NEW ORLEANS — Within days after the insurrection in Washington D.C., multiple companies decided to stop political contributions to both parties, but and much attention was paid to the cutting of ties to Trump-branded businesses.
The backlash to the deadly chaos and those believed to have caused it, came swiftly. Eric Trump, one of the President’s son, recently called it a “cancel culture” against conservatives.
“I don’t know if it’s against conservatism. I think it’s a push against radicalism,” said University of New Orleans Political Scientist Ed Chervenak.
Chervenak says Twitter’s and Facebook’s ban on the President and extremists, are attempts to reduce the potential for violence.
“Most of the anger is on the right. Social media is saying look, you got to lower the temperature here, they don’t necessarily want to shut down the marketplace of ideas,” said Chervenak.
Locally, the calls to boycott Rouses triggered a lot of anger. On one side, people said they won’t support the supermarket after its former co-owner admitted he was at the Trump rally before the riot. Others say Donald Rouse Senior has the right to free speech and political expression. One person slammed my coverage on the story, saying on Facebook he’s canceling his support.
“What happened to our freedoms? The left seems to be able to say and do hateful things and that’s ok? I will continue to shop at Rouses. Shame on you WWL. I’m done with you,” wrote the viewer.
The owner of Carrollton Market will tell you conservatives aren’t the only targets. Jason Goodenough says one customer called for a boycott of his restaurant for what he had posted on his windows. The incident made became a tipping point in his business.
“I had a couple of small Black Lives Matter postings in my front window to show support for my black and people of color staff members and he took so much offense to it that, he threatened to shut us down even though we were barely making it,” said Goodenough on the WWL Morning News.
Goodenough says the cancel culture can be ruthless and reckless.
“Let me say, I do not agree on any level with the Rouses political views. I find a lot of it abhorrent, but people are canceling them right now in the same way this guy threatened to cancel me. If I came out here and did the same thing, then I would be a gigantic hypocrite.”
That kind of self-examination is pretty rare given our times. Ultimately, Goodenough decided to go out of business. He says the toxic political climate was a big part of the difficult decision.
