Reprinted with permission from Alternet
Donald Trump, Jr. exploded in a rant about "cancel culture" Tuesday morning on Fox News, railing against a wide variety of right-wing identified entities he falsely claims have been "canceled" for being racist or otherwise unacceptable -- among them, Mr. Potato Head, Dr. Seuss, and The Muppets. He also railed against the thousands of people who identified the stage his father spoke on at a conservative conference last weekend as appearing in the shape of a Nazi symbol.
Trump Jr., who is not a social scientist, an expert in critical race theory, structural racism, systemic racism, civil rights, equality, or early childhood development, was invited onto Fox & Friends to discuss those issues.
"There's this cancel culture trying to cancel Dr. Seuss now," co-host Ainsley Earhardt falsely claimed. "How far are they going to take us?"
None of these brands are getting "cancelled." When the owner of a brand decides to make changes to its offerings, that's not "cancel culture," especially when it's not even responding to outside pressure campaigns, of which there are none here.
"There's no place that they won't go Ainsley, there's no place they won't go," Trump Jr. replied, apparently referring to liberals. He is the author of Liberal Privilege : Joe Biden And The Democrats' Defense Of The Indefensible, and Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us.
"This week alone, they canceled Mr. Potato Head," he claimed, which is a lie. Hasbro says it is adding a gender-neutral character to its line, called simply, "Potato Head." Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. Potato Head are not going anywhere.
"You know this week alone they canceled the Muppets," he continued, another lie. Disney is now streaming all but two episodes of the entire Muppet Show collection on Disney+, and has excellent reasons for not including those two episodes.
"You know they're canceling Dr. Seuss from reading programs, I mean these are books. I literally know The Cat in the Hat by heart without the book there because I read it so many times to my children. These things are not racist," he insisted.
The Cat in the Hat is not getting "canceled."
Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the organization that owns the rights to all Dr. Seuss works and in part exists to protect Seuss' reputation, has decided to discontinue publishing six books (out of about 60) that they feel "portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong."
Separately, in Loudon County, Virginia, one of the wealthiest areas of the country and up until a few years ago very conservative, public school officials were forced to respond to a report from the far right website The Daily Wire that claimed: "Dr. Seuss Canceled For 'Racial Undertones'."
"Dr. Seuss books have not been banned and are available to students in our libraries and classrooms, however, Dr. Seuss and his books are no longer the emphasis of Read Across America Day in Loudoun County Public Schools," Loudoun County Public Schools said in a statement.
Trump. Jr. wasn't done yet.
"You have Oreo cookie chiming in on trans rights," Trump Jr. continued in his complaint. Oreo had posted the following tweet before the House of Representatives voted to pass the LGBTQ Equality Act.
"I mean, what is going on?" Trump Jr. ranted. "It's absolutely insane. We've lost our minds. And we're encouraging it, you know, by allowing it. You saw the woke mob goes after CPAC, because this stage apparently had Nazi symbolism because these guys are so obsessed with trying to create any link to that."
CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, hosted its annual conference on a stage many said appeared to look just like a Nazi symbol.
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