Fox News found a new thing to be outraged about on Wednesday in its recent obsession with liberal “cancel culture,” pointing to this week’s decision by a soap manufacturer to drop the word “normal” from its products as the latest inflection point in the never-ending culture wars.
On Tuesday, Unilever announced that due to a study that found the word “normal” to be exclusionary, the consumer-goods giant would drop it from all products and advertising. The company, which owns Dove and Vaseline, also said it would “not digitally alter a person’s body shape, size, proportion or skin color in its brand advertising” moving forward.
During an entire segment devoted to the brand’s decision on Fox News midday panel show Outnumbered, anchor Harris Faulkner expressed confusion over Unilever’s decision.
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“As a mom, I don’t shelter my children from what’s being advertised,” she said. “I build up their self-esteem in other ways. I tell them to pick the best product for our hair or skin tone. To pick what’s best for them based on those ingredients.”
“I don’t think they do a lot of the package reading,” Faulkner added. “Raising two biracial children, I am sensitive. I don’t know if them scrubbing words off the packaging is as important to me as me being able to read what’s in the product. Maybe I’m missing something here.”
Fox News contributor Tomi Lahren—whose entire career has centered on delivering bite-sized video rants about various outrages of the day—then took the opportunity to rage against the corporate move, in the process somehow invoking World War II.
“Think about it. The Greatest Generation fought the Nazis, stormed beaches,” she exclaimed. “Here we are today being triggered by soap and labels and cartoons. It’s utterly ridiculous!”
“I understand this is a company’s decision. It’s all part of this cancel culture. It’s all a part of this hypersensitivity. I wish people would toughen up,” Lahren continued, without any hint of self-awareness. “If you’re offended by soap, you need to examine your level of oppression and get your head out of the clouds.”
After Lahren—who has spent years advocating for and cheering on Colin Kapernick’s cancellation from the NFL—was finished claiming that an advertising change was the latest example of “cancel culture,” even though no products have been removed or discontinued, country singer and Fox Nation host John Rich made his own announcement.
“I know you’re going to be shocked by this, but it has inspired me to write a new song,” Rich shared with the panel. “This cancel culture offensive thing—everybody’s offended. It’s called ‘I’m Offended That You’re Offended.’ It’s going to be coming soon to a radio station near you. You’re gonna love it.”
Rich, who regularly appears on Fox News to deliver commentary about political topics, also wrote a song in 2019, along with the hosts of Fox News’ The Five, called “Shut Up About Politics.”
Rich demurred when his fellow panelists begged for a preview of the song, though he did say it’s “basically that I find it offensive that you are offended by things that are really not that offensive.” He went on to proclaim that “it’s going to hit the target.”
In recent weeks, meanwhile, the right-wing network has obsessively covered what it’s described as left-wing “cancel culture,” namely Disney’s decision to add a disclaimer to some episodes of The Muppets, Hasbro’s brand name change to children’s toy Mr. Potato Head, and Dr. Seuss Enterprises announcing it will no longer publish new copies of six Seuss titles that contain racist and offensive imagery.
