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WORST OF THE WOKE: 2021 The Top 10 most hypocritical institutions of the year — and one “Champion of Tolerance”  Many individuals and organizations gave tremendous lip service to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” throughout 2021, but their actions spoke far louder than their words. Here are the 10 worst offenders: Award Winner: Major League Baseball Reason: The league moved the location of its All-Star Game after announcing in April it could not in good conscience hold the famed (and economy-boosting) annual contest in the same state that passed what critics called a “restrictive” voting law in Georgia, which has at least 17 days of early in-person voting. To demonstrate how “Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,” MLB moved the game to Colorado, which has 15 days of early in-person voting. At the same time, MLB struck a deal to stream their games in China despite ongoing genocide and human rights abuses in the country. Award Winner: Disney Reason: When it comes to wokeness, the media mega-company was firing on all cylinders in 2021. First, it terminated Mandalorian star Gina Carano for an Instagram post comparing the treatment of conservatives to the Jews during the Holocaust — but her costar Pedro Pascal got off scot-free making the same analogy comparing supporters of President Trump to Nazis. Disney proudly showcases a “Diversity and Inclusion Commitment” on its website, yet the company chose to film parts of Mulan in Xinjiang, a region notorious for religious persecution, even going so far as to thank Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entities responsible for human rights abuses in the movie’s credits. Award Winners: Big Tech Tie — Facebook and Twitter Reason: If it wasn’t for double-standards, Facebook and Twitter wouldn’t have any at all. In September, the Wall Street Journal revealed Facebook had two sets of rules for content — one for “celebrities,” and another for everyone else. In January, Twitter booted then-President Trump from their platform “due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” but were a-OK with CNN contributor Adeel Raja’s drumbeat of anti-Semitic tweets, including one stating, “The world today needs a Hitler.” It’s impossible to say which of the social media behemoths is more hypocritical, so we’re calling this a tie. Award Winner: Elites Who Flouted their Own COVID Rules Reason: As the world endured the second year of the COVID pandemic, a weary public watched with ire as it became clear draconian COVID mitigation measures only selectively applied to politicians, unelected bureaucrats, and entertainment industry stars. Whether it was mayors partying indoors at large gatherings, governors enjoying vacations in states with far less restrictive rules than their own, and celebrities strutting maskless across red carpets and whooping it up at awards ceremonies as masked servers waited at their beck-and-call — there was no shortage of double-standards among the COVID-scolds in 2021. Award Winner: Walmart Reason: Indoctrination isn’t just found on college campuses anymore. In September, Christopher Rufo broke news in City Journal that the largest employer in the United States had been conducting critical race theory (CRT) trainings for its employees — “recommended” for most; mandatory for executives. While giving the green light to controversial CRT trainings at Walmart, CEO Doug McMillon presided over an executive team at the retail giant that employed just a single person of color. Amid an ongoing New Tolerance Campaign call-to-action, the retail giant issued a statement stating they “don’t always agree with every comment made by every participant in a session or endorse every view on a PowerPoint slide produced by others.” Award Winner: CVS Health Reason: Outgoing CEO Larry Merlo ended his tenure at the healthcare giant in January — but not before requiring tens of thousands of his hourly wage employees to attend a lecture about their “privilege.” Privilege? The average salary for a CVS Health employee: $35,529; Merlo’s salary: $22 million. His successor, CEO Karen Lynch, has yet to respond to repeated media inquiries asking if CVS Health would conduct similar sessions under her watch. Award Winner: BlackRock Reason: Managing more than $10 trillion, investment firm BlackRock — a frequent target of leftist activists — announced earlier this year that it would prioritize its investments in “environmental sustainability” and “socially conscious” companies in the United States. At the same time, the Wall Street titan remains heavily invested in China, notorious for its industrial pollution and human rights abuses — a move that made even far-left megadonor George Soros blush. “Pouring billions of dollars into China now is a tragic mistake,” he wrote. “It is likely to lose money for BlackRock’s clients and, more important, will damage the national security interests of the U.S. and other democracies.” Award Winner: Emerson College Reason: If you call out human rights abuses in China, you’re racist — that’s the message Emerson College had for the school’s Turning Point USA chapter in October when the student group passed out stickers on campus stating, “China Kinda Sus,” a reference to the popular online game Among Us. The club was suspended and referred to the school’s Office of Community Standards and Student Conduct. “It is important to denounce all instances of anti-Asian bigotry and hate, and affirm our support and solidarity with the Asian and Asian-American community on campuses and around the world,” Emerson’s Interim President William Gilligan said in reference to the suspension. In December, Emerson promoted a professor who doubted whether black women and white women could be “true friends.” Award Winner: ACLU Reason: Given their roaring silence on freedom of speech issues throughout 2021, the ACLU could use a reminder that the “CL” in their acronym stands for “Civil Liberties.” In June news broke that the litigation colossus — founded on the constitutional principle of defending all speech, no matter how odious — was facing an identity crisis. “There are a lot of organizations fighting eloquently for racial justice and immigrant rights,” former ACLU head Ira Glasser said. “But there’s only one ACLU that is a

