Did you know that, according to right-wing plagiarist and serial liar Benny Johnson, there is a big boycott of Netflix happening? No? Neither did we!
Apparently, this is all because Netflix once had an animated show with a transgender character.
Yes, once had. Past tense. Netflix cancelled the show, “Dead End: Paranormal Park,” in 2023. The show’s main character is trans, and per Netflix’s description, the show sounds dope as hell: “Two teens and a talking pug team up to battle demons at a haunted theme park—and maybe even save the world from a supernatural apocalypse.” And while you can still stream its 20 episodes on the service, no more episodes are slated to be produced.
Unsurprisingly, though, noted bigot Elon Musk has already backed Johnson’s criticism of the show. Of course, Musk’s high-profile hatred for trans people is up there with “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling.
It’s equal parts hilarious and pathetic to watch them try to manufacture an issue on the fly, and all they could come up with for Netflix was “You used to have a cartoon that did a trans-ing.”
The whole thing is working as intended, however. Since this moral panic was invented out of whole cloth a couple of days ago, Netflix’s stock price has slid slightly. And the show’s creator, Hamish Steele, is reporting a wave of antisemitic and homophobic emails.
It’s hard to see this as anything but a right-wing astroturf campaign trying to replicate the widespread outcry over ABC sidelining late-night host Jimmy Kimmel because the chair of the Federal Communications Commission demanded it—on Johnson’s podcast.
Huh.
What Johnson, President Donald Trump, and the toadies in his administration don’t understand is, though, that they’re just wreckers. They don’t build anything or help it flourish and grow. All they know is how to attack.
And where the massive boycott against Disney—ABC’s parent company—appears to have driven a blistering 1.7 million people to cancel their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions, it isn’t clear yet whether Netflix is facing much in the way of cancellations. Yes, the stock has taken a hit, but market movement just isn’t the same, in force or scope, as the wave of cancellations Disney saw.
The other critical difference is about free speech—actual free speech, not the administration’s perverse definition that includes only conservative speech.
The push to return Kimmel’s show to the air was about demanding that Disney resist government censorship—a thing that actually is a First Amendment violation! Meanwhile, with Netflix, conservatives want the streamer to censor itself—no threat from the FCC required—so as not to offend the delicate (yet vicious) sensibilities of conservatives like Benny Johnson.
It also shouldn’t be lost on anyone that Netflix, unlike some tech companies and media outlets, has not recently settled a frivolous lawsuit with Trump. And then there’s the fact that Netflix was co-founded by Reed Hastings, who remains on its board. Hastings is one of the few tech billionaires not in thrall to the libertarian death-cult views of Peter Thiel, et al., and who is a huge donor to Democrats.
In the end, this isn’t even about cancelling Netflix so much as it’s about trying to whip right-wing followers into a froth over their culture-war grievances.
In other words, business as usual for conservatives.
Did you know that, according to right-wing plagiarist and serial liar Benny Johnson, there is a big boycott of Netflix happening? No? Neither did we!
Apparently, this is all because Netflix once had an animated show with a transgender character.
Yes, once had. Past tense. Netflix cancelled the show, “Dead End: Paranormal Park,” in 2023. The show’s main character is trans, and per Netflix’s description, the show sounds dope as hell: “Two teens and a talking pug team up to battle demons at a haunted theme park—and maybe even save the world from a supernatural apocalypse.” And while you can still stream its 20 episodes on the service, no more episodes are slated to be produced.
Unsurprisingly, though, noted bigot Elon Musk has already backed Johnson’s criticism of the show. Of course, Musk’s high-profile hatred for trans people is up there with “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling.
It’s equal parts hilarious and pathetic to watch them try to manufacture an issue on the fly, and all they could come up with for Netflix was “You used to have a cartoon that did a trans-ing.”
The whole thing is working as intended, however. Since this moral panic was invented out of whole cloth a couple of days ago, Netflix’s stock price has slid slightly. And the show’s creator, Hamish Steele, is reporting a wave of antisemitic and homophobic emails.
It’s hard to see this as anything but a right-wing astroturf campaign trying to replicate the widespread outcry over ABC sidelining late-night host Jimmy Kimmel because the chair of the Federal Communications Commission demanded it—on Johnson’s podcast.
Huh.
What Johnson, President Donald Trump, and the toadies in his administration don’t understand is, though, that they’re just wreckers. They don’t build anything or help it flourish and grow. All they know is how to attack.
Demonstrators picket in response to the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, outside of Walt Disney Studios, on Sept. 18.
And where the massive boycott against Disney—ABC’s parent company—appears to have driven a blistering 1.7 million people to cancel their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions, it isn’t clear yet whether Netflix is facing much in the way of cancellations. Yes, the stock has taken a hit, but market movement just isn’t the same, in force or scope, as the wave of cancellations Disney saw.
The other critical difference is about free speech—actual free speech, not the administration’s perverse definition that includes only conservative speech.
The push to return Kimmel’s show to the air was about demanding that Disney resist government censorship—a thing that actually is a First Amendment violation! Meanwhile, with Netflix, conservatives want the streamer to censor itself—no threat from the FCC required—so as not to offend the delicate (yet vicious) sensibilities of conservatives like Benny Johnson.
It also shouldn’t be lost on anyone that Netflix, unlike some tech companies and media outlets, has not recently settled a frivolous lawsuit with Trump. And then there’s the fact that Netflix was co-founded by Reed Hastings, who remains on its board. Hastings is one of the few tech billionaires not in thrall to the libertarian death-cult views of Peter Thiel, et al., and who is a huge donor to Democrats.
In the end, this isn’t even about cancelling Netflix so much as it’s about trying to whip right-wing followers into a froth over their culture-war grievances.
In other words, business as usual for conservatives.
