It was only a matter of time before the cancel culture did something so outrageously stupid and ignorant that they became a caricature of a revolutionary movement.
They shouldn’ta hadn’ta oughtn’a come for John Kass.
John Kass has been a Chicago Tribune columnist for 35 years. For many of those 35 years, his brilliant, ironic, sarcastic, and penetrating writing has appeared on Page 2 of the newspaper.
But no more. John Kass ran afoul of the mob and, true to form, Kass’s superiors and supposed “friends” in the local newspaper guild melted like a stick of butter at a Grant Park picnic in the middle of a Chicago summer. Henceforth, Kass’s column will appear in a special op-ed section that readers will have to hunt for to find.
It’s not just that Kass, a second-generation immigrant, is right of center in his politics. The mob targeted Kass because he wrote a column that speaks the truth about what’s happening in America’s big cities — and why. Their branding of Kass is not about racism, sexism, homophobism, anti-Muslimism, or conservatism. It’s about exercising power. And Kass is getting in the way.
The “why” is a deliberate effort by radical left-wing billionaire George Soros to elect radical left prosecutors in big cities. This is no secret. Numerous publications from the Wall Street Journal to the Chicago Sun-Times have reported on the Soros funding group Open Society bankrolling races for state prosecutors in these cities.
But the truth doesn’t matter in the effort to silence opposing views. Kass was accused of “anti-Semitism” (despite never mentioning Soros’s religion) and promoting “conspiracy theories.”
It ain’t a conspiracy theory if it’s true.
For right now, let’s deal with facts. My July 22 column was titled “Something grows in the big cities run by Democrats: An overwhelming sense of lawlessness.”
It explored the connections between soft-on-crime prosecutors and increases in violence along with the political donations of left-wing billionaire George Soros, who in several states has funded liberal candidates for prosecutor, including Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
Soros’ influence on these races is undeniable and has been widely reported. But in that column, I did not mention Soros’ ethnicity or religion.
You’d think that before wildly accusing someone of fomenting bigoted conspiracy theories, journalists on the union’s executive board would at least take the time to Google the words “Soros,” “funding” and “local prosecutors.”
Radical left Soros-backed prosecutors like Kim Foxx of Chicago and Larry Krasner of Philadelphia have made a point of going very easy on protesters, as have most prosecutors in liberal big cities.
A recent Chicago Tribune investigation found that of 162 offenders arrested and charged with felonies before the Floyd protests — and who were bailed out by liberal social justice warrior groups — more than 1 in 5 were charged with new offenses.
They won’t anger their base when they release violent offenders back into poor neighborhoods to commit other violent acts on poor people. The left is their base. This is what they want, what Soros paid for.
Foxx got $2 million from the Soros group. Kass, as a journalist, was following the money and discovered it led to prosecutors who refuse to enforce the law. He reported the truth. But, in the end, the truth did not set him free.
The larger question is not about me, or the political left that hopes to silence people like me, but about America and its young. Those of us targeted by cancel culture are not only victims. We are examples, as French revolutionaries once said, in order to encourage the others.
And, as they are shaped and taught to fear even the slightest accusation of thought crime, they will not view themselves as weak for falling in line. Instead they will view themselves as virtuous. And that is the sin of it.
Kass hasn’t been silenced completely. But that’s nothing to be grateful for. We should be angry about it. The mob doesn’t care if they become a caricature of themselves by canceling someone who is clearly telling the truth. In truth, they don’t care what we think of them. They have powerful politicians on their side doing their bidding for them.
And that should frighten us all.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member