Magazine Editor Forced To Resign For Triggering Special Snowflakes Over ‘Cultural Appropriation’

I take some small solace in knowing this happened in Canada, not the United States. But I could still see something similar coming from some university publication or other left-wing press.

According to this, the editor of Canada’s Write magazine, Hal Niedzviecki, wrote an op-ed taking on the topic of “cultural appropriation” and how ridiculous the social justice crowd is about it. We’ve talked about that very subject before – and it truly IS ridiculous. And there’s certainly no shortage of leftists whining about white people eating sushi or braiding their hair or wearing kimonos.

Anyway – back to Canada. Hal’s op-ed talked about how silly it is to expect people to keep to their own culture all the time and that it’s good for people to try out other cultures and traditions. In fact, there should be a prize for Best Cultural Appropriation! –

Hal Niedzviecki, a novelist and editor for Canada’s Write magazine, sparked outrage for insisting that cultural appropriation is a good thing and that there should be an Appropriation Prize, according to the CBC.

“Anyone, anywhere, should be encouraged to imagine other peoples, other cultures, other identities,” said Niedzviecki in his piece.

In a world where America exists – with all of our cultural blending of food and clothing and holidays and literature and traditions – this shouldn’t be that controversial. It shouldn’t even be a topic for mild annoyance, let alone outrage.

But since the Cult of Social Justice justifies its existence with outrage, many writers and contributors to Write magazine freaked out on Niedzviecki. Completely with someone complaining that his piece left them “literally shaking” –

“I can’t even begin to describe the anger I’m feeling right now,” said Alicia Elliott in a tweet reported by the CBC. Elliott has since set her account to private. “I’m literally shaking. My essay is about cultural appropriation.”

“I can’t get over how in my piece I called out appropriation and settler expectations … and yet they still published this,” explained Joshua Whitehead, another contributor.

Would it be cultural appropriation to say that I’m “literally shaking” with laughter at this stupidity? I’d hate to be accused of stealing a stupid tradition from some aggrieved minority group and making it actually funny.

Sadly, the magazine had to cave and issue an apology, along with Niedzviecki resigning from his post –

The Writers’ Union of Canada apologized for Niedzviecki’s op-ed in a statement published on its website, stating that it offended readers, contributors, and editorial board members.

“The intention behind the magazine is to offer space for honest and challenging discussion and to be sincerely encouraging to all voices,” stated the organization. “The Union recognizes that intention is not enough, and that we failed in execution in this instance.”

You know what all this whining about “cultural appropriation” leads to? You’ve probably seen it happening – it leads to people dividing themselves away from others. It leads to “tribes” (for lack of a better term) sticking with each other and distrusting their neighbors. In some extreme cases – like on college campuses – it leads to outright segregation. All in the name of making sure nobody mixes cultures with somebody else and their precious FEEEEELINGS are spared.

Don’t know about you, but my life would be infinitely poorer without a tradition of cultural appropriation. If for no other reason than I enjoy eating things like pizza or sweet and sour chicken or tacos. And food’s an easy example to point to. What about things like music and literature? Where would our culture be without fairy tales and folklore from all sorts of different countries? What about holiday traditions – jack o’lanterns at Halloween? Christmas carols and stockings at Christmas? Easter eggs? St. Patrick’s Day?

I could go on, but I think you get the point.

It’s a good thing our ancestors weren’t forced to keep to themselves by a bunch of snooty intellectual nitwits forcing them apart by cultural origins. America would just end up being a carbon copy of Europe.