Cancel culture has finally come for Matthew McConaughey, though it’s certainly up for debate how effective this attempt will be. This comes in the wake of McConaughey making several critical statements about the radical left over the last few months (see Matthew McConaughey Tears the Far-Left a New One in Revealing Interview).

You just knew that was going blow back on him eventually, and what better publication to lead the charge than The Daily Beast, an absolute dumpster fire of a news outlet.

This piece is basically *Cancel culture doesn't exist but let's cancel Matthew McConaughey just in case* https://t.co/OnxNrvNIYN

— Karol Markowicz (@karol) January 14, 2021

When Matthew McConaughey’s book, Greenlights, first debuted last fall, the memoir included an interesting acknowledgement. In the back of the book, McConaughey thanks Jordan Peterson—a controversial Canadian professor and public speaker who has risen to prominence by fearmongering about “political correctness” on college campuses, advocating for men’s rights, and battling a bill meant to protect trans and nonbinary people.

Peterson is just one of several controversial figures who have coalesced in the past few years within the so-called “intellectual dark web”—a lot that also includes podcaster Joe Rogan and conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, among others. But that moniker belies the true mundanity of these guys’ belief system—most of them largely spend their time complaining about anything that smacks of “political correctness” and waiting for the yet-t0-be-seen Armageddon that “cancel culture” will surely one day usher in.

A few things. First, Greenlights is hilarious. My wife and I listened to it on the way back from a Thanksgiving trip and I’d recommend it, at least as an audiobook given that McConaughey’s delivery adds a lot to the experience. Secondly, anyone claiming examples of the “alt-right” are Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan, and Ben Shapiro is an abject moron not fit to ever be taken seriously again. Third, even if you are stupid enough to believe that, McConaughey is actually fairly liberal in his political views, or at least middle of the road in that he’s very much a “both sides” guy when he levies criticism. Yet, even he isn’t clean enough for the left because he dared to have conversations with people they don’t like.

But take note, because this is bigger than McConaughey and the Beast’s attempt to insinuate he might be in league with nefarious alt-right racists. Some of us rightly pointed out years ago that the mainstreaming the idea of an “alt-right” was a terrible idea for conservative commentators and politicians to buy into. It granted a premise to the left that didn’t need to be granted. White supremacists are white supremacists. They didn’t need a fancy new moniker that conveniently allowed the left to tie them to the “right” in an incredibly vague fashion. Now, everyone they don’t like is “alt-right” because so many on the right helped feed the beast early on.

Is it really too much to ask for our supposed intellectual leaders in the conservative commentariat to have the ability to think past next week? And they are making the same mistake again pushing Trump’s impeachment on the grounds of pure supposition, as if they are unaware that the same vague standard will be used again Nikki Haley or whoever their preferred politician is in a few years. Could we please be smarter than this? Apparently not, though.

By the way, if you want to here McConaughey’s interview with Jordan Peterson, it may be worth a listen.

His appearance on Jordan Peterson’s podcast was fantastic!https://t.co/PK1jsCpLsi

— Jack Kentner (@Jack_Kentner) January 14, 2021

I’m sure McConaughey will be fine, as he’s a big enough brand that he probably can’t be canceled, but this should be a warning to everyone. The left will not take any semblance of criticism lying down. They will seek to destroy you, no matter what caveats you offer them.

(Please follow me on Twitter…@bonchieredstate)