Cancel Culture Has Gone Exactly Far Enough!

I don't one hundred percent know if this is true, since it seems to be only being reported by right-wing outlets (this could just be because normal people don't care about it), but supposedly, Mallard Fillmore has been cancelled.  In my early blogging years, I was somewhat obsessed with the strip, so I should probably have some kind of celebration requiem for its passing.

Why was it cancelled?  Unclear, but per that Washington Times article:

He said officials at King Features, which syndicates the cartoon, said that “a decision was made at the corporate level, and they weren’t sure exactly why, except that they were sure it was about those two cartoons.”

The two comics ran Feb. 19-20. The first depicts Mr. Biden musing: “For too long, segregation sullied women’s sports … They were restricted to women! Thank goodness those dark days are over.”

In the second cartoon, Mr. Biden says, “I hear what you, the American people, want me to do … kill fossil-fuel jobs … devalue Americans’ labor … and help more transgender athletes beat the *@!# out of biological females.”

Certainly, “Mallard Fillmore” has been known to ruffle feathers, but Mr. Tinsley said he didn’t think the strips referring to Mr. Biden’s Jan. 20 executive order on gender identity and sexual orientation were over the top.

“I’ve thought a million times, ‘This is it, I don’t even know if I’m going to turn this in,’ ” said Mr. Tinsley, referring to previous comics. “But of all the cartoons — it vaguely centers on Biden’s doing that as his first executive order. There certainly was nothing derogatory about transgender people. It was just about what I see as a really unfair environment in sports.”

Cool, man.  Sure, you said that trans women aren't women, and sure, you repeated an ancient transphobic complaint, but JEEZ!  You didn't say anything derogatory!  I do agree with you, though, that it does feel kind of arbitrary that this was the last straw (if it was), given how shitty you've been in the past about oh so many things.  

Let's look at some recent Mallard Fillmore comics so we can better understand the great loss to humanity that this represents.  Here's the strip for today, March 6:

If you think racism is good, just say it, asshole.  Don't pussyfoot around it.  I'm one hundred percent positive that nobody, including Biden, has ever suggested that the anti-Chinese sentiment is the most vital thing to worry about re COVID 19, but it's sure not GOOD.  At least I don't think so.  Your mileage may vary.  Of course, this also points to the fundamental dishonesty here: if you were to accuse Tinsley to his face of being a racist based on this strip, he'd respond with great umbrage: he's not saying it's good to call it "kung flu!"  He's just attacking the idea that those PC SJWs think it's the most important thing [citation needed, but whatever]!  These ideologues get a lot of mileage out of pretending not to understand how language works.  He may be implying that talking about the pandemic using racialized language is fine, but he didn't actually come out and say it in so many words, so you're not allowed to look at the obvious meaning.

Hey look, Tinsley thinks the election was stolen!  There's a shocker.  I know there's little point in saying anything about this, but it's hard not to: the party whose governing philosophy can be summed up with a "liberal tears" tumbler and a "fuck your feelings" t-shirt and who, oh yeah, tried to OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT two months ago is now sniveling that the Democrats were MEAN to them.

One interesting thing is that in its later days, there was another person, known as "Fishman," taking turns doing the strip.  At first I thought maybe this person sucked slightly less than Tinsley, but nah, they suck about the same.

Ah yes, the classic "if anyone associated with your movement is violent in any way, your movement is discredited" rhetorical feint.  Fishman would've trotted out this exact rationale for opposing the Civil Rights Movement in the sixties, at least if he weren't an explicit segregationist.  Oddly, the fact that his team--say it again--recently tried to OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT seems not to be relevant here.

This one sums up the American right as a whole, dunnit?  Who cares that people are dying, in large part due to our malevolent toddler of a President?  We want to stew in resentment over executive orders!  Waah waah waah, we're little babies who need our bottle!

I dunno.  I don't really have anything meaningful to stay here.  I really want someone to do a photoshop of "The Death of Marat" with Mallard photoshopped in.