Irony alert: A conservative conference themed against so-called “cancel culture” just canceled a speaker.
Last February, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) featured then-President Donald Trump memorably groping an American flag as he gave himself an “A-plus-plus-plus” grade for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic (“Everything is under control”). The 2020 conference also featured a prankster disguised as Trump interrupting then-Vice President Mike Pence. That prankster turned out to be Sacha Baron Cohen, who was filming a bit for his then-secret “Borat” sequel.
This year’s theme is “America Uncanceled,” yet the organization has already tweeted a cancelation:
The tweet didn’t name the individual, but earlier in the day CPAC canceled a speaker named Young Pharaoh over his habit of making anti-Semitic claims; these comments were uncovered by the progressive watchdog group Media Matters. Young Pharaoh has called Judaism a “complete lie,” used the phrase “thieving fake Jews” and wrote on Twitter that “all the censorship & pedophilia on social media is being done by Israeli Jews.”
Other speakers scheduled to appear at this year’s conference include a return visit from Trump, who lied about the 2020 election and then incited a violent insurrection against the U.S. government; Wayne Dupree, who claimed the Sandy Hook school massacre was a “hoax” carried out by “crisis actors” and other lies; and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who was accused of covering up for a sexually abusive doctor when he was a wrestling coach at Ohio State University, among others.
In other words, many believed “the individual” who had “expressed reprehensible views” could’ve been just about anyone on the guest list. Twitter critics had a field day with the cancelation at the “America Uncanceled” event and mockingly trying to guess “the individual”: