Jimmy Kimmel Is Back on Air: Would You Look at That, Boycotts Work!
But only for white, influential American celebrities, not so much for the victims of genocide.
A week ago, Disney decided to suspend production on The Jimmy Kimmel Show. Five days of protests and a boycott of Disney followed, resulting in an estimated loss of about $4 billion as viewers canceled their Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ subscriptions. This Monday afternoon, Disney announced they had decided to reinstate The Jimmy Kimmel Show. On Tuesday night, Jimmy was back on air.
What was this? A haiku? A rare moment of swift, undeniable effectiveness? Stories this brief and consequential are almost unheard of. Rarely does a push and change arrive this fast, sharp, and unmistakable.
In full transparency, I began drafting this article over the weekend, several days before Disney announced they would reinstate Jimmy. His return isn’t the punchline of this article. What prompted me to cover this topic was the flood of white, progressive liberals descending into my Instagram inbox, all at once deciding we should rage more over the blatant attack on Jimmy Kimmel’s freedom of speech — and questioning why I hadn’t commented on the suspension.
Why haven’t you said anything, Miranda? This is the most blatant, infringement on free speech by the government that we have ever witnessed!
I love liberals. Their disconnection from the real world, from anything beyond the safety of their own bubble — paired with an arrogance rooted in mediocrity, is something I’ve been studying closely for the past two years. I’m a lifelong Democrat; as a teenager, I collected articles on Bill Clinton — I thought I was a liberal too. But the past 700+ days have opened my eyes to a devastating truth: liberal progressiveness extends only to issues that affect them, and this self-centeredness is what keeps the world from progressing. The performative rage and mediocrity embedded in the white liberal mindset is a phenomenon worth examining.
But, Jimmy!
When a white, influential celebrity is taken off the air and his freedom of speech is snatched away, that usually marks the final stage of government control. So when I receive messages like, “Do you not see what’s happening, what Trump is doing to us, this authoritarianism and control and suppression is so dangerous, and we are descending into fascism,” I can’t help but see you as an unserious person. The suppression of your freedoms did not start with Jimmy; he is the final stage.
You wont get my rage about Jimmy, as requested in my inbox, because we have been warning you for the past two years — this was coming.
We have been telling you to vote globally, not just domestically, and warning you that the genocide carried out with bombs funded by your money will come home.
You want me to rage about Jimmy?
Jake Tapper, a CNN anchor, commented on Late Night with Seth Meyers that taking Jimmy off air was “pretty much the most direct infringement by the government on free speech that I’ve seen in my lifetime.”
And I have to ask: are you all collectively serious here?
Thirty-eight US states have anti-BDS laws, making it illegal to boycott Israel. The direct infringement by the government on free speech, action, and thought has been here for a very long time.
I know Miranda, but when a white, rich celebrity …
We told you this would happen. We warned you that it starts in the Middle East, gets practiced there, and then comes home. We told you that the crimes you have been witnessing abroad are tests to see how much the government can get away with taking from you.
Welcome aboard.
Where were you for the past two years when Meta suppressed all our content, removed our posts, videos, and images for protesting a genocide?
Where were you when all the big social media profiles drawing attention to a livestream genocide our country is supporting and funding were removed, and banned indefinitely?
Where were you when the US students on US campuses were beaten, jailed, detained, suspended from universities for protesting their school funding the Israeli war crimes and genocide in Gaza?
Where were you when Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder, was snatched from his apartment, detained for 3 months, dragged through courts, and about to be deported for merely protesting a genocide of his people?
The occupation has been home for a long time, folks.
Where were you when the Turkish doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk was snatched on the street, detained, and held in immigration detention for 3 months for merely co-authoring an op-ed critical of her university’s response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza?
Where were you when we warned that the Israeli army was training police in your American cities, and that those techniques used on Palestinian civilians would one day be used on you?
Where were you when we told you to pay attention to the IDF snatching Palestinian civilians from the streets in the West Bank and warned that those techniques would be tested on American streets?
