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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 15, 2023

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Inviting a supporter of the Russian regime hardly seems like the most notable complaint one could have about this convention. The more pressing problem is that it's scheduled to happen in China at all, which necessitates that all in attendance are at best ambivalent about the even fouler Chinese regime. But that matter doesn't even require vague speculation. Liu Cixin's views on Xinjiang are hardly some well-kept secret, and involve denying the Uyghur nation a right to exist, claiming they are all terrorists etc. So alongside the "actual fascist" you're also going to get the "actual communist".

I'm not sure whether Cixin is an actual communist (not that the wokes would have any problem with it anyway), but China is also a full blown fascist state, so yes, it makes sense that there would be foreign fascists invited. But recognizing the fascist nature of China is very, very taboo in leftist US politics, because they call themselves communist, and that raises very uncomfortable questions. So discussing China is out of the question. But discussing Russia is still on the table for the wokes - so, in this case, would they dare?

The broader problem is that applying woke cancellation standards evenly would mean cancelling probably 99% of the population of the big upcoming market that everyone wants to sell stuff to. Cancelling the CCP is the rock upon which the ship of cancel culture sinks, mainly for reasons of sheer impracticality.