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One of the left's favorite power games is extracting apologies. President Trump, to his credit, sees the scam and doesn't play.The “Apology-Cancellation Game” has long been one of the American political left’s favorite indoor sports – one that is increasingly dominating our political discourse in the wake of Trump committing the “crime” of nominating political conservative hard-liners to important cabinet positions.
You only have to look at what they’re doing to Pete Hegseth over a totally bogus rape allegation from nearly a decade ago to see that the Apology-Cancellation game is alive and well. Here it is, along with what you can do about it if you become the target.
Here is how the game’s played. A progressive liberal who has access to CNN, MSNBC or one of the online progressive platforms, will look at something a conservative has done or said and choose to take “public offense.”
In truth, there is no offense – this is a game, not reality. Besides, progressive liberals are way too cynical to be truly offended. However, they are skilled at making something appear to be offensive, then call “foul,” loudly and publicly. Immediately, other progressive pundits will jump on the bandwagon by openly demanding an apology.
The target, almost always innocent and generally unaware that something he or she said or did might prove offensive to anybody. Sure, there are people who will not like what they said or did, but offended?
Really?
The groundswell from the far left will grow into a thundering chorus of me-tooist fellow travelers. Eventually, the conservative will want to end the game by giving in to the demand for an apology. However, that apology will never be “right” or “acceptable.”
Just how is this game played? This game has been around for a while, though it’s been refined for 2025.
Ross Perot gave a speech before the NAACP in his 2012 campaign, and in that speech he referred to “your people,” clearly meaning the black Americans that the NAACP claims to represent. The predictable progressive left cried foul, loudly and in all the left-leaning mainstream news media. It became so bad that Perot, who’d done nothing wrong, bowed to the pressure and apologized.
Shortly thereafter, he closed down the campaign – I know, because I was his “Media and Strategy” director for his campaign in the state of Nevada. Within a week of the apology, he was out of the race. He later came to his senses and tried to revitalize his campaign, but it didn’t work. He did hand the election to Clinton, but before the NAACP debacle, he had the potential to actually win. He was a long-shot, but he wasn’t completely out of the question. So yeah, this has been around for a long time.
Twenty years later, in 2012, this game was again rampant. Mitt Romney lost in a landslide, though the pre-election polls suggested it would be a tight race (apparently to keep ratings up).
Suddenly, the progressive left realized they had real power and wanted to use it. Everything a conservative said or did that might even remotely offend a far leftist was pilloried in the public news media – which was all far left of center, with the exception of Fox, the New York Post and the Washington Examiner – and in the social media of the day.
Today, the stakes are different, but the tactics are the same.
The progressive left, and especially the advocates of everything “woke,” lost the 2024 election in a landslide. They wound up looking like they had no power. Trump not only won the White House, his party also won the Senate and the House, a hat trick in Washington.
When Trump then nominated some legitimate hard-core conservatives to cabinet posts, the progressives immediately began playing the Apology-Cancellation Game, not because they have power, but because they want power.
The demands for a better apology will come along in due course. Then, the conservative who apparently “offended” some one person or more likely, some class of people, has a choice.
Tell them that what they got is what they’ll get, period. Or, recant the apology and invite the progressive liberals to put his reply where the sun isn’t expected to shine today. If the conservative offers a new apology, which will also not be acceptable, the game goes on.
If the conservative refuses to play, or drops out of the game, it’s time for cancellation.
This threat is still real, but it was a lot more powerful before Elon Musk bought Twitter, renamed it X, and fired eighty percent of the employees – mostly the “gatekeepers” who did their best to deny true conservatives a shot at having a voice on Twitter. But the far left can still “cancel” somebody on the left-leaning media, both the legacy media and especially the social media.
Which is why I prefer a different approach.
Matt Gaetz was the first target. However, rather than play the game, when he saw that the RINO minority in the Senate was willing to play ball with the progressive left, he did the honorable thing and withdrew from consideration before he caused Trump any heartburn over the nomination. This allowed Trump to nominate Pam Bondi, a conservative, constitutionalist prosecutor and former Florda Attorney General, who is – like Matt Gaetz – very conservative, but without the potential baggage Gaetz had.
An unexpected-but-welcome win-win for Trump.
While the mainstream media remains willing to play this destructive game, the progressive left has turned more and more toward social media. While they have no monopoly on social media – especially among Podcasters, who seem to have real power in 2024 – woke progressives know how to get on far-left podcasts, then leverage those appearances with the far left news media: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and of course the fast-dying MSNBC and CNN. This is where they are best at venting their vile spleens, and the Apology-Cancellation Game is one way of doing it.
Here’s a painfully classic example of how the Apology-Cancellation Game is played. Some Republican bimbo, back in 2018, after a consensual hookup, when caught by her husband made an unsubstantiated charge of rape against Pete Hegseth. Her claim had no merit, and many witnesses were ready to debunk her charges, and probably involving the date rape drug Rohypnol. However, evidence and witnesses debunked her claim of rape and date-rape drugs. The charge – and the bimbo – went away. And stayed away until Pete was nominated for DOD head, in which case it was dusted off and fed to the credulous news media, who ran the charges but not the facts.
There is ample evidence to disprove all of this, (see Megyn Kelly’s comprehensive shredding of the bogus charges: Ep. 951 Deep Dive: Megyn Breaks Down the Pete Hegseth Police Report and Holes in Accuser’s Story – Megyn Kelly) but the progressive media has chosen to only go with the charges, not with the evidence. This is still playing out, and I hope Pete holds back on any unnecessary and unwarranted apologies. His fate depends on whether the Senate will prefer the facts or the allegations.
There is nothing new about the Apology-Cancellation Game. Yet time and again, conservatives buckle under to the demands of those who are “offended” and respond to the media as if they were actually guilty of something. If you’re ever in that position, either ignore the charges entirely, or present the facts, then move on with your life.
Ned Barnett, a frequent contributor to American Thinker since 2006, wrote about the “Apology-Gotcha Game” in 2012 (The Apology-Gotcha Game – American Thinker). However, with the tables turned and Donald Trump in charge, he is convinced a revised version of this game will return in 2025, as a way of hobbling Trump. Barnett is the author of 40 books – with number 41 set to come out in January of 2025. He is a writer for and political consultant to conservative candidates and causes. He plans in 2026 to publish a new book: How To Win A Political Campaign, and this article will be expanded and featured in that book. Ned can be reached at [email protected] or 702-561-1167. He is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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