Woody Allen & The Righteous Stupidity Of Cancelling His Memoir

“Cancel culture isn’t real.” …Until someone’s work gets cancelled.

This just in, Hachette Book Group, one of the “Big Five” houses in trade book publishing, recently announced that it had no spine and was caving in to the demands of a woke mob by cancelling the publication of Woody Allen’s memoir, Apropos of Nothing. More news and anger at 11.

Around 75 employees of the publisher walked out of the offices to protest the publication of the book, and if there’s any justice in the world, hopefully Hachette’s PTO policy doesn’t cover bellyaching during business hours.

The protesters claimed “solidarity with Ronan Farrow, Dylan Farrow and survivors of sexual assault”. Allen has been accused of sexually assaulting his daughter Dylan in 1992, but was found not guilty after two investigations. However, in the Woke Reich, simply being accused is enough to block your path to redemption.

In the Slate article, “Everybody at the Company Felt Betrayed”, an anonymous associate publicist at Little, Brown (a division of Hachette Book Group’s Grand Central Publishing) told the rag that the CEO had scheduled a town hall meeting to discuss the company’s decision to publish the book.

But instead of attending and debating the matter with the CEO like rational adults, the protestors decided to throw reason to the wind, and walk out and bitch instead. They’re just like Blacks marching in Selma in 1965, but with cushy jobs and plenty of unearned conviction to pass around like doobies.

“The general sentiment is that he has been very defensive, and the town hall did not seem to come from an honest place. More a ‘due diligence’. He obviously knows how everyone feels already.”

This is the pure virtuosity of stupidity of Woke Folk at work: “We’re not going to debate you, we’re just going to scream until we get what we want.”

As one would expect in these types of controversies, identity always gets dragged into the mix, as well as the utterance of one my favorite progressive buzzwords to shit on at every available opportunity: “problematic”.

Here’s what that anonymous employee also had to say about the protest:

“Normally in publishing, we’d be told to defend the company, but my entire publicity team is women, and our director supported us in walking out. Especially in publishing, which is historically older white men and problematic, it’s nice to know there’s a team like this.”

When logic and thoughtful arguments fail to win an ideological debate, then invoking race and gender outta do it.

Street legal bigotry is the Woke Way.

Today’s overuse of the word “problematic” is more sinister than you might think:

The blistering selfishness that undergirds wokeness has many far-reaching and future-destroying consequences that its adherents have yet to consider. You see, thinking ahead actually requires thinking, something that mobs aren’t very good at, and something that woke mobs definitely will never develop the capacity for.

As I see it, Hachette’s flagrant display of gutlessness in cancelling the publication of Woody Allen’s memoir will leave lasting bruises on the publishing industry, authors, and readers.

The publishing industry, because it signals to other publishers that giving in to the emotional appeals of a small, sensitive horde is good for business. Hachette had an opportunity to prove to the literary world their commitment to freedom of expression and to plant their flag firmly on the side of Ideas. Instead, they proved to their contemporaries that wimpiness should be the new standard practice.

The authors, because the message to them is that if you have a “problematic” past, you’re liable for cancellation today. How many writers are currently being discouraged from sharing their work because of this anti-author ethos? How many potentially great works won’t even hit the printers because their creators may’ve been accused of something troubling years ago?

The readers, because it robs them of the chance to engage with an author whose work they admire, even if they’ve engaged in questionable behaviors. Let us decide if a book is worth our time; I don’t want a faceless mob to dictate what I’m allowed to read. Ronan Farrow, the estranged son of Allen, published a book last year, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, which covers abuse allegations against Allen. If Allen’s book had been published, so recently after his son’s, it could’ve made for a fascinating Contest of Thought, a rare treat for readers interested in hearing both sides of a controversial story.

But no.

Hachette’s cowardice, combined with the protesters’ hyper-sensitivity, has dealt a massive blow to a literary world that’s already weak from plenty of needless self-induced impacts.

Can we stop the beatings, please?

In case it wasn’t already vodka-clear, I’m not defending Woody Allen here — I’m condemning the publisher.

I have no idea whether Allen is guilty or not; I don’t know enough about either side to have an opinion, and it’s not my place to shout my half-formed views from the rooftops.

And yes, Hachette, just like any publisher, has the right to refuse the publication of any author for any reason.

My problem is that, for months, they had no qualms about publishing Allen’s memoir, but one bad week with some self-righteous protesters was all it took for them to buckle under the weight of a gaggle of grievances.

This is the latest in a terrifying trend that’s become popular in the Woke Reich: if a talent becomes “problematic” and attracts the ire of people who can’t handle mild intellectual discomfort, then cancel the talent and show the Fragile Few that the world will bend to their draconian tears if they gripe loud and hard enough.

I recently wrote about how the rough conditions that writers today face is eerily reminiscent of Nazis’ burning of books they felt were offensive to true German ideas. The tactics are different, but the spirit remains the same: “We don’t like who wrote this book, and it’s up to us to make sure the author’s ideas can’t be spread.”

Real tolerance asks a lot from its users; it’s not meant to be utilized only when it’s comfortable or convenient. The terrible irony is that Woke Folk preach tolerance while demanding the rest of the world to “tolerate” the hateful tenets of their warped Weltanschauung. It’s never entered their thinking that tolerance is a door that needs to swing both ways to function properly.

If you truly believe that those who have dubious pasts should be cancelled, think about all of the tolerance you’ll be grateful for when the mob points its Finger of Social Justice at you.