NBC's Late Night host Seth Meyers proved on his Thursday show that he has no idea what cancel culture actually is as he accused Republicans of engaging in it as they pass various education laws and kick Rep. Ilhan Omar off the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Starting with education policy, Meyers claimed that, “Trump and DeSantis, they're just competing to see who can win the right-wing culture wars. That's why DeSantis has built his entire agenda around culture war nonsense. In fact, this week a viral video found at least one school library in Florida that was basically empty because of DeSantis's dumb rules against supposedly woke subject matter in schools.”
After playing a clip from a local news report, Meyers returned, “And I do hope -- I do hope every pundit who claim the left is responsible for cancel culture is losing their minds at all the books coming off school shelves. Because this isn't theoretical, it's real. Teachers, librarians, school districts, they say they have no idea what's allowed and what's not under DeSantis' censorship laws.”
Did Meyers watch his own video? In the video, the reporter says the shelves are empty because the books were taken by “taken by a substitute teacher.” The books will return and when they do, people like this substitute teacher and Meyers will not come back and say they overreacted.
After playing clips of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene talking about Critical Race Theory, Meyers transitioned to a new topic, “So that's who the GOP thinks should be able to serve on committees. Meanwhile, today they voted to kick Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a refugee and one of the only two Muslim women in the House, off the Foreign Affairs Committee for the simple reason that they don't like her or her point of view.”
They also voted to kick two white guys off the Intelligence Committee, but the narrative must survive. To try to make his point, Meyers added, “And by the way, that's not just me saying that. Even Matt Gaetz, one of the Trumpiest members of GOP, a guy who tried to overturn the 2020 election and lied about the January 6th insurrection admitted as much this week.”
After playing a clip of Gaetz, Meyers continued, “You know how [bleep]ed up something has to be for me to agree with Matt Gaetz? The only other thing we see eye to eye on are the benefits of large foreheads.”
There was also the fact that Democrats created this precedent and that such a norm-shattering move needs to have consequences.
Wrapping up his diatribe, Meyers claimed, “Republicans are censoring books in schools, removing people from committees whose opinions they don't like, and yet they're the ones whining about cancel culture. The right is fully in favor of censorship when it suits them. There's only one day a year when Republicans can say they're defenders of free speech, and that's –”
The sentence was concluded with a video of Trump saying “April Fool’s Day,” but a state having curriculum standards is not cancel culture, especially when those standards are subject to partisan hysteria. As for Omar, simply applying the same standard to Omar that Democrats applied to Greene is not “cancel culture.”
This segment was sponsored by Expedia.
Here is a transcript for the February 3 show:
NBC Late Night with Seth Meyers
2/3/2022
12:48 AM ET
SETH MEYERS: Trump and DeSantis, they're just competing to see who can win the right-wing culture wars. That's why DeSantis has built his entire agenda around culture war nonsense. In fact, this week a viral video found at least one school library in Florida that was basically empty because of DeSantis's dumb rules against supposedly woke subject matter in schools
FEMALE REPORTER: It's a video that's been viewed more than 5 million times. Empty library shelves at Mandarin Middle School, taken by a substitute teacher who says he's at a loss for words as the school reviews the content of its books following guidelines from the state. Schools are now required to review their libraries and teachers' classroom book collections to make sure that they don't violate certain subject matter outlined by the state of Florida.
MEYERS: I've never heard of a library that was simply out of books. That sounds like an excuse your kids would use if you sent them to the library to do their homework, and they skipped it to smoke weed at a strip mall and when you confronted them, they'd probably just stand like Ron DeSantis "Kevin, where are all your books? "Oh, they were, uh, out." "The library, the library was all out of books? "Yeah." "Okay. I'm going to take off.”
And I do hope -- I do hope every pundit who claim the left is responsible for cancel culture is losing their minds at all the books coming off school shelves. Because this isn't theoretical, it's real. Teachers, librarians, school districts, they say they have no idea what's allowed and what's not under DeSantis' censorship laws.
…
MEYERS: So that's who the GOP thinks should be able to serve on committees.
Meanwhile, today they voted to kick Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a refugee and one of the only two Muslim women in the House, off the Foreign Affairs Committee for the simple reason that they don't like her or her point of view.
And by the way, that's not just me saying that. Even Matt Gaetz, one of the Trumpiest members of GOP, a guy who tried to overturn the 2020 election and lied about the January 6th insurrection admitted as much this week.
MATT GAETZ: The reason I think a lot of Republicans want to kick Ilhan Omar offer the Foreign Affairs Committees is because they don't like what she has to say.
MEYERS: You know how [bleep]ed up something has to be for me to agree with Matt Gaetz? The only other thing we see eye to eye on are the benefits of large foreheads. We see eye to eye, forehead to forehead.
Even after admitting what was really going on here, Gaetz still voted with his fellow Republicans today to remove Omar, he didn't even have the courage to vote no on the resolution even though he apparently had the courage to wear this suit. I mean look at that. It looks like a bad guy from a futuristic video game called Disco Crime 3,000.
Republicans are censoring books in schools, removing people from committees whose opinions they don't like, and yet they're the ones whining about cancel culture. The right is fully in favor of censorship when it suits them. There's only one day a year when Republicans can say they're defenders of free speech, and that's –
DONALD TRUMP: April Fool’s Day.