News anchor, author, and political commentator: Liz Wheeler has been using her media platform to speak out against hypocrisy and phony tolerance for years. Earlier this year, she graciously accepted an invitation from the New Tolerance Campaign to join our Advisory Board, lending her name to our efforts rallying the grassroots to push back against double-standards and institutions that fail to live up to their stated values. What does this savvy cultural analyst see on the horizon for our society? And what scoops can we expect from her wildly popular podcast The Liz Wheeler Show? Here are “5 Questions with Liz Wheeler”: There are lots of podcasts out there — what makes The Liz Wheeler Show stand out? It all comes back to the theme of the show — personal, researched, and unapologetic. The Liz Wheeler Show is about speaking truth in a logical way. Every episode, I try to walk viewers through my train of thought. I do the research and then walk listeners through how that research has informed my opinions. That way the show becomes a joint effort and when you as viewers then speak reality in your hometowns or in front of your school boards and city councils, you’re able to take that research and express a well-thought-out series of conclusions and speak the truth, even if it’s unpopular. You recently had Christopher Rufo as a guest on your podcast. In recent weeks, NTC partnered with Rufo on campaigns calling out critical race theory trainings at CVS Health and Walmart, and thousands of NTC supporters took action. Why do you think there’s been such a strong response? Critical race theory isn’t a Left-versus-Right or Democrat-versus-Republican issue. Critical race theory is a parents-versus-the Left issue. The Left is trying to indoctrinate adults, as you can see in corporate examples all over the country, but also our children as young as two and three years old. They are targeted by the Left telling them they’re racist or that they’re victims based solely on the color of their skin. Children don’t even know what that means at that age and the idea that kids are inherently racist or inherently victims based on their skin color is false and grotesque. It’s entirely inexcusable for any school to teach this poisonous ideology, and this brainwashing is occurring all across the country. The rejection of critical race theory is not a partisan issue; it is a bipartisan way of saying no to the Left and telling them that we won’t stand for the radical Marxist indoctrination of our youth. Parents of all political stripes understand this. You’ve also been outspoken about Big Tech censorship — and so has NTC. The ironic thing is that Twitter and Facebook would be nothing if they weren’t being used by millions of everyday people — the same people they deplatform, censor, and shadow-ban. What can turn the tide? I wish there was an easier answer to this, but it’s actually more of a long, three-fold plan. The first part is that we need to enforce existing antitrust laws, and we need to repeal Section 230 protections for these Big Tech platforms. But more than that, we have to find a way to compete with Big Tech, which is much harder than it sounds. Competing with Big Tech isn’t just about launching our own social networks, which we’ve seen done with the likes of Locals and Rumble and Parler, but it also means we need web hosting services and server farms and payment processing systems that aren’t tied to Apple or Google. Big Tech will use every ounce of its power to stop us from speaking truth in the face of their radical agenda, and we have to commit to going all the way around it if we are going to turn the tide. To date NTC campaigns have inspired over 39,000 supporters in all 50 states to take action holding accountable higher education, “woke” corporations, social media platforms, and activist nonprofits like the ACLU and SPLC. When it comes to institutions, which do you see as the most hypocritical and most guilty of creating more polarization in our society? Public schools. And I don’t just mean higher education colleges and universities, although they are guilty of being hypocritical and creating polarization. I mean all the way down to primary education K-12 schools. On a national level, we have allowed teachers unions to take hold of our education system and our society at large, but they couldn’t care less about actually educating children. These teacher unions are using their power and influence to push a radical leftist agenda into the minds of our children at any cost—even if it means masking children & incorporating blatantly Marxist ideas into the curriculum. What can subscribers expect to hear in the coming weeks on The Liz Wheeler Show? We just broke a huge story about the Navy violating policy to issue a blanket denial of religious exemptions for the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and that’s just a taste of what we do on every episode of the show. I aim to be a voice for the voiceless — I call out abuse of power and the individuals abusing power. I illuminate the stories no one else hears about because the mainstream media simply refuses to report them and Big Tech silences you if you talk about them. These stories are happening every day (look at what’s going on in Loudoun County, Virginia) and I want to empower and deputize people to stand up and do something about it. Instead of just bemoaning bad things that happen which makes people feel helpless, I’m giving them tangible, realistic action items we can all use to fight back against radical leftist policies. Follow Liz Wheeler on Twitter and visit lizwheelershow.com for more info.

