Asked and Answered: Is Cancel Culture Over? Is There a Bias Against Conservatives?

The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh took to Twitter to criticize the Academy’s Documentary Branch for not even including Am I Racist on its shortlist.

The first part of Matt Walsh’s statement is true. His first film, What is a Woman came at a time when no one was willing to discuss the sudden rise of transgender ideology everywhere in American life. No one had the nerve to talk about it. Everyone was afraid of the activists. There would be podcasts, books – but in the mainstream, nothing. What is a Woman talked about something that was on everyone’s minds, but Hollywood – because it is now fully immersed in what we call “woke” dogma — just presented all of the activist’s demands in pop culture and in film, no questions asked.

Everyone knew about What is a Woman. Did everyone know about Am I Racist? I don’t know. But I do know that more people knew about it than they did any other documentary. I’d go even further than that. More people knew about his documentary than probably know about the majority of films up for Best Picture this year. I don’t think anyone in Hollywood has fully reckoned with what Hollywood has become, how insular it is now, how alienating.

There was a time on the Left when controversial documentaries were applauded and embraced. But those days are gone. The Left isn’t what it used to be in any way. Movies now, and those who make them, must align and adhere to the ideology or else be banished. Anyone who praised Am I Racist was seen as some kind of traitor.

There isn’t any fixing this, I don’t think. Is Matt Walsh right that they have a bias against Conservatives? Of course. But it’s worse than a bias. It’s class snobbery more than it is anything. And again, I can’t believe what has happened to what we used to the Left – or American culture. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that they would end up as an insulated, isolated ruling class elite – but here we are.

So it’s more than just overt bias. It’s complete and utter shunning and banishment. Think about an Amish community and how strict they are. This is the same thing. There is no dissent allowed.

But to the second point, the Academy’s Documentary Branch has a long history of not nominating some of the best and most popular documentaries. Blackfish is one I remember and Grizzly Man, which is probably the best documentary ever made. So it isn’t necessarily bias that Am I Racist didn’t get in. They don’t measure on box office. They don’t even measure on box office in the Best Picture race. There is no connection between the public and the film industry anymore, or at least Oscar voters.

I agree with Matt Walsh that his film should have made the shortlist. I wish for the industry and the Academy that stop looking in their magic mirror and attempt to do what Matt Walsh did – make fun of themselves. Analyze themselves. Critique themselves. They never do.

Instead, you can summarize the documentary shortlist this way: Alexa, show me the kinds of documentaries your average NPR listener would like.

The films that were announced, as follows, with the summaries on IMDb:

Sugarcane – “An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school sparks a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve.”

The Bibi Files – “An inside look into the corruption charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu through leaked police interrogation videos.”

Black Box Diaries – “Journalist Shiori Ito investigates her own sexual assault, seeking to prosecute the high-profile offender. Her quest becomes a landmark case, exposing Japan’s outdated judicial and societal systems.”

Dahomey – “The journey of 26 plundered royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey exhibited in Paris, now being returned to Benin. Diop artistically voices a new generation’s demands”

Daughters – “Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers, as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C. jail.”

Eno – “A generative documentary about artist Brian Eno, with 52 quintillion possible iterations, so that no viewing is the same twice.”

Frida – “A raw and magical journey into the life of iconic artist Frida Kahlo, told through her own words from diaries, letters, essays, and interviews. Vividly brought to life with lyrical animation inspired by her unforgettable artwork.”

Hollywoodgate — “Immediately after the US pullout from Afghanistan, Taliban forces occupied the Hollywood Gate complex, which is claimed to be a former CIA base in Kabul.”

No Other Land – “This film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective shows the destruction of the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers and the alliance which develops between the Palestinian activist Basel and Israeli journalist Yuval.”

Porcelain War – “Under roaring fighter jets, Ukrainian artists Slava, Anya, and Andrey choose to stay behind. Defiantly finding beauty amid destruction, they show that although it’s easy to make people afraid, it’s hard to destroy their passion for living.”

Queendom – “In defiance of Russia’s anti-LGTBQ laws, a queer, 21-year-old artist risks her life performing in surreal costumes throughout Moscow. Jenna Marvin’s radical public performances blend artistry and activism in this SXSW documentary.”

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin – “Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer, died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. His parents mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated life, when they started receiving messages from online friends around the world.”

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat – “Jazz and decolonization are entwined in this historical rollercoaster that rewrites the Cold War episode that led musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the UN Security Council in protest against the murder of Patrice Lumumba.”

Union – “A group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island challenges one of the world’s largest companies in a unionization battle.”

Will & Harper – “In this intimate portrayal of friendship, transition and America, Will Ferrell and his close friend of thirty years decide to go on a cross-country road trip to explore a new chapter in their relationship.”

I mean, it’s literally PBS and NPR as movies. That is the ethos at play.

The upside is that each of these movies selected transforms the filmmakers and anyone involved in these causes. It’s the greatest thing that has ever happened to them, and in some cases, it might lead to real change.

Matt Walsh’s documentary Am I Racist actually made money. People saw it. They talked about what happened in it. It concerns a great many Americans. You can agree with it or hate it, but you can’t deny that it was the only documentary—the ONLY ONE—up to and including all of those on the shortlist, with the possible exception of Will & Harper, that anyone in this country even knows about.

The Hollywood Reporter Proves Cancel Culture is Alive and Well with Yet Another Hit Piece, This Time on Justine Bateman

Meanwhile, speaking of how Conservatives are treated, The Hollywood Reporter is at it again with another surveillance journalism piece. This time the target was dissident Justine Bateman who is as outspoken as I am online and you know, just as in Salem in 1692, sooner or later they were going to come for her and they did, courtesy of a lazy journalist name Zoe G. Phillips who really wanted to destroy Bateman by calling her a Trump supporter — yeah, I mean, he won the popular vote so I guess that means it’s okay for Hollywood to continue to treat every one of his supporters like they don’t belong. That’s a smart move.

Well, Bateman confronted them and they were forced to remove the part where they called her a “well-known Trump supporter,” which isn’t the truth. She might be what we call “based” but she’s never said how she voted, not that I think it should matter. They were forced to change the article and post this retraction:

I never wanted to see my heroes become the kinds of people who would go along with shunning, blacklisting, and yes, Cancel Culture. But here we are. I am shocked to see the cowardice play out as it has. I would never have expected it. I try to put myself in their shoes, going all the way back to the days when La La Land was “racist” — I did go along with that one. I can’t lie about that. But the next year, when Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was “racist” I snapped out of it. What is going on, I wondered.

Bateman thoughtfully, intelligently, and insightfully puts it in perspective in her tweets and in her interview with Megyn Kelly, which brought the Eye of Sauron upon her. She’s not a Conservative, nor am I. We’re people who remember the old days when filmmakers and artist, comedians and journalists, sought the truth or at least to push the envelope in ways other than dealing with identity.

I’m not sure Cancel Culture is over. It seems to have slipped into the new normal, like The Zone of Interest, where it’s just part of everyday life, and very few people push back. Well, Justine Bateman has now said out loud what many people think but are too afraid to say.

These problems will never afflict Zoe G. Phillips or Rebecca Keegan, who wrote the hit piece on me. They are good soldiers for the Left and would not dare step out of line. We witches will have to fend for ourselves.

By the way, there are so many more people who are curious about hearing the truth now because they haven’t gotten it anywhere lately. Both Matt Walsh and Megyn Kelly each have over 3 million YouTube followers. They are far more popular than most voices in the independent lane.