Or should it be more appropriately called the Republican Cancel Culture? After all, there are some principled conservatives left in this country who are rightly alarmed at some of the anti-free-speech rhetoric flowing out of the White House and DOJ these days. … Let’s see if they remain alarmed now that Jimmy Kimmel has been cancelled – a cancellation celebrated by President Trump. … But now the political right’s version of cancel culture, which is not to be confused with the political left’s long-established cancel culture, has come to the Massachusetts gubernatorial race, with two allegedly moderate Republicans calling for the firing of any government employee who appears to celebrate the death of Charlie Kirk, as the Herald reports in a story with a strangely off-subject headline. …

FYI: Historian Robert Conquest’s famous second law of power — “Any organization not explicitly and constitutionally right-wing will sooner or later become left-wing” – isn’t quite applicable here. But it’s damn close when it comes to much of the right’s pathetic embrace of cancel culture.

Update – From Caroline Mel and Jonathan Haidt at Chronicle of Higher Education: “The solution to violence isn’t less speech – it’s better dialogue.”

Update II — From U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton: “Donald Trump and the Republican Party are hellbent on silencing any speech that hurts their feelings. This isn’t just cancel culture, it’s state censorship. And it has no place in our democracy.” … Moulton comments via Universal Hub, whose post is headlined: “Living in a country run by that little kid from the Twilight Zone.” … And UH has the old Twilight Zone video. … Bad man. … Bad man. …

Update III — The Globe’s Carine Hajjar, a conservative,  is admirably criticizing Pam Bondi as well.