Tucker Carlson and 'The Daily Show' Agree On One Thing

In the last week, social media users on the right have coordinated a campaign to pressure employers into firing teachers, healthcare workers, NFL staff, and hundreds of others over posts they deemed insensitive following Charlie Kirk’s death. While there are critical differences in rationale, the right is borrowing from a playbook similar to the one the left used during Trump’s first term—so much so that some on the right have called it not “cancel culture” but “consequence culture.”

The most crucial difference this time is state involvement. J.D. Vance is appearing on podcasts urging followers to report social media users to their employers. Donald Trump is suggesting people should be sued for hate speech. Most alarming, Attorney General Pam Bondi said yesterday that she would prosecute those who used hate speech.

This is flat-out un-American. Under the First Amendment, there is no difference between free speech and hate speech. Speech is speech, and speech is free — unless it incites a riot. On this point, the left — and at least a few voices on the right who pushed back against Bondi yesterday — can agree. A private citizen reporting someone to their employer is not the same as prosecuting someone for social media posts.

One of the stronger statements against this came yesterday from Tucker Carlson, a despicable figure with whom I agree on nothing, except apparently this: “Pam Bondi just said there’s hate speech. That’s a lie … Any attempt to impose hate speech laws in this country … is a denial of the humanity of American citizens and cannot be allowed under any circumstances. That’s got to be the red line.”

And that’s exactly where Desi Lydic on The Daily Show landed yesterday.

“Every horrible event has to have this same cycle. One side starts posting their hot takes for clicks, and the other side tries to get them cancelled for it. But one thing is different this time. This time, the government is getting involved,” Lydic said during the opening segment.

“A lot of people are saying this is a left vs. right thing, but truly, I think this problem goes so much deeper. Our discourse has been so poisoned by the Internet that our elected officials are now using the power and resources of the federal government to carry out social media-style justice.”

“You would think that the Attorney General would know that hate speech is protected by the First Amendment. Even if you’re not a big reader, it is the first one … we need to understand that no matter how mad someone makes you online, it’s not enough to make it illegal.”