We have covered a gazillion cases since last spring of people ‘cancelled’ for social media posting or public statements that offend the dominant leftist orthodoxy on campus and elsewhere. It’s very personal combat, almost always left cancelling right, and it’s setting the nation against itself.
This story though, reveals just how deep the intolerance and repression goes — a literary agent was fired not for what she said, but merely for having opened accounts on Parler and Gab to escape the stifling atmosphere on Twitter.
The claim that Parler was a platform more dangerous than Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and elsewhere, is false. It’s a convenient foil for cancel culture attacks because it became viewed as a refuge for Trump supporters fleeing or kicked off Twitter. Parler itself was deplatformed.
For Colleen Oefelein, just opening the accounts was enough to get fired. Its not the first time she’s been attacked:
Newsweek reported:
The president of a literary agency based in New York City said Monday on Twitter that one of the agency’s employees was terminated after her use of conservative social media sites Parler and Gab was discovered.Colleen Oefelein, who identified herself on Twitter as an associate literary agent with the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, appeared to confirm her termination in a tweet on Monday morning.”Well thanks Twitter and @JDLitAgency,” Oefelein wrote. “I just got fired because I’m a Christian and a conservative.” …”The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency was distressed to discover this morning, January 25th, that one of our agents has been using the social media platforms Gab and Parler. We do not condone this activity, and we apologize to anyone who has been affected or offended by this,” De Chiara wrote. “The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency has in the past and will continue to ensure a voice of unity, equality, and one that is on the side of social justice.””As of this morning, Colleen Oefelein is no longer an agent at The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency,” De Chiara’s Twitter thread concluded.
Book and Film Globe notes the role of an anonymous Twitter troll in getting her fired:
The agency, founded by De Chiara in 2001, works on mostly children’s and young adult literature, and notably has repped soap opera actors from the Young and the Restless and General Hospital.@YAWhispers, whose bio reads, “the Lady Whistledown of YA,” in a reference to the Bridgerton series, included Oefelein’s outed tweets in a master list of literary agents to avoid. Among them is Marisa Corvisiero, who fired her entire staff last year after her own controversial tweets. However noble in intent, the account’s anonymity was a sticking point for critics of the firing.“A random anonymous Twitter account, which calls itself “YA Whispers,” informs Jennifer that one of her agents simply *used* a social media platform and therefore should be terminated—and Jennifer actually goes and fires her then publicly brags about it!” wrote Thomas Chatterton Williams in a series of tweets. “Absolute madness.”
Spiked notes:
There is currently not any suggestion that Oefelein actually posted anything objectionable on either of these platforms.
The purge is getting more personal and destructive with time. This is not going to end well.
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