Getting Canceled Never Gets Old

The infamous tweet that launched this Substack, my latest book, and many other things is the gift that keeps on giving.

I was supposed to be in New York right now, speaking at the 92nd Street Y—a historic Jewish community center that has become known for its cultural programming. I knew that it had become a bastion of bien-pensant progressive virtue-signaling as befits its location on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, so was intrigued when early this year I was invited to speak there. It was to be a panel on immigration enforcement, protest, civil disobedience, and broader legal and political issues.

But it was not to be. A couple of weeks ago I got a call from the organizer, one Heidi Palarz, informing me that, because of my “lesser black woman” tweet from 2022, they were disinviting me. I told her that the episode had long ago been hashed out and worked over, had spawned my book Lawless, and in any event hadn’t they Googled (or AI’d) me before extending the invitation?—because this wasn’t some buried secret. Palarz hemmed and hawed; I expressed my disappointment that another Jewish institution was bowing to woke mania, in 2026!

Later that afternoon, the 92Y (as it’s known) issued a cryptic statement:

We were recently made aware of statements made by one of the panelists on an April 9th event about immigration that had not previously come to our attention. Upon review, we determined those statements violate our policies and are inconsistent with our commitment to fostering a community grounded in civil dialogue. We will be rescheduling the event with a new panelist.

Forget the bad writing for a moment—this sounds like the politically incorrect statement was about immigration—and ponder what the upshot of this vaguepost is: (1) they don’t understand the issue (of Biden’s picking a justice based on race and sex, and my criticism of it); (2) they didn’t do due diligence before setting up the panel, and (3) they still kowtow to illiberal cancel culture. It’s both shameful and risible.

But that’s ok, as I just got more publicity and opportunities while institutions like 92Y wall themselves off in their increasingly irrelevant echo chambers. The Free Press reached out and tried to schedule something but the other panelist remained committed to 92Y—she’s a lefty and wouldn’t want to ruffle feathers—and the moderator couldn’t be reached. Something may still happen there, but the Museum of Jewish Heritage will indeed do something with the Manhattan Institute (on a different topic). And FIRE both defended me and used the incident to publicize my appearance at what promises to be a fabulous free-speech celebration this fall.

Meanwhile, I got to see my twins after their nap and take my second son to his first soccer practice of the spring season. Win-win.