[Aaron Novick]

Will no one stand against the vicious mob of wannabe terrorists taking down a worthy and innocent man?

[Quincy Lehr]

LOLZ—But not what anyone who’s remotely serious is talking about. (Nor Bari Weiss getting owned on Twitter.) There should and indeed must be a distinction between those who, through their own bigotry and stupidity get into well-deserved trouble and admitting that a bourgeois-liberal “utopia of scolding” exists and currently has way too much influence on points left.

[Aaron Novick]

What I'm critiquing here is the persistent failure of folks to make that distinction when things like this happen on the left.

Nobody considers Liberty booting Falwell as "cancel culture"—and rightly so. It's obviously an institution protecting their brand—an economic decision.

But the same is true of much (most?) of what gets branded as "cancel culture" when the left is involved.

Compatible with the real existence of a scold culture on the left that's toxic and counterproductive. Don't deny that. But I think people who are "remotely serious" should attend to the double standard in play here.

[Kevin Rainbow]

A picture of a man and a woman with their bellies slightly hanging out. It's hard to believe this is supposed to be serious news.

It sounds like he is leaving temporarily, not being "taken down" in any serious, long term sense. I don't think even "cancel culture" can succeed in turning this fly into that big of an elephant.

[Max Goodman]

Sorting the flies from the elephants is a lot of what this moment in our history is about.

Liberty University students are forbidden from behaving as Falwell did. It's been estimated that if Falwell were a student he "could have accrued more than $9,000 in school fines and 900 hours of required service, and possible expulsion."

Being photographed with your belly and underwear showing while holding an apparently alcoholic beverage, like selling cigarettes illegally, changing lanes without signalling, passing a counterfeit $20 bill, painting a social message on a wall of your own home, or just about anything any of us do, brings different consequences depending on who you are.

[Kevin Rainbow]

Liberty University students are forbidden from behaving as Falwell did. It's been estimated that if Falwell were a student he "could have accrued more than $9,000 in school fines and 900 hours of required service, and possible expulsion."

How does that apply to a non-student who is on vacation?

He described the innocent nature of the moment; it was not a sexual going-on. If people are going to try to write sexual indecency into it, they are the ones with the dirty minds and that is worse than the picture itself.

The picture was deleted shortly after he posted it, a sign he recognized he shouldn't have posted it; and he apologized for doing it.

I don't think this adds up to either a devastating scandal or a "cancel culture" victory. It's another overblown unpleasant speck of media, that a lot of people would like to see be the downfall of someone.

The dust will settle and he will probably return fairly soon.

[R. S. Gwynn]

Falwell Recreation Center is being renamed.

[Andrew Mandelbaum]

In the list of stupid and ignorant cards this fool has dealt out, this human moment caught in a photo is one of the few things that isn't vile. That this is what causes him trouble says more about how terribly broken theology is there then anything important about the fellow. His own words proudly spoken should have damned him to obscurity a hundred times over. Strange culture.

[Julie Steiner]

Originally Posted by Kevin Rainbow

How does that apply to a non-student who is on vacation?

Non-student--see page 2 of The Liberty Way code of conduct:

All members of the Liberty University community are asked to affirm the following:
"We have a responsibility to uphold the moral and ethical standards of Liberty University and personally confront those who do not."

On vacation--see p. 6:

Liberty University policies are in effect at all times, including summer break and school breaks (e.g. weekends, holidays, fall break, Christmas break, spring break, etc.).

I agree that this whole thing would be making a mountain out of a molehill, if not for two things:

First is the fact that Jerry Falwell, Jr., and Liberty University--with the enthusiastic approval of many prominent Southern Baptists--have set aggressively prudish and humorless standards for modesty and alcoholic beverages. He, and not his liberal critics, said that these things are unacceptably sinful. He has been merciless and unforgiving toward others' mild, innocent lapses of judgment. Yes, it was a joke, but the joke was that he was making a very public mockery of the code of conduct to which he holds others--with very real and punitive consequences for them, in contrast with his own expectation that no one was powerful enough to impose consequences on him. The hypocrisy is hard to overlook. And the people who tend to rankle most about hypocrisy are not outsiders, but insiders. The people calling for his resignation or removal were religious conservatives, not liberals.

Second, this incident comes after several well-publicized instances of Falwell's poor judgment harming the Liberty University brand (not to mention the image of Southern Baptists, Republicans, and Christians in general). Many of his former supporters have been growing increasingly upset with Falwell's behavior and statements over the past two years, and especially after his KKK joke in May caused several Black employees to quit in protest. Conservatives who had merely expressed their disapproval about Falwell's shenanigans before are now saying enough's enough--either because they are tired of his lack of propriety and self-control, or because they are concerned that he is giving liberal opponents so much ammunition to use against him (and them).