It's Not "Cancel Culture," It's "Accountability Culture"

Mike Lindell has become a living, breathing exercise in self-parody

(If you don’t like the butt of jokes, perhaps you shouldn’t be a living, breathing punch line)

I find it embarrassing that Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, is from my home state of Minnesota. Despite his unhinged example, most native Minnesotans are sensible, rational types who adhere to the Lutheran (also Japanese) dictum: “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”

Mike Lindell is getting hammered down, not by “cancel culture,” as he claims, but by “consequence culture.” He’s free to speak his mind and declare what he will, but he can’t claim to be surprised when his speech comes with consequences.

Lindell, who’s a self-promoter of the sort seldom produced by the North Star State, is also a Grade-A, 24-karat, top-notch, first-class, USDA Prime Looney Tune. A former drug addict who claims he found Jesus, got clean, and then got rich off his MyPillow empire is still an addict. Now he’s addicted to Donald Trump. And he’s finding that his irrational devotion to Mango Mussolini has his business circling the drain.

Walmart has given MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s products the boot from its shelves nationwide. In a phone interview with The Daily Beast on Wednesday night, the pillow tycoon alleged that a Walmart executive in a Wednesday meeting told him that MyPillow’s marquee pillow products were no longer “rated” above four stars. “You guys are just canceling us,” Lindell recalled telling the Walmart executive, who he says “smirked” at him. That Lindell said, left him fuming, adding that he then slammed his laptop closed, effectively ending the meeting with the Walmart executive. “Due to cancel culture!” Lindell told The Daily Beast, insisting that was the reason Walmart took his pillows out of its stores. “We are up to like about 8,000 pillows a week,” the pillow maven continued, claiming that sales were up across the board at Walmart. The incident made Lindell ready to wage war against the superstore. “You should go in there [Walmart] and see the pillows that are made in China, and all their pillows are made overseas,” he declared.

“CANCEL CULTURE!!” It’s the usual cry of Conservatives experiencing adverse consequences resulting from their political conduct. It’s also the cry of Conservatives who resent being held accountable for their actions. But, as I’ve already mentioned, the 1st Amendment doesn’t guarantee free speech without consequences.

Mike Lindell is free to pursue his political beliefs as he sees fit. As an American citizen, that’s his right under the 1st Amendment. But that right to free speech doesn’t guarantee speech without repercussions. For example, suppose a business owner is conducting themselves in a way I find objectionable. In that case, I’m free to take my business elsewhere, and I’d sooner have a lobotomy sans anesthetic than buy any of Lindell’s products.

Even if they’re made in Minnesota.

Lindell told [The Daily Beast] the executive smirked at him, prompting the bedding mogul to slam his laptop shut and basically end the meeting. He blamed “cancel culture” for Walmart’s decision.

Lindell, who recently caused a stir in Wyoming by declaring that state’s 2020 results rigged despite a landslide victory for Trump there, told Steve Bannon in a livestream that Walmart’s exclusion will result in a ”$10 million hit” for his Minnesota-based bedding company, The Hill reported.

Lindell has blamed “cancel culture” for virtually every instance when his Trumpian activism has come back to bite his business. He’s become such a lightning rod that MyPillow has become associated with #MAGA. Buying MyPillow products identifies one as pro-Trump and pro-Big Lie. MyPillow’s customers may not like that, but they can thank Mike Lindell for creating that association.

Lindell’s been banned from Twitter, eviscerated by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), and sued by Dominion Voting Systems for roughly twice the GDP of El Salvador. He’s made more unsubstantiated claims about the 2020 election than anyone this side of Rudy Giuliani, and ALL of them remain unproven. Again, free speech without consequences isn’t guaranteed by the 1st Amendment. Capice?

No, this isn’t “cancel culture” rearing its ugly head to slap down Mike Lindell’s right to speak out as he sees fit. He can certainly still speak out as he sees fit. But businesses such as Walmart are under no obligation to carry MyPillow’s products. If Walmart determines they don’t want to be associated with the slime trail left by Lindell’s lies and false accusations, they’re within their rights to take their business elsewhere. Likewise, they’re under no obligation to buy MyPillow’s products.

Lindell is the only person to blame for MyPillow’s prospects heading into the toilet. He’s inextricably linked his business with Trumpian craziness and the January 6th insurrection. Why any sensible American would want to associate themselves with that via purchasing MyPillow products defies understanding.

If Mike Lindell wants to save MyPillow, his best strategy would be to shut up, check himself into a hospital, and go on a Thorazine drip for the next six months. Perhaps an extended period without Lindell’s lunacy will help get MyPillow’s prospects back on track.

Then again, Lindell is so full of himself and so lacking in self-awareness that it’s hard to imagine that he’ll come to understand that HE is that problem and not “cancel culture.” So unless he recognizes that free speech isn’t severable from potential consequences, Lindell will continue to destroy his pillow empire.

The problem, of course, is that dragging the business into the crapper doesn’t just impact his wallet. More importantly, it affects the bottom lines of his employees and their families, many of whom probably live from paycheck to paycheck. As MyPillow’s sales continue to decline, layoffs will become inevitable, and Lindell’s employees will be the ones who suffer the most.

Then again, self-awareness has never been Mike Lindell’s strong suit. The #MAGA myth has consumed him, and he will continue down that path until he’s broke or until Donald Trump is done with him and casts him aside. Unfortunately, by that time, it will probably be too late to save MyPillow or the jobs of Lindell’s employees.

Sometimes an addict needs to hit rock bottom before recognizing they have a problem and need professional help to kick their habit, right?

If you need a pillow, why would you want to support #MAGA and the Big Lie, anyway?? Besides, every dollar that goes to MyPillow means a dollar that will allow Mike Lindell to feed his #MAGA madness. He’s already done enough damage. It’s time he was cut off and forced to face the music.

Actions have consequences. It’s time Lindell learned that he can’t baselessly accuse people and companies of untoward conduct without evidence to back him up. That’s the stuff libel’s made of, and I hope Dominion takes him for everything he’s worth and forces MyPillow (and Mike Lindell) to move to a Third World country with no extradition treaty with the US.

Perhaps Lindell might learn what a real corrupt democracy with actual rigged elections is like, eh?

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