Victor Davis Hanson: The Left’s Cancel Culture Frankenstein Turns on It After Charlie Kirk's Death

Sep 17, 2025

The discussion tackles the shifting tides of cancel culture, sparked by the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's death. Victor Davis Hanson highlights the Left's hypocrisy as they embrace free speech just after celebrating a loss. He contrasts the narratives around George Floyd's death, emphasizing a need for an evidence-based approach to societal issues. Hanson argues that the recent violence is being misused to stereotype demographics unfairly, all while calling for a traditional period of grace when discussing the deceased.

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INSIGHT

Cancel Culture's Recent Rise

Victor Davis Hanson says five years of cancel culture used deplatforming, doxing, and blacklisting to suppress speech.
He argues those practices aimed to remove people who voiced illiberal views from public platforms.

INSIGHT

Death Of A Commentator Changed The Dynamic

Hanson says Charlie Kirk's death flipped the dynamic, with critics now facing platform pushback.
He frames this as platforms removing commentators rather than outright censorship.

ANECDOTE

Joy Reid As A Precedent

Hanson cites Joy Reid as an example of a commentator who lost platform space after repetitive themes.
He notes Reid moved to podcasting after being let go from cable media.

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The Left’s preferred method of vengeance for the past few years has been cancel culture, in which it deplatforms, doxes, blacklists, and suppresses speech for being illiberal. But now, after justifying and even celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death, the Left is pretending to be free speech warriors.

Victor Davis Hanson breaks down why the Left can’t handle the backlash after Charlie Kirk’s assassination and why cancel culture is finally turning on its creators on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

“They have been canceled and they're very, very angry. And they feel that the Charles Kirk death, assassination has opened the gates of censorship. No, it hasn't. It's making a larger point, that when somebody dies, there's a period, traditionally, of grace. They're also very angry because the murder of Iryna Zarutska opened the gates, they feel, of collectivizing, stereotyping black crime in a way that's unfair.

“And they kind of say the Right wants a George Floyd moment. But remember one thing, it's very, very important about this dichotomy, this dialogue back and forth: When George Floyd died under police custody, he was used by the Left to advance a larger agenda, based on a premise. And we were told that George Floyd died violently while in police custody because this was a normal event in the United States, where police systematically killed suspect, unarmed black males. That was not true. That was not true.”

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(0:00) Introduction to Cancel Culture

(1:15) Elon Musk and Free Speech

(1:55) Media Reactions and Censorship

(2:50) Race and Media Personalities

(4:44) The George Floyd Comparison

(7:22) Final Thoughts

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