Journalist Andy Ngo said it best: “After carrying out an armed insurrection resulting in a coup and regime change, Twitter lets the Taliban militants get their messaging out to the world.” It’s a breathtaking truth — especially considering former President Donald Trump remains banned from the social media platform, likely permanently, because of what Twitter calls, “the risk of further incitement of violence” following the events at the United States Capitol on January 6. And yet at the very moment you’re reading this, Twitter allows the brutal Taliban regime to use its platform to push out propaganda and recruit Islamic extremists to further their rule, subjugating women and conducting targeted killings of those who don’t fully embrace their harsh worldview. Sign the petition to join New Tolerance Campaign in calling on Twitter to apply their policy uniformly to all government handles regardless of nationality, or reinstate President Trump’s account. Facebook, for their part, has taken a clear stance against the brutal group: “The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under U.S. law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies,” a Facebook rep told CNBC. Does Twitter welcome recognized terrorist organizations to post on its platform, recruit members, and further their oppressive agenda? It sure seems like it. Twitter’s blatant inconsistency in the application of its own policies is highly problematic as it creates and exacerbates divides in society that make people less tolerant towards each other. Twitter must act consistently, especially when it comes to the intersection between speech and violence. Tell Twitter to stop playing footsie with Taliban terrorists and enforce their rules equally!

New Tolerance Campaign launched its first campaign in October 2019, and since then, over 35,000 of you have stepped up to take action. It’s clear that there is a desire and a need for a grassroots movement to take on the woke mob, and that’s why we are so proud to be taking NTC to the next level! With that in mind, NTC has brought on Gregory T. Angelo as our new President, and we can’t wait for you to get to know him! Gregory brings more than a decade of nonprofit management and strategic communications success to NTC, with a career spanning key senior leadership roles at grassroots advocacy organizations, Capitol Hill, and the White House. He is no stranger to combating intolerance. As the longtime President of Log Cabin Republicans, Gregory regularly engaged with elected officials, public figures, and the media to promote civil discourse between people of faith and the LGBT community. Gregory will also be joined by an incredible expanded roster of advisory board members: Former Congresswoman Nan Hayworth Political commentator Liz Wheeler Former White House official Brad Blakeman Media personality Tim Young YouTube star Arielle Scarcella Filmmaker Desh Amila You can read their bios and get to know them more here. Keep an eye out in the coming days for new campaigns and more information about how New Tolerance Campaign is gearing up to fight back even harder against cancel culture and biased tolerance. Thank you so much to all of you who helped us get this far!

On June 29, Andy Ngo announced that his podcast had been permanently banned from the audio hosting site SoundCloud for “being dedicated to violating our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines.” SoundCloud provided no specific examples or evidence of such violations and made it clear that there would be no appeal process. SoundCloud is a private company, so its actions against Ngo were likely legal, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t societal consequences. Ngo is just the latest example of a conservative voice being silenced for opaque reasons, and it’s a trend that every freedom-loving American should ardently oppose. Andy Ngo rose to prominence by reporting on Antifa, and he has repeatedly been physically attacked by protestors for his efforts. Ngo frequently stirs the ire of the Left, but he is not a fringe extremist or radical by any rational standard. His podcast “Things You Should Ngo” featured interviews with prominent public figures such as Ben Shapiro and Dave Rubin. If someone like him can be banned without warning, it begs the question: Is anyone safe? Big Tech is under a lot of pressure to ensure their platforms aren’t being used as vehicles for bullying and violence, but using vague policies to silence voices that irritate the cancel mobs is not the solution. In reality, these actions are just a different form of bullying. If SoundCloud and other platforms are going to continue to ban users, especially prominent voices like Ngo’s, they owe users clear rules and specific examples of violations. Otherwise, the cancel mobs win, and America loses. Update 6/30/21:

