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Cancel Culture

Past Campaigns, Top Campaigns

Sponsors Must Cut Ties with Radical LGBTQ Group Led by Lying Activist

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Julie Mauck asked her local library in Athens, Georgia to move a sexually explicit book from the children’s section to the adult section. Now she’s fighting for her career. The Moms for Liberty member and real estate agent had barely made her case when a group of radical LGBTQ activists accused her of “discrimination,” Google-bombed her business with fake negative reviews, and told Mauck’s real estate broker that she referred “to LGBTQ+ individuals as pedophiles” or called “the entire LGBTQ community pedophiles.” Mauck did no such thing, and was officially cleared of the baseless accusations of discrimination by the Georgia Association of REALTORS®. Sadly, the damage had already been done. One of the people leading the defamatory mob was transgender activist and Athens Pride & Queer Collective president Danielle Carmella Bonanno. Bonanno is being held accountable in court by our allies at the Coalition for Liberty, which is funding Julie’s lawsuit against those who knowingly lied about her and filed a false ethics complaint with the Georgia Association of REALTORS®. But Athens Pride & Queer Collective continues to rake in financial support from businesses likely unaware that the organization they’re supporting is led by an unhinged activist determined to destroy a concerned parent’s life. Tell the businesses supporting Athens Pride & Queer Collective to condemn Bonanno and end their misplaced support for this extremist organization!

Past Campaigns

Stand Up for Religious Freedom & NFL Star Harrison Butker

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NFL star Harrison Butker is in hot water — all because he delivered a commencement speech to a Catholic school in line with Catholic teachings. On May 11, the Kansas City Chiefs kicker addressed the graduating class at Benedictine College. His remarks criticized pro-abortion activists, called out what he felt was the shallow theology of some in Church leadership, and ribbed LGBTQ activists who celebrate the “deadly sin sort of Pride that has an entire month dedicated to it.” In other words, he underscored his commitment to Catholic doctrine and encouraged the religious school’s graduates to do the same. Now, the Super Bowl champion is being pilloried from all sides. The NFL was quick to distance itself from his words. Nonprofit organization Faith in America racked up over 10,000 signatures on a petition demanding he apologize. And more than 200,000 people added their names to a Change.org petition demanding Butker lose his job. Harrison Butker had every right to express his religious convictions in his private capacity to an audience in agreement with his values. The NFL cannot bend to pressure from activists to boot him from the league. Add your name to our petition: Tell the NFL and Kansas City Chiefs not to cave to the cancel-culture mob — Harrison Butker has nothing to apologize for!

