A reader writes:

For the past few weeks, we’ve all been watching a crazy year get even crazier than most of us expected, and I think what we’re witnessing right now is the start of something that isn’t going to go away anytime soon. 

You’re absolutely right when you say that nowhere will be safe from the new soft totalitarianism. I tend to stick to my own fringe corner of the web for everything political, but I also frequent more mainstream sites for content related to my hobbies. Over the past few weeks, every single one of these sites has gone out of their way to proclaim their support of BLM and commitment to “anti-racism”. It seems that no one wants to face scrutiny for remaining silent, even when their usual content is far from political.

I think these commitments are more than just standard corporate lip service – they constitute the embrace of a quasi-religious ideology on all levels of society, and some people are starting to feel the consequences of their dissent: 

https://www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2020/06/wizards-ends-their-relationship-with-terese-nielsen/

Magic the Gathering (a trading card game that can be played in paper or online) has been one of my hobbies for a long time, and Terese Nielsen has produced some of the game’s most popular and most iconic art for nearly 25 years now. There will hardly be a fan of the game who doesn’t recognize her name and cherish her artistic contributions, yet today it was revealed that Wizards of the Coast (the company behind the game) will no longer work with her or even reprint her older artwork. 

Why?

Because woke Twitter-inquisitors decided that she needed to go. 

People went through her likes and the users she follows on social media and decided that what they found was reason enough for her to be cancelled. Among the list of her “crimes” are following alt-lite personalities Jack Posobiec, Mike Cernovich and Alex Jones (as well as being a “trans-exclusionary”, for which I have yet to see any evidence, especially given that she is a lesbian who was ostracized by her family as well as her statements to the contrary). 

She never insulted or harassed anyone nor engaged in heated political arguments, yet when the mob complained to her employer, they gave in. If a working relationship of 25 years and being one of the most well known artists of a popular game weren’t enough to protect her from being cancelled, this can happen to any of us. Especially those with public-facing jobs could soon find themselves in a position where they depend on the good graces of radical ideologues to be able to work.

This will get a lot worse before it gets better. 

According to Terese Nielsen’s website, she has lots of other projects going on. But for how long? The fantasy genre is not my thing, so I had never heard of her. Go to her website and see her work — she’s incredibly talented! But none of that matters now, not to the Inquisition.