Jack Cashill spent his Aug. 9 WorldNetDaily column complaining that a local library in New York state scheduled, then canceled, a presentation on his new book:
On Aug. 8, I received an email from the library, the very length of which sounded alarm bells. Fredonia is a small, friendly town. They buffer the bad news there with pleasantries.
“I hope this letter finds you well,” the email from library director Graham Tedesco-Blair began. My distrust of guys with hyphenated names was about to be confirmed.
Tedesco-Blair, of course, appreciated my “willingness to engage,” but, you know, “after careful consideration and consultation with our stakeholders, we regret to inform you that we must disinvite you from the scheduled library appearance on September 9th.”
“Doublethink,” wrote George Orwell, “means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
Tedesco-Blair’s explanation of why I was being canceled is a doublethink classic. “We believe that the diversity of perspectives is crucial in creating a rich and informative dialogue at our library events,” he begins.
“Recent developments have led us to re-evaluate the suitability of your views and opinions for our diverse audience,” he continues, “as well as the potential impact they might have on the inclusive and welcoming atmosphere we strive to foster within our library community.”
Tedesco-Blair champions “diversity” by enforcing homogeneity and “inclusivity” by excluding genuinely diverse opinions. Is he aware how mad this sounds?
As best I can interpret Tedesco-Blair’s jabberwocky, diverse “perspectives” may be suitable for a general audience but not somehow for a “diverse audience.”
Or it could be that someone actually read his book. As we’ve noted, “Untenable: The True Story of White Ethnic Flight from America’s Cities” appears to be all about absolving white people of racism for fleeing cities during the 1960s — a viewpoint enthusiastically endorsed by the white nationalists at VDARE, who cheered that the book “tells the story of white flight from the white perspective.” Rather than discuss that dubious endorsement, Cashill tried to insist his book wasn’t offensive at all:
Since my book makes no reference at all to things gay or trans or Muslim, and speaks only positively of women and immigrants, the only “diverse” people that I might offend are African Americans.
Except I don’t. In fact, several black people attended my presentation for C-SPAN’s Book-TV (to air Sunday, Aug. 13, check listings), and none took the slightest offense.
I cannot imagine that in a town with a black population of less than 2%, there would be angry mobs besieging the library doors even if I had written a book extolling Democrat heroes like Andrew Jackson or Woodrow Wilson.
“Given the nature of our audience and the current discourse surrounding certain aspects of your work,” Tedesco-Blair blathered on, “we believe it is in the best interest of the library and its patrons to make this difficult decision.”
“The nature of our audience”? Trump carried Chautauqua County by 20 points. The people with a right to be concerned are area conservatives.
A public servant whose salary they pay has just subjected them to flagrant “viewpoint discrimination,” which is prohibited under the First Amendment.
Nowhere did Cashill offer excerpts from his own book to prove how supposedly inoffensive it is, or why we shouldn’t read anything into VDARE’s enthusiastic endorsement. Cashill has spent years judging others (like Barack Obama) by the company they keep, but he doesn’t seem to want to be judged by the company his book keeps.
Cashill was still playing victim in his Aug. 16 column — but he did find a more agreeable group to which he cold make his book presentation:
In the week since, my speculation has been confirmed. The president of the library board emailed my wife, “So, very soon after our website posting which announced Jack’s appearance at the Barker we began to receive numerous correspondence ranging from general disbelief to adverse protestations from with in the local community.”
He then added, as though this detail were necessary, “Oddly, all of this response came from women.” I should clarify here. All Karens may be women, but not all women are Karens.
Upon hearing of my disinvite, one women, whose actual name is “Karen,” invited me to speak at the Chautauqua County TEA – Totally Engaged Americans – Party at their upcoming meeting. “And,” she added wryly, “you will not be disinvited.”
Once the word got out other local women emailed their sentiments – ranging from general disbelief to adverse protestations – letting Mr. Tedesco-Blair know what they thought of the library’s decision.
Cashill failed to elaborate that the TEA group is presumed to be a right-wing one that would be more receptive to his whitewashing message. Cashill went on to praise a story about the brouhaha in the local paper as “more than fair” — probably because the reporter did little investigating into the subject of the book or the conspiracy theory-obsessed past of its author and simply copy-and-pasted Cashill’s version of his history.