Press Releases

New Tolerance Campaign Announces 2023 “Worst of the Woke” Awards

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Amazon, Bud Light, the Academy Awards, and More Among Top 10 Worst Woke Offenders of 2023 Nonprofit watchdog the New Tolerance Campaign (NTC) has released its third annual “Worst of the Woke” list — a look back at the year’s most outrageous and disappointing examples of woke culture gone wild. NTC’s 2023 roundup features the top 10 institutions that tried to foist woke politics onto the weary public, with leaders across diverse industries — from retail to entertainment to finance — landing on the list. This year’s theme? Backlash from fed-up consumers. Consider, for example, the massive boycott that led the CEO of Target to admit that the retailer’s woke virtue signaling caused its first quarterly sales drop in six years. Or the fans that catapulted Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” to the top of the charts after Country Music Television pulled it off the air. “In 2023, mainstream institutions leveraged everything from books to beer to promote their woke agendas,” said NTC president Gregory T. Angelo. “However, this year saw a tidal wave of consumers using their wallets and voices to push back against the woke mob, with staggering results. Americans looking for a New Year’s resolution should pledge to keep fighting back against the woke invasion of our country.” Check out NTC’s top 10 worst woke offenders — and one “Champion of Tolerance” — below:   Award Winner: Bud Light / Anheuser-Busch  Reason: For decades, Bud Light had bragging rights as America’s best-selling beer — until April, when an ill-advised marketing campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney went viral for all the wrong reasons. Bud Light’s core customer base felt abandoned, and in turn they abandoned the brand. A sustained boycott led to sales falling a whopping 17%. Then, after Anheuser-Busch executives expressed remorse for the promotion, the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ lobbying organization, stripped the company of its 100% rating as a “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality.” Anheuser-Busch’s attempt at virtue signaling made them everyone’s enemy. Will the brand ever recover?   Award Winner: Target  Reason: Retail giant Target hasn’t been shy about marketing to LGBTQ consumers during “Pride Month” in June, but this year, after word spread that the brand was pushing “pride-themed” clothing for babies and kids, shoppers drew the line. In May, CEO Brian Cornell made the audacious assertion that pushing divisive social issues at the company is “the right thing for society”; by August he was explaining to upset investors that the company’s dalliance with social issues led to a “negative reaction” from consumers. Target experienced its first quarterly drop in sales in six years.   Award Winner: Bank of America Reason: Financial giant Bank of America went “full woke” in 2023, instituting race-based home financing requirements and denying loans to gun manufacturers and the fossil fuel industry. If that wasn’t enough, the company implemented a work reeducation program that insists America is a “racialized society” and encourages employes to be “woke at work.”   Award Winner: The Academy Awards Reason: The Academy Awards implemented onerous “inclusion” standards for filmmakers and movie studios to abide by if they wish to be eligible for “Best Picture” honors. The list is quite something to behold. Quotas that demand that “at least one of the lead actors must be from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group.” In addition, “30% of actors in secondary roles be from underrepresented groups such as LGBT+ and people with cognitive or physical disabilities,” and the plot must “center around an underrepresented group.” It’s estimated that of the 95 Best Pictures in the history of the Oscars, over half would not qualify under these new thresholds. Gone with the Wind, Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Singin’ in the Rain, The Sound of Music, The Godfather, Star Wars, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, and Schindler’s List all would have been ineligible for top honors. Even recent critically acclaimed movies such as 1917 and The Irishman wouldn’t make the cut.   Award Winner: Country Music Television Reason: Crime has run rampant in America’s cities. Enter country singer Jason Aldean, who wrote “Try That in a Small Town” to contrast the values gap between metropolitan and rural America. After race scolds slammed the song for being a “pro-lynching” anthem, Country Music Television folded fast and yanked the music video off the air. Despite the ban, “Try That in a Small Town” went on to become a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.   Award Winner: Southern Poverty Law Center  Reason: The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), long known for frivolously flagging groups as “extremists,” was suddenly silent when Hamas terrorists slaughtered more than 1,200 Jewish civilians on October 7 in the worst mass-killing of Jews since the Holocaust. The group shrugged off critics, claiming that it was “outside of our purview and expertise to comment on international events” — despite loudly issuing statements on international events in the past. When CEO Margaret Huang finally spoke up nearly a month later, the schizophrenic statement barely touched on the attack, striking an “All Lives Matter” tone. Remember when we were told saying that was offensive?   Award Winner: Puffin Books  Reason: Wokeness rewrites history to fit political ends. That was literally the case this year, when Puffin Books announced it rewrote “controversial” elements of long-established Roald Dahl children’s classics such as Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, and Matilda. An “enormously fat” boy became simply “enormous,” “Cloud-Men” were now “Cloud-People.” In some cases, entire paragraphs were inserted into books that Dahl had never written. After a public outcry and harsh critiques from literary leaders, the company announced it would continue to publish the original texts.   Award Winner: Amazon  Reason: The internet shopping giant proved that “Big Brother” is closer than you may think. After an Amazon employee claimed to hear a racist remark while making a delivery, the company shut down the owner’s smart home. The kicker? The homeowner is black, wasn’t home, and has video showing the delivery driver wearing headphones at the time of the incident. Even after showing proof of his innocence to Amazon, it

Past Campaigns

Cancel Culture Comes for a Cancer Patient — Demand Answers Here

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We know cancel culture can cost people their jobs. Now, it can cost you your life. Just ask Marlene, a cancer patient receiving treatment at a facility run by Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). After expressing statements critical of radical gender ideology, she received correspondence from OHSU stating they would no longer treat her — and not just for cancer. The letter banned Marlene “from all OHSU Family Medicine clinics, including Immediate Care.” The Hippocratic Oath demands doctors “practice two things in dealings with disease: either help or do not harm the patient.” OHSU is upholding neither. Stand up for Marlene and against medical tyranny! Send a message to Oregon Health & Science University Chairman Wayne Monfries and the OHSU Board of Directors demanding answers as to why OHSU values social issues over health!

