While there's certainly a debate to had over HBO's decision to pull the classic film Gone with the Wind from its library, some especially perturbed conservatives on Twitter see it as a wider conspiracy from the left to implement an Orwellian state.
According to them, the "cultural purge" has begun.
Below are a few examples:
Is this real? First Gone With The Wind, now this? STOP the censorship, you Orwellian statists! https://t.co/OXdWo24m4W— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1591797484.0
1984 “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten...every statue and street and bui… https://t.co/2yJISjvzYM— Christina Sommers (@Christina Sommers) 1591757419.0
“Gone with the Wind” is just the beginning. The book burning of the left’s cultural purge has begun.— Erielle Davidson (@Erielle Davidson) 1591760169.0
As @JerryDunleavy noted Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to win an Academy Award for her performance… https://t.co/ZDhL9WMmLG— Stephen L. Miller (@Stephen L. Miller) 1591760097.0
And so the West's new cultural Year Zero continues, as "racist" 1939 classic Gone With The Wind is pulled Perhaps… https://t.co/3S2roHkfa6— Martin Daubney (@Martin Daubney) 1591771959.0
Tonight I cancelled my HBO subscription. Not because I was particularly fond of Gone With the Wind. But because I… https://t.co/ZgDqTzL0PE— BDW (@BDW) 1591764955.0
I have a samizdat copy of Gone With the Wind. I’ll show it to anybody because fuck them. Just be careful that you… https://t.co/Huw8DGlO87— Kurt Schlichter (@Kurt Schlichter) 1591762884.0
A spokesperson for HBO Max told CNN Business that the film is "a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society."
"These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that when the film returns to HBO Max, it "will return with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions," and will be presented "as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed."
