheDailyBeast.com, but also including CNN, the Washington Post, and Bloomberg were happy to join in, more often than not with completely false reporting. Don't be surprised that the alleged champions of the First Amendment are also among those seeking to make sure a lot of can't exercise it. As Andrew Sullivan has said, "Some journalists live to silence others. More and more of them." Members of the mob occasionally edit a Wikepedia page about my service as Secretary of the Senate to misrepresent facts or repeat provably wrong lies. It is but one reason that you cannot trust Wikipedia as a credible source of information.
Don't take my word for you. You can just "Google" me to see the sordid tale, warts, lies and all.
Just for the record, the offending tweet was harsh but was largely substantiated by independent conservative journalist Michelle Malkin in her 2019 book, Open Borders, Inc., about the organization and funding, direct and otherwise, for the October 2018 migrant caravan. My only mistake, aside from the harsh tone of the tweet (never tweet while angry, even when you believe the anger is justified), was not noting that the funding was indirect.
The organization that led that caravan and is behind several others, is called Pueblo Sin Fronteras - People Without Borders. Just for grins, check out their past funding and affiliations with migrant caravans. Facts are stubborn things.
I probably sound a bit defensive, but I'm still dealing with this more than two years later. Stories like Will Wilkinson's, and many others, keep highlighting the damaging and corrosive culture that is destroying discourse, careers and lives. And the corporate media shows no sign of ending their aiding and abetting it.
Just take the latest: Cara Dumaplin, best known on her 1.3 million member Instagram account as "Take Cara Babies." She reportedly is a parenting expert who specializes in calming screaming babies.
As Vox.com here outlines, someone discovered that her and her husband had contributed some $2,000 to various political accounts supporting President Donald Trump.
Bess Kalb is an author and screenwriter with 279,000 Twitter followers. She leads the doxing campaign against Cara Dumaplin. I guess if you contributed to Donald Trump's campaign, you are incapable of helping babies go to sleep. Who knew?
I'm often asked why many thoughtful conservatives (especially Trump supporters) don't often answer calls from pollsters, openly share their political views, or talk politics anymore, except behind private chat apps like Telegram and Signal. I utter the same two words - "Cancel Culture" - and note how conservatives tip toe around corporate cultures to avoid the marauding mobs of wokesters, many at companies that might surprise you, looking to single out, marginalize, and place targets on the back of coworkers who deviate from Group Think. So much for "diversity" and "inclusion." Many will relate to Spectator.org's Melissa McKenzie:
I really am working to restore this social fabric, working with and supporting others who are more expert than me at the cause. My friend Rob Fersh and I co-authored an op-ed in TheHill.Com. My friend Mark Rodgers at The Clapham Group has outlined a thoughtful proposal on a new "Social Capital Campaign." There is some good thought and work being done in this space. But if conservatives are going to participate in this restorative process, cancel culture needs to stop, and that starts by The Left - and The Right - calling out offenders in their own ranks. Glenn Greenwald is the only man of "The Left" that I see going after cancel culture artists.
Niskanan Center, it's your turn, and I'm calling you out. Shame on you. Rehire Will Wilkinson, and apologize.