Past Campaigns, Top Campaigns

Urge Columbia University’s New President to Hit the Reset Button on Support for Free Speech

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University presidents wield substantial power to promote — or limit — free expression on college campuses. The president of Columbia University in New York City is no exception: From the moment she took office at the ivy league school on July 1, she inherited the challenge of protecting student and faculty free speech at an institution which maintains restrictive speech codes and ranks last in the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s (FIRE) “2022-23 College Free Speech Rankings.” As an adopter of the Chicago Statement, the gold standard for an institutional commitment to free expression, Columbia is obligated to defend and uphold speech rights for its students and faculty. One way to put its promise to protect free expression into practice is to reform restrictive policies in ways that satisfy various campus imperatives while also respecting free speech promises and principles. To ensure that Columbia not only promises to protect free speech but actively defends it, the New Tolerance Campaign is partnering with FIRE to empower students, alumni, and concerned citizens to urge Columbia University’s new president to improve the school’s speech policies. Ask Columbia’s new president, Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, to fulfill Columbia’s duty to protect free expression. 

Blog

Academy Insanity: Christian Toto & the New Oscars Diversity Requirements

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Spurred on by the “#OscarsSoWhite” progressive Twitter pile-on of 2015 and catalyzed during the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020, the Academy Awards has implemented revised Oscar eligibility criteria to include mandated diversity requirements — and the list is quite something to behold. On-screen “at least one of the lead actors must be from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group,” the new rules state. “30% of actors in secondary roles be from underrepresented groups such as LGBT+ and people with cognitive or physical disabilities,” and the plot must “center around an underrepresented group.” Off-screen “the leading producers must have at least two members from an underrepresented group on their staff,” and “six members of the crew/technical team must be from those same underrepresented groups,” and “senior executives on the film must also meet certain thresholds for those underrepresented groups.” The rules even extend to interns! Productions must have “at least two interns from underrepresented groups, and those opportunities must be prioritized” over those in properly represented groups.” How will all of this be enforced? With a literal checklist. Movies will need to submit an “Academy Inclusion Standards form” for major award consideration. And that’s not all: the Diversity Police will also be on the case — the Academy will conduct spot checks and interviews to ensure producers aren’t fudging the numbers on their forms. It’s estimated that of the 95 Best Pictures in the history of the Oscars, over half would not qualify under these new diversity thresholds. Gone with the Wind, Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Singin’ in the Rain, The Sound of Music, The Godfather, Star Wars, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, and Schindler’s List all would have been ineligible for top honors. Even recent critically acclaimed movies such as 1917 and The Irishman wouldn’t make the cut. “Anything that interrupts the creative process is a potential problem,” film critic and founder of Hollywood in Toto Christian Toto (pictured) told the New Tolerance Campaign. “Some stories may be perfect for an Oscar-worthy presentation, but they may not be told because they don’t align with the approved narratives. We may see an artificial uptick in diversity numbers, but does that include other groups marginalized by Hollywood — conservatives and Christians? Why don’t they get special protection given how they’re ignored or maligned within show business?” Conservatives aren’t the only ones skeptical of the Academy’s new mandates. Richard Dreyfuss, known for his roles in Jaws and American Graffiti, (two movies that also wouldn’t make the cut today) said the new standards “make him want to vomit.” Others haven’t been as outspoken. “Actors are very afraid to speak out against the new diversity rules,” Toto said. “The New York Post’s story on the subject had several industry critics but no one shared their name. Fear is very powerful in Hollywood, and if you’re suspected of being critical of aggressive diversity measures there will be consequences.” All of it makes one wonder: If only some movies receive Oscar consideration, can any objectively be called “Best Picture”?

Past Campaigns

Tell Chase Bank to Stop Attacking Free Speech & Religious Liberty

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Chase Bank has some big problems. The massive financial institution refused to even meet with some of its largest investors to discuss the Viewpoint Diversity Business Index, the first comprehensive measure of corporate respect for free speech and religious liberty. But that’s not all: Chase appears to be actively discriminating against groups that don’t agree with the banking giant’s cultural agenda. Chase closed the account of the National Committee for Religious Freedom less than a month after it was opened. The nonprofit, chaired by former U.S. Senator and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, was informed that the organization had to reveal its donor list in order for the account to be restored. Make no mistake: If Chase can do this to a former governor and United States Senator, they can do it to you, too. NTC is proud to partner with the National Center for Public Policy Research to push back against these outrageous actions. Demand answers from CEO Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase senior leadership!       [Photo credit: Rebecca Barray, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, via Flickr (cropped)]

