Cancelers canceled at Simon & Schuster

The media today are far more homogeneously left-wing and devoted to the destruction, not just the defeat, of their enemies.  And generations of brainwashed products of left-wing higher education have been weaned away from any understanding of the Constitution and the importance of civility.

 Thomas Lifson   "A small sign that cancel culture may have peaked, at least in book publishing, is worth noting.  The president of Simon & Schuster, Jonathan Karp, has announced that his firm will ignore a petition from its staff (reportedly, 216 employees and thousands of sympathizers) demanding that plans to publish an autobiographical memoir by former V.P. Mike Pence be canceled.

"Thomas Lipscomb, a publishing industry veteran, takes note and celebrates the act of courage in the Asia Times:

[T]he internal petition being circulated by Simon & Schuster employees is far more extensive. It is demanding categorical censorship irrespective of any underlying editorial merit. It wants to employ a heckler's veto to override the judgment of some of the finest editors in publishing in multiple imprints, even extending it to canceling totally independent distribution clients.

Simon & Schuster's president, Jonathan Karp, announced that his firm would go forward and publish Mike Pence's memoir. In the same letter he reminded his employees "… we come to work to publish, not cancel, which is the most extreme decision a publisher can make, and one that runs counter to the very core of our mission to publish a diversity of voices and perspectives."

Simon & Schuster's petitioners have now reached outside their own community looking for "solidarity" throughout publishing for their position.

. . . "Is Hawley beyond the pale but Pence barely acceptable?  Or is there a new commitment to resisting those who would narrow the range of discourse?  We don't know.

"What stood out for me, though, was the insight on the role of independent bookstore-owners in pushing cancel culture:" . . .

Kancel Kulture Kartoons: That's All Folks: Here Are 10 More Looney Tunes Characters That Must Be Canceled

. . . "Tweety Bird, who uses racial profiling in looking for threats: Oh, you taw a puddy-tat, did you? Check your prejudice, you bigoted bird." 

"Hugo the Abominable Snowman, an all-white character: Do we not have enough white characters already? On the plus side, he is called "abominable" so maybe he can stay as a reminder of white abominableness." . . .