Classics buffs and anyone who remembers what they learned in high school had a good laugh on Twitter on May 21 when a Florida state representative tweeted this hot take: As Twitter users were all-too-happy to point out, Socrates WAS cancelled. In fact, he was put to death for spreading unpopular views. It’s a humorous reminder that “cancel culture” is nothing new. Societies have been punishing and silencing those with unpopular views for all recorded history. American free speech laws are a big step in the right direction, and we can celebrate that—unlike Socrates—Americans won’t be forced to drink hemlock if some politician thinks our views are corrupting the youth. However, free speech laws don’t protect us from retribution from society. Cancel culture is nothing new in American society either. During the 40s and 50s, rumors that someone might be a Soviet sympathizer could end their carrier, no matter how spotty the evidence. As recently as the 80s and 90s, coming out as gay or lesbian often resulted in devastating societal ostracization. So why all the talk about cancel culture now? There are perhaps two reasons for this: The first is social media. Up until very recently, unless you were a journalist or public figure, your reach was limited to your immediate network. Media outlets, politicians, and celebrities were really the only ones who could lead large-scale “cancelling.” Now, someone anywhere in the country can see that a literary agent has joined Parler and Gab, get others to join them in tweeting about it, and get her fired. Every day people can instantly become the subjects of national ire—like the “smirking” high school student or the baker who refuses to bake a cake for a gay wedding. False narratives or way overblown reactions can snowball quickly, ruining people’s lives who have no chance at defending themselves. The second reason is that the targets have shifted. Conservatives are making a lot of noise about cancel culture now because they perceive themselves, with justifiable cause, as the primary targets. That’s a fairly recent development, and as history shows, the targets will shift again. It’s time to break the cycle. Let’s engage with views we disagree with instead of blacklisting the view holders. Let’s speak up for those being unfairly attacked. And let’s make sure as a society that we’re playing by rules based on true equity and justice, not revenge and power struggles. The past is filled with examples of people who have been cancelled for holding unpopular views—but the future doesn’t have to be. Maybe with enough work, we can create a society where Socrates would finally be safe.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was once committed on principle to defending free speech for all Americans without exception. The ACLU even defended the right of a 1977 neo-Nazi protest in Skokie, Illinois on the grounds that free speech must be upheld even if hateful. The ACLU of today has betrayed that principled heritage, too often putting fashionable “woke” ideology ahead of their stated mission. One egregious example prompted an active NTC Campaign: A Smith College undergraduate claimed that she was harassed by security just for “eating while black” and posted to social media the names of several college workers supposedly responsible. The ACLU uncritically repeated her claims, helping propel a campaign that destroyed the careers of several working-class employees – who faced harassment, death threats, and local infamy that prevented them from finding new employment. Eventually, an investigation exonerated the workers (the student had been in a restricted area and staff had merely followed protocol). Yet the ACLU doubled down, claiming that the incident was nonetheless an example of racism – refusing to let the truth or innocent lives being ruined get in the way of a good narrative. Given the ACLU’s troubling downward spiral, it is noteworthy that the organization has taken a principled stand in a new Supreme Court case– taking the side of Americans for Prosperity, a right-leaning advocacy organization associated with the Koch brothers, against a California policy enacted by Kamala Harris. Here the ACLU has put mission over partisanship to defend AFP’s speech and privacy rights. Perhaps all is not lost, and mainstream America can recover its principles. It certainly won’t happen without grassroots pressure. It’s all the more important to hold corrupted institutions accountable to their own missions and founding values. If you haven’t already, join the campaign to tell the ACLU to make amends for what they did at Smith College, and check out the NTC campaigns page to find other opportunities to help get our society back on track!

Earlier this week, donation website GoFundMe suddenly deleted a campaign created by a group of parents trying to challenge the intense promotion of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in their local school system. The campaign had been started by a parent who learned that some parents, teachers and other school officials had launched a Facebook group to personally target parents of children in the public school system who raised concerns about CRT. GoFundMe did not give an explicit reason why they shut down the campaign – and technically they don’t have to. The company’s “terms of service” make it clear that it has “sole discretion” within a number of broad categories over what is acceptable on their platform. The New Tolerance Campaign exists to fight back against biased tolerance by calling out hypocrisy, not by trying to enforce a particular orthodoxy. So, situations like this beg the question: Is this behavior hypocritical or just obnoxious? GoFundMe bans “intolerance of any kind relating to race,” the interpretation of which is at their “sole discretion.”  Did the deleted campaign constitute intolerance? Many who subscribe to the CRT view may genuinely believe it did, while others would vehemently disagree. So, the platform isn’t necessarily violating its stated principles, and it’s difficult to come up with an opposite but equivalent campaign to use for comparison. NTC encourages platforms like GoFundMe to err on the side of free speech – or at least maintain clear and consistent standards. Given that the platform hosts many politically-charged fundraising campaigns, the company should be clear about what steps over the line and what does not. In any case, those who disagree with GoFundMe’s actions are free to do their fundraising elsewhere.