Past Campaigns

Shut Down by Amazon Following False Accusations of Racism — Demand Answers

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Brandon Jackson came home on May 25 to discover he had been locked out of his Amazon Echo, which controlled many of his electronics — including his lights. Why? A delivery driver claimed he heard racist slurs through the doorbell. Jackson is black, wasn’t home, and has video showing the delivery driver wearing headphones at the time of the incident. Even after showing proof of his innocence to Amazon, it took the company over a week to unlock his devices. This should never have happened in the first place. Taking protective action to guarantee the safety of employees is reasonable; shutting someone out of their own property is not. Demand answers from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and a promise this will never happen again!

Blog

Speech Police Partner with Puffin Books to Censor Classic Children’s Stories

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On February 18, Puffin Books announced it would be revising and issuing new versions of classic children’s stories by Roald Dahl such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and James and the Giant Peach. Dahl has been dead since 1990. The decision was the result of a partnership between the Roald Dahl Story Company (which controls the rights to Dahl’s books) and an organization called “Inclusive Minds,” a company that pairs so-called “Inclusion Ambassadors” with authors to “help identify language and portrayals that could be inauthentic or problematic.” Inclusive Minds claims not to “edit or rewrite texts,” but their actions say otherwise. The changes to the books include modifying the description of Augustus Gloop, the gluttonous child in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, from “enormously fat” to “enormous”; the famed Oompa Loompas are now gender-neutral “small people” instead of “small men”; the tractors described in The Fabulous Mr. Fox are no longer “black, murderous, brutal-looking monsters” but now “murderous brutal-looking monsters.” In the novel Witches, a woman masquerading as a “cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessman” is now a “top scientist or running a business.” In James and the Giant Peach, Aunt Sponge, who was once “terrifyingly fat / And tremendously flabby at that” is now merely “a nasty old brute.” Public outcry in response to the news was loud and swift, from everyday American to British royalty. Queen Consort Camilla Parker Bowles said, “Please remain true to your calling, unimpeded by those who may wish to curb the freedom of your expression or impose limits on your imagination.” Comedian Ricky Gervais pondered “whether they’ll change any of the words I’ve used in my work after I’m dead, to spare those who are fragile and easily offended.” Salman Rushdie, an author who was stabbed at an August 2022 book event, said of the censorship, “Roald Dahl was a bigot and he never supported me, but really?” On February 24, Puffin Books backtracked, announcing they would print two versions of Dahl’s books: new, revised, and censored versions and unchanged “classic” editions. …unless you have the e-book versions of the Dahl tomes. On March 14, news broke that Puffin Books would be forcing e-book readers to accept and download the updated editions altered by their “inclusive” sensitivity editors. The Foundation for Individual Rights (FIRE), which has collaborated with the New Tolerance Campaign in the past, rightly stated: “Let’s leave Dahl’s words the way he intended them to be read. Let the work speak for itself, so we can all speak freely about the work.” We agree.

Past Campaigns

Limited Run Games Must Apologize for Caving to Agitator Demands

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One complaint — by one transgender activist — about one tweet — from six years ago — was all it took for a videogame company to terminate an employee. This week media was ablaze with news that boutique gaming publisher Limited Run Games (LRG) fired their community manager Kara Lynne (pictured above) for not “supporting an inclusive culture.” Lynne’s violations? She expressed excitement for the upcoming Harry Potter game; she followed three conservative influencers on Twitter; and, in 2016 — before even working for LRG — she wrote a tweet concerned about sex offenders using pro-transgender laws to commit crimes. All of this was too much for transgender agitator Purple Tinker, who tweeted at Lynne’s employer LRG calling Lynne “a transphobe who follows a veritable who’s who of right-wing transphobic creeps. Unless and until she is fired from the company permanently, I am not giving them another single dime.” LRG gave in, ending Lynne’s employment — but even that wasn’t enough for Tinker, who went on to demand a refund for “over $1200 in pending orders.” Kara Lynne did nothing wrong! Lynne has moved on and is currently seeking other opportunities…but questions remain for LRG. Tell Limited Run Games co-owners Douglas Bogart and Josh Fairhurst to apologize for caving to cancel culture!

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