DAVID MARCUS: Don't blame conservatives. It was the left that canceled Hasan Piker
The American left just got a taste of its own politically correct cancellation medicine as controversial podcaster and recent Democratic Party kingmaker, Hasan Piker, had his speaking engagement at the University of Washington taken off the calendar for reasons that can only be related to his, shall we say, unorthodox rhetoric.
While not explicitly attacking Hasan The Hun, as he calls himself, the school said in a statement: "Going forward, procedures will be updated to ensure the standards we have for university-hosted events like the Speaker Series are met, particularly so that we can help elevate the level of dialogue on divisive topics during a polarized time in our country."
In plain English, what they are saying is, "We have no idea if this lunatic who dresses up like Chairman Mao is going to repeat his claims that America deserved 9/11, or that Israelis are parasites, or that Stalin is misunderstood, and we don’t want to be responsible for it."
Fair enough. Even though the vast majority of conservatives and right-leaning organizations, including Turning Point USA, which knows a thing or two about having college speakers canceled, have supported Piker’s right to speak, the school is, at least, consistent in its censorship.
However, the same cannot be said for the Democratic politicians and liberal media, who have been whitewashing Piker as an important young voice who deserves to be heard and now are silent themselves when he is the victim of silencing and cancellation.
Piker said as much this week after the cancellation, complaining that, "If this had happened to Charlie Kirk or if this had happened to Ben Shapiro, this would be the number one news story on [Conservative media] for a month. Will liberal outlets cover it with the same intensity?"
No, Hasan, they will not, because they are glad it is happening. They are tired of having to twist themselves in knots to defend your offensive blatherings just because DSA candidates can use you to gin up votes in low-turnout primaries.
Even his closest pals are realizing that Piker is general-election poison, as Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who hosted Piker at his victory party, has been oddly quiet about the cancellation.
It all makes you wonder why Piker is too toxic for the University of Washington, yet a valued and treasured voice at so many Democratic campaign events.
The left-wing politicians and pundits have spent weeks insisting Piker is a vital voice, especially for the young. But they won’t defend him when he’s silenced here, because they’re actually happy to have academia push him to the side so they don’t have to.
Meanwhile, today it is conservatives calling out the censorship of Piker for two primary reasons. First, the right always defends free speech, no matter the side, and second, they want Piker to have as big a megaphone as possible. They want to run against him in every corner and crevice of great America.
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This Piker situation puts El-Sayed, along with Troy Jackson and James Talarico, progressives running for Senate in Maine and Texas, respectively, in a very tough spot. It is reasonable to ask if we will ever see Piker on their campaign trails.
To be sure, Piker is not without some leverage here. If he is being sidelined by the Democratic Party powers that be, he can appeal directly to his vaunted millions of young radicals to stand up against the party. But that is unlikely to happen.
Far more likely is that Piker knows and understands that his value is almost entirely in primaries. General elections are a time for the communist bear to hibernate, not to hunt.
No, Hasan Piker is not going to go rogue. He will play ball until his bomb-throwing rhetoric is needed again.
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For Republicans, especially in the Michigan race between El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers, there is still plenty of Piker fodder to use, even if he currently is slowly backing into the bushes like the Homer Simpson meme.
But, if Piker does want to buck the liberals and refuse to be silenced, I am sure there are plenty of conservative groups or events who will be happy to let him speak. Put another way, they're willing to give him the rope he needs to expose his offensive communist ideology as the rotten nonsense at the core of the New Democrats that it truly is.