Last week the American Conservative Union (ACU) hosted their annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) under the theme “America Uncanceled” – a name that became somewhat ironic when CPAC canceled one of its speakers just before the conference started. The scandal was sparked by a Media Matters expose on a panelist named “Young Pharaoh” that revealed a slew of grossly anti-Semitic tweets. Within two hours, all traces of Young Pharaoh had disappeared from the event website. CPAC announced a speaker had been removed for “reprehensible views.” Young Pharaoh’s social media included claims that Judaism is a “lie” invented for political reasons, referred to Jewish people as “thieving”, and insisted “all the censorship & pedophilia on social media is being done by Israeli Jews.” After being disinvited, Young Pharaoh doubled down on his anti-Semitic comments and made a video claiming that the ACU reached out to him first and accused the organization of inviting him to have more minority faces in their program. If Young Pharaoh’s allegation is true, it would mark yet another example of how some civic groups overlook one type of bigotry while trying to address another – with anti-Semitism in particular given a pass in the cause of promoting other types of “diversity.” It is unclear how ACU missed the many red flags in Young Pharaoh’s tweets and videos, which often contain conspiratorial content. The larger issue raised by Young Pharaoh’s unceremonious exodus from CPAC is the seeming tension between opposing “cancel culture” and standing up to bigotry. “Cancel culture” is the extreme over-reaction by increasingly woke civic institutions and leaders that seize on a real or perceived grievance to destroy someone’s career. Refusing to give an optional platform to an unabashed anti-Semite, by contrast, is in no way an overreaction. Cancel culture is a problem, but so is overlooking blatant bigotry like Young Pharaoh’s. Opposing cancel culture and having standards are not mutually exclusive. Even those who believe themselves above “woke” traps can sometimes still fall into them.

In late January, Americans saw one of the most jarring cases of cancel culture yet when literary agent Colleen Oefelein was fired just for joining social media sites Parler and Gab. NTC launched a campaign to stand up for her, and over 3,000 of you have taken action. We caught up with her to get the full story of what happened, how she’s doing now, and what message she wants to share with you.  What Happened? Colleen’s Story  Colleen started working at the Jennifer de Chiara Literary Agency in February of 2018. “I always felt welcome,” she explained. “Sometimes the others would start to talk politics, but I always stayed quiet during those conversations.”  De Chiara encouraged her literary agents to use social media to find new authors, so when Colleen heard that a number of authors had joined Parler, she joined too. Colleen says she posted the same things to Parler that she posted on Twitter – primarily writing tips and animal memes. Her most controversial posts focused on the correct use of apostrophes.   When Parler shut down, she followed some authors to Gab, where she continued to stick with publishing-related content. Out of the blue, she received an email from De Chiara saying that she was fired just for joining those platforms.  “Perplexing” is the word Colleen used several times to describe her firing. She wasn’t engaging in controversial topics. She was just using social media to do her job.  How Is She Doing Now?  When asked how she’s doing now, Collen said “I have a really good support system. I’m mostly worried about my authors I represent and making sure I’m taking good care of them, making sure they don’t suffer any consequences they don’t deserve.” She has had other job offers and is optimistic about the future as she weighs her options.   Toxic YA Hate  Colleen is no stranger to cancel culture and weaponized tolerance. She explained that social media is full of what one of her writers calls “toxic YA hate,” referring to the swift and merciless condemnation writers of young adult fiction experience if they run afoul of the self-appointed inclusion gatekeepers.  Collen says that many of her authors are afraid to publicly express their faith or their political views. “They’re just dead scared that someone is going to find out and blacklist them, and their dreams of being a published author will just go ‘poof.’”  Colleen kept her social media posts limited to avoid this very trap, but it found her anyway.  Her Message to You  “A big thanks and a big debt of gratitude for all of the support. It really it is uplifting.”   She continued, “I hope that I can get the word out about the climate of the American publishing industry. And exposing some of these hypocritical things. Maybe somebody else won’t see their dreams evaporate because somebody gets offended for a stupid reason.”  Moving Forward  Colleen saw firsthand how people are terrified of standing up for their beliefs, whether that be supporting people in situations like hers or just sharing an opinion about current events. That needs to change. It’s time to be bold and find healthy ways to fight back to stop more stories like Colleen’s from happening.  If you haven’t already, please sign the petition!  And if you want to support Colleen in a more literary fashion, check out her paranormal romance novel Eerie.