How's it going, America,
Check out our latest episode of The Pod Millennial! I talk to Canada's National Post legend Barbara Kay about the Human Rights complaint filed against her by a well-known trans activist for "deadnaming" and refusing to use his preferred pronouns. We talk about Canada's speech laws, the state of free expression, and where—if any— the lines should be drawn. New episodes drop every Tuesday! Listen, rate (5 stars, of course!), and subscribe!
Let's get into it:
Golf brand Good Good released an ad for their driver collab with Callaway, and now they're canceled. Texas Roadhouse was the victim of a race hate hoax, and now black people on the internet are calling for a boycott. State-funded news channel the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation even canceled the terrorism from the 9/11 terror attacks.
Good Good put out an ad under the direction of their marketing team, and with the approval of Callaway, that was a send-up of the YouTube-to-big screen film Obsession, which I definitely haven't seen. It showed the Good Good gang, one by one, becoming obsessed with the new Callaway x Good Good driver and doing anything—even to the point of violence—to keep that driver for themselves.
But the ad opens with co-founder Garrett Clark shoving pro-golfer and Good Good member Alexis Miestowski to the ground on the golf course to stop her from gaining possession of the driver. This short segment was clipped and made viral, causing everyone to freak out about Clark being violent towards a woman. Miestowski fully took part in the ad and was benefiting from the success of Good Good, which also promoted girls playing golf.
That didn't matter. Callaway, which approved the ad, dumped them. Clark came out with a groveling apology video, which didn't do anything to stop the cancel. Of course, it never does. Simping for the mob does nothing but make everything worse. Then the Golf Channel dropped them and so did the PGA.
During a cancel, the only course of action is defiance, to stand by whatever the thing is that made the mob mad, to hold your head up, to walk into the oncoming fire and keep going. Instead, Good Good thought they could keep some of their status if they said "oh yeah, bad ad, sorry y'all." Instead, that just created an opening for even more people to pile on. By the time it was over, other golf brands had dumped on them along with their whole team of sponsors.
Good Good's Matt Kendrick posted to X: "Interesting that Callaway Golf asks us to make an ad then approves it then asks us to take the fall then drops us in a coordinated media blitz and covers it up by giving a million dollars away thinking everyone will be ok with it. 30 for 39 will be legendary." Meaning he may be looking to expose whatever happened behind the scenes.
This should have been the first statement, not the last. Good Good should have taken a lesson from Nathan Cofnas, the American prof at Ghent University who exposed Cambridge plagiarist prof Jason Arday. Cofnas never backed down. He never capitulated or apologized. And just yesterday he shared on X that the trans rector who launched an investigation against him over alleged "discrimination" and then suspended him has allowed him to stay on and keep working.
Never back down. Never give in. Always stand on the truth and don't bow to the haters. The cancel mob is like those predators that go after the weak of a herd first. The key is not to be weak.
Had a great time on Timcast IRL last night, watch the whole episode here.
Libby