Quiet, please

If ever there was an argument for regulating social media, it's "Blackout Challenge," where Tik-Tok users as young as nine are encouraged to choke themselves unconscious to gain -- I don't know, fame?  I know there has long been an adult kink that involves orgasmic asphyxiation but these children don't know what orgasm is, nor do they understand the risks.  A twelve-year-old boy in London is about to be taken off life support because doctors have determined that he will never recover from brain stem injury.  The mother of a dead ten-year-old girl in Chester, Pennsylvania, is suing Tik-Tok, and she is not alone.  What kind of insanity is this?  These platforms have been used to promote dumb, dangerous stunts before but this is Russian roulette for those too young to own a revolver.  Censorship?  Hell, yes.  If Tik-Tok won't police itself, call the cops.

The times are filled with accusations of "cancelling" or censorship, some valid, most not.  One America News ("Fox for Nazis") was dropped by its last cable carrier Verizon and responded by calling it a "radical Marxist corporation" because words mean just what I choose them to mean, said Humpty Dumpty.  Verizon may have received complaints from subscribers troubled by rants about stolen elections or calls for the execution of political opponents, or they may just want to make room for a channel devoted to Icelandic cooking.  It's a corporate decision and calling for fans to cancel Verizon is  pointless.  (How many will subscribe just so they can cancel?  See Keurig.)

Hulu, the Disney-owned streaming service, is refusing to run ads from the Democratic Party dealing with abortion and guns, citing a policy against "controversial" topics.  Several campaign committees and individual candidates have complained about this, but I can't find any evidence that they consider Disney an agent of the Republican Party or recommend dropping Hulu.  Because they're adults. 

Even some future doctors are angry about the overturning of Roe.  On Sunday the University of Michigan medical school held its "white coat" induction event for medical students and invited Dr. Kristin Collier, an assistant professor, to share her anti-abortion views.  A number of students walked out.  Before some Foxnik yells "Cancellation!" remember -- Dr. Collier got to finish her speech, she is still on the faculty and these students will probably have to learn internal medicine from her.  Both sides made their point.  Was that so hard?

Tampa rapper Rollie Bands probably wished he had censored himself.  On Instagram he posted what I'll call the Rollie Challenge:  "I sleep in peace.  If a n---a want smoke I'm at my crib in 5 mins."  Five minutes later he was shot in the parking lot of his crib and died in a local hospital.  "The tongue is so powerful...he signed his own death certificate," one mourner wrote.  Word.

Banksy shredded one of his paintings minutes after someone paid $1.4 million for it, establishing a precedent for canceling one's own work.  Now Damien Hirst promises to burn a heap of his paintings for reasons that are somewhat opaque.  Something to do with NFTs, which might as well be Linear A for all I understand.  If I were running MOMA I'd make sure the fire coverage is up to date.

The Alex Jones defamation trial is on at last, with Jones and his amusingly named company Free Speech Systems being sued by several Sandy Hook parents for calling them liars and claiming their murdered children are fictional.  Jones claims he has already been "cancelled" and is down to his last few dollars.  In a recorded opening statement he called the judge a "Democratic party George Soros-funded judge"  running a "rigged trial."  Alex, have you heard about Rollie Bands?  Learn when to shut up.