Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is likening the expression of “cancel culture” to methods used by Islamic terrorist groups to silence their critics.
“Let’s look down the path and say, ‘OK, where does this cancel culture lead us?'” Gabbard said during her appearance on Fox News Tuesday.
She explained, “You see the final expression of cancel culture in Islamist terrorist groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda who basically go and behead those who they deem to be infidels or heretics in order to silence them, in order to protect others from being misled by those heretical ideas in the eyes of ISIS or Al Qaeda.”
Gabbard pointed to the examples of “cancel culture” happening in the United States.
“When we look at cancel culture here at home, we see those efforts to cancel or silence those that they don’t want the people to hear from,” she said.
Gabbard continued, “Those who may offer a different idea than the one that those in power want people to see or to hear or to be exposed to. When we look at the foundations of our democracy, this is the danger of where this path leads us unless we as individuals stand up against it.”
Watch her comments below:
Republicans have raised concerns about “cancel culture,” especially when it comes to free speech.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) penned a letter to the House Judiciary Committee urging Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) to hold a hearing on the issue, as IJR reported.
“The wave of cancel culture spreading [in] the nation is a serious threat to fundamental free speech rights in the United States,” Jordan wrote.
He noted there is a “dangerous trend toward silencing and censoring certain political speech.”
Jordan stressed “cancel culture” poses “long-term consequences to our democracy and our constitutional framework.”
Republicans made it a point to speak out against “cancel culture” by making the theme of the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference “America Uncanceled.”