The Left Is Getting a Taste of Its Own Medicine

The tables have finally turned—left-wingers are getting fired, expelled, and otherwise punished for things they say online. 

This week, Karen Attiah was fired from her position as a columnist at the Washington Post. Her bosses apparently told her that comments she made on Bluesky about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk were “unacceptable.” Shortly after Kirk was fatally shot while giving a talk at Utah Valley University, Attiah took to social media to express how unfazed she was by a political assassination on American soil. In one post, she wrote: “Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is… not the same as violence.” In another, she complained that “part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence.”

For these and other similar remarks, Attiah lost her job. Nonetheless, she remains unrepentant, writing on her Substack after the fact that her “moral values” meant that she refused to engage in “false mourning” for Kirk, who she believed “routinely attacked black women.” 

Attiah isn’t the only leftist getting in trouble for responding gleefully to Kirk’s killing. A student at Texas Tech University was arrested after she was caught on camera dancing in front of a vigil for Kirk, yelling “Fuck y’all homie dead, he got shot in the head.” One attendee claimed she also screamed profanities at mourners and accused them of being “fascists.” She then allegedly pushed several people, including an elderly veteran and a young mother with her child. It looks like she might have been expelled from her university, too. Clemson University in South Carolina has fired one faculty member and suspended two others for social-media posts reportedly celebrating Kirk’s death. 

The number of educators caught mocking Kirk is deeply troubling. In Texas alone, over a hundred teachers have been reported for what they allegedly said online, and now face suspension, disciplinary action, and potentially even losing their teaching certificates. Several have already lost their jobs over this. Across the border in Canada, a teacher at a Toronto elementary school was suspended after reportedly showing a clip from the video of Kirk being murdered 10- and 11-year-old pupils and telling the class that he deserved to be killed. Parents understandably kicked up a fuss, and the teacher was subsequently put on leave. 

Not even the military is safe from its members openly gloating about Kirk’s death. The Pentagon suspended Army colonel Scott Stephens after he wrote on Facebook that “Charlie was doing what he loved best—spreading hate, racism, homophobia, misogyny, and transphobia on college campuses.” Similarly, Army Reserves Major Bryan Bintliff was also suspended when it was discovered he had cheered on Kirk’s death online. Writing under an alias, he said: “A monster died today. It’s sad Charlie’s kids are traumatised for life, but it’s not a sad thing that he’s dead.” 

Even here in the UK, those who think it’s alright to cheer for the death of their political enemies are finding themselves on the sharp end of cancel culture. George Abaraonye, the incoming president of the Oxford Union, is facing a vote of no-confidence and disciplinary proceedings as a result of him celebrating Kirk’s killing. As news broke that Kirk had been attacked, Abaraonye sent a message to a group chat that read: “Charlie Kirk got shot, let’s fucking go.” Abaroanye had debated Kirk at the Oxford Union only a few months ago. 

Some of the most disgusting gloating has come from Bob Vylan, the mediocre UK rap duo more famous for being scumbags than for making music. Last Saturday during a concert in Amsterdam, the group’s frontman, Bobby Vylan, dedicated one of the songs to Kirk, calling him “an absolute piece of s**t of a human being.” To the audience, he said: “The pronouns was/were. Because if you talk s**t, you will get banged. Rest in p***, Charlie Kirk, you piece of s**t.” Vylan also led the crowd in a chant of “F**k the fascists, f**k the Zionists. Go find them in the streets.” In response, the group’s performance in Tilburg, originally scheduled for tonight, has been cancelled by the venue. 

The irony of all this is that these kinds of cancellations are what the Right has been facing the best part of a decade now. Conservatives have lived in fear of losing their jobs, being kicked out of their schools, or otherwise having their lives ruined because they expressed their opinions online. Abaraonye and Vylan might think it’s unfair that they’re being punished for their speech, but right-wingers have had it much worse for much longer here in the UK. Look no further than Lucy Connolly, who was handed a 31-month prison sentence for a tweet. Many more have had police turn up at their homes for stating that men cannot become women, or that the UK has an antisemitism problem.

No one on the Left should be surprised that this is happening. The threat of cancellation has long been held over the head of anyone who dared speak out against gender ideology, critical race theory, climate change, or any other trendy cause. Universities, the media, the justice system, and practically every cultural institution have been dominated by people who were either devoted to wokeness, or at least willing to pretend to be. As such, people’s lives were ruined for publicly (or even, in some cases, privately) holding beliefs far milder than most of the bloodthirsty leftists celebrating Kirk’s death. Now that Donald Trump is back in power, and his government is staffed by young, vengeful MAGA devotees, it’s no wonder they’re using that power to get people fired, arrested, and even deported. 

None of this is to say that this recent development in cancel culture is necessarily a good thing. It’s generally never a sign of a healthy or positive society when your beliefs—no matter how crude, hateful, or vile—can result in your full name, address, phone number, and place of work being plastered across social media. As everyone on the Right should know by now, whenever it becomes acceptable to get someone fired for what they believe, that norm won’t just disappear once your enemies get into power.

Attorney General Pam Bondi already appears to have forgotten this. Speaking on The Katie Miller Podcast this week, Bondi regurgitated that same line the Left has been trotting out for years: “There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech.” Responding to the resultant backlash, she wrote on X,

Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. It’s a crime. For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over.

It would be a grave error for the Right to go down this path, especially as we know all too well where it leads. If you value free speech, then it is vital to defend that right even for those you disagree with. Free speech must be for everyone, or else it is for no one. As Charlie Kirk himself once put it:

Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. 

That being said, the fact that the Left is finally getting a taste of its own medicine might prove fruitful yet. The same people who cheered for blood when people were stripped of their livelihoods will now know how that feels. And it doesn’t feel good, does it? The best possible outcome for everyone is that we reach a kind of stalemate. Both sides know by now that they can destroy the other. Both sides should also know that we don’t have to live like this. The constant fear of cancellation is stifling, but if we all agree to lay down our arms, everyone gets their voice back. How about a truce?