Fragile Republican Pressures Texas Museum to Withdraw From Book Event Examining Slavery's Role in the Battle of Alamo

At this point, we really don’t need more evidence that conservatives are absolutely the cancel culture-reliant snowflakes they claim those on “the left” are, but just in case you do need more evidence, look no further than the state of Texas where Republican officials pressured a museum into pulling out of hosting an event meant to promote a book that examines the role slavery played leading up to the Battle of the Alamo.

The Texas Tribune reports that the Bullock Texas State History Museum was set to host the event Thursday, but museum officials pulled out just a few hours before it was set to begin.

From the Tribune:

Authors of the book, titled “Forget the Alamo,” and the publisher, Penguin Random House, say the cancellation of the event, which had 300 RSVPs, amounts to censorship from Republican elected leaders and an overreaction to the book’s examination of racism in Texas history.

“The Bullock was receiving increased pressure on social media about hosting the event, as well as to the museum’s board of directors (Gov Abbott being one of them) and decided to pull out as a co-host all together,” Penguin Random House said in a statement.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick took to Twitter Friday to brag about using his power as a government official to be a cowardly little bitch-baby and shut down the teaching of history in order to protect fragile white feelings. (I mean, he didn’t word it that way, but that’s what happened.)

“As a member of the Preservation Board, I told staff to cancel this event as soon as I found out about it,” Patrick wrote. “Like efforts to move the Cenotaph, which I also stopped, this fact-free rewriting of TX history has no place.”

See, this is what Republicans do.

In most cases, GOP officials don’t cite any specific grievances when going to war against things like Critical Race Theory and The 1619 Project. For the most part, they just repeat claims that the contents of these teachings have been debunked or are “fact-free,” without offering anything to back those claims up. The fact is, they know it doesn’t matter if their claims are true or not, they just need their target audience to hear them say it repeatedly so that public opinion can do its work—which sounds eerily like the thing they call “cancel culture.”

Also, let’s be real about one thing: If any Democrat official admitted they helped to shut down any conservative event, Republicans across the country would be calling it an all-out assault of free speech and an instance of clear government overreach—but it only works that way when it’s a message they agree with that gets shut down.

Anyway, Chris Tomlinson, one of the book’s three authors, didn’t hesitate to clap back at Patrick and call the museum out for caving to white tears on Twitter.

“Lt. Gov, Dan Patrick takes credit for oppressing free speech and policing thought in Texas,” he tweeted. “@BullockMuseum proves it is a propaganda outlet. As for his fact-free comment, well, a dozen people professional historians disagree.”

Meanwhile, the museum, in a statement, denied responsibility for the cancelation of the event.

“The Bullock Museum’s role in the Craft of Writing virtual event, originally planned with the Writers’ League of Texas around the book, Forget the Alamo was primarily that of co-host,” Margaret Koch, the Bullock Museum director said. “Although the Bullock withdrew from the event and notified the 198 pre-registered participants, the Writers’ League of Texas was prepared to continue the event on their own platform and gave the book’s authors the opportunity to do so. The authors declined to continue, and because they did so, the Writers’ League of Texas canceled the event.”

Riiiiight—so, the venue for an event pulls out at the last minute and the event gets canceled, but that’s not on the venue, that’s on the authors and event planners.

This is the power of whiteness, folks. There’s no other way to frame it.