Chris Rock likens institutionalised wokeness to Salem witch hunts, urges forgiveness

Right · 2Comedian Chris Rock, 61, said in an appearance on The Daily podcast that the problem with wokeness is that "we're in the Old Testament right now," which "has no forgiveness." 1 2 Right · 1He said "The Old Testament didn't work. So they had to write a remix called the New Testament." 1 Right · 1Asked by host David Marchese whether anything redeeming came out of the post-George Floyd era, which Marchese called "woke 1.0," Rock said helping people who need help is great but the problem comes "when you institutionalize it." 1

Right · 2He used the Salem witch hunts as an analogy: the first three "witches" caught may have been real, but once you "open up a witch office" you have to start making things up because of overhead and to justify the witch hunters' pensions. 1 2 Right · 2Rock added that advocating forgiveness "doesn't mean condoning abusive behavior," that friends can be reprimanded, and that doing so is "also part of friendship." 1 2 Right · 2He also said he is glad the cancel-culture era happened because it let certain voices be heard that otherwise might not have been. 1 2

Right · 1Kaivan Shroff, a former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer, told Fox News Digital that Rock "is oversimplifying this in a way that is pretty self-serving," arguing that comedians often know their jokes will offend and count on that for edginess. 1 Right · 2Rock is promoting his new film about a fading actress, in which he plays a casting director; Fox News calls it "Misty Green" and Breitbart calls it "Misty." Breitbart also noted that last week he said Trump was right that the news is fake, while saying he is "not a fan." 1 2