The City Different has become The City The Same, where the hive mind rules, and differences of opinion are no longer tolerated. Readers may recall when, a year and a half ago, Meow Wolf cancelled a show by Reggae singer Matisyahu at the last minute. Matisyahu, whose music has popular appeal to a broad audience, has never been shy about his Jewish faith and support of Israel. Meow Wolf’s shocking display of antisemitism was as obvious as it was disgusting. If you don’t want to go to the show, don’t go, but don’t ruin other people’s enjoyment of their night out. That’s just wrong.
Fast forward to last week, when Independent Women’s Forum had scheduled Her Game, Her Legacy, a celebration of the 53rd anniversary of Title IX and the kickoff of National Women’s Sports Week at the Santa Fe Farmers Market Pavilion. Seems pretty uncontroversial, but the annoying woke scolds, probably the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance, complained, and the nonprofit Farmers Market Institute buckled under and cancelled the event at the last minute, forcing a change of venue. With former New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez a featured speaker, the program was about as mainstream as it gets. What hutzpah to cancel Governor Martinez.
Of course, the cancel cult always waits until the last minute to pull the plug, to cause maximum disruption to the targeted group. This really is just rank cowardice, because much like the Mullahs in Iran banning Starlink, they are afraid to allow opposing voices to be heard. Shame on the management at Meow Wolf and the Farmers Market Institute for caving, when they could easily preserve their own integrity by letting contracted events proceed as planned. Or, as I suspect, they are like-minded leftists who believe in cancel culture tactics.
Farmers Market Institute, please stop with the lame excuses. There’s no security issue, that’s what the SFPD is for. They are more than capable of keeping the peace. You see, those would-be protesters who will create the security risk in the first place are the very same people who are complaining about the event. Get how this works? Cancel the event because we called, or we’ll show up and make a fuss, also known as a “security issue.”
As for the claim the Independent Women’s Forum event was “too political,” if that was true, it would have never been booked in the first place. The fact that the supposedly for-the-public Farmers Market Pavilion booked the event is ipso-facto proof that it DID NOT violate the contract terms. Independent Women’s Forum will sue and stated, “Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute’s last-minute attempt to cancel our event is rooted in falsehoods and driven by hate and political bias.”
Just admit it. You cancelled a contracted event at the last minute to inconvenience people who don’t vote the way you want them to. Remember when NM Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia-Richard cancelled the parking for the Trump rally to “get MAGA,” only to cause a three-hour traffic jam on I25 forcing hundreds of people to miss their flights from the Sunport? This is the behavior of petulant children, not responsible adults.
Fake pressure groups like the Human Rights Campaign and the Human Rights Alliance want to decide who gets to have human rights. First amendment, second amendment or right to freedom of assembly in this case. But the influence of these leftist agitators is waning. The good news is conservative activist Robby Starbuck has successfully convinced many major corporations to abandon the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, a shakedown racket to push woke ideology in corporate America. For years, companies were coerced into DEI policy and fat donations to HRC in order to get a good score on the Equality Index. And don’t dare to criticize these groups who instigate this blackmail because they are… fill in your intersectional victim group of choice here.
These so-called human rights groups want to take away your rights. And the anti-hate posturing is just a flimsy smokescreen concealing their own hate. When the mob chants “whose streets, our streets,” this is what they mean. The political left will decide who is allowed to have events at the public community space The Farmers Market Pavilion, which is actually a really fun place to have a concert or event of any kind and should be open to all members of the Santa Fe community. This toxic cancelling behavior is the definition of hate, which is why in Santa Fe, hate has a home here.
Robert Witsenhausen is a Santa Fe based sound engineer and electrical contractor with an interest in politics and current events.