You’re late, and you’re PEP.
PEP folks, Progressive Except Palestine. Mythical creatures who earned their own Wikipedia page for tireless work on every performative progressive issue except Palestine — decided Disney was worth boycotting over a ban on a white, rich, influential American celebrity, but not for supporting, funding, and propagandizing the slaughter of an entire people.
In the words of Mehdi Hasan: I don’t accept your progressive credentials.
There is a legend on Instagram named Dylan Horner who captured my entire sentiment about white, progressive liberals — those who ignored genocide for two years, yet rushed to rally, rage, protest, and cancel Disney subscriptions over the freedom of speech of an influential rich man, but not for children with shredded limbs and their entire families being wiped away in your timeline.
You have to watch this unraveling of so-called progressiveness — his delivery is beyond what I can capture here, but I’ve included the words below.
So now we understand the collective importance of boycotting a company and canceling our Disney subscriptions when it's a straight white man who gets silenced, right?
It will never cease to amaze me the level of mediocrity that comes out of the white liberal mindset, or even just the white Democratic mindset, and that you guys keep wondering why society can't progress, yet you wait till the last possible moment when something directly impacts you before you do the bare minimum.
I'm gonna hold your delicate little hands, and tell you that if you think the worst thing the parent company of Walt Disney and ABC did in the last couple years was canceling the Jimmy Kimmel Show, wait until you find out how they feel about bombing innocent civilians and slaughtering children.
To clock in at September 2025, and your form of activism is to cancel your Disney subscription; at this rate, diva, you might as well just keep it.
Go take a look through history and tell me at what stage authority and dictators start going after media and affluent straight white men — spoiler alert, it's not the beginning stages.
In the words of Jerry Greenfield, who just the other day did more than just cancel a Disney subscription for being silenced, he actually left Ben & Jerry's because their parent company was silencing their views on human rights and any outspokenness. It's easy to stand up and speak out when there's nothing at stake. The real test of values is when times are challenging, and you have something to lose.
You all need to take the note of that.
Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air prompted you to rally in the streets and cancel your Disney, Hulu, and ESPN subscriptions. This was your red line — not Disney funding genocide, not Hulu running atrocity propaganda ads for Israel during children’s programming, and not Marvel whitewashing Israel’s crimes in Gaza.
Confront your bias, performative rage, and self-centeredness of your progressive liberal mindset by understanding what Disney has done before taking Jimmy off the air.
The breakdown.
Disney is contributing to Israeli genocide in Gaza through its financial donations to Israeli relief organizations and pro-Israel bias in its films and news coverage. Hulu, a subsidiary of Disney, has been running the most grotesque ads, even on children’s programs, about “40 infants were murdered in Israel.” After that fabricated story had been debunked even by Israeli media, Disney never offered an apology or correction.
Specifics.
Donations to Israeli causes: In October 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced a $2 million donation to humanitarian organizations in Israel, including Magen David Adom.
Silencing pro-Palestinian voices: Disney tried to intervene in a public disagreement between Snow White co-stars Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler over the conflict. Zegler, who has expressed pro-Palestinian views, reportedly posted "Free Palestine" on social media, leading to Disney’s attempt to censor her. Disney never censored Gal Gadot, a former Israeli soldier and an outspoken supporter of Israel, not even after Gadot hosted a screening of an Israeli military propaganda film that justified the genocide in Gaza.
Introduction of an Israeli superhero: In 2022, Marvel Studios, owned by Disney, announced it would introduce a superhero named Sabra, an Israeli Mossad agent, in the film Captain America: Brave New World. This attempt at culturewashing Israeli war crimes led to a backlash and calls for a boycott, citing the controversial role of Israel’s intelligence agency.
Involvement of IDF soldiers: Disney has been casting Israeli actors who have served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), such as Gal Gadot, in films like Snow White, which resulted in boycotts of the film and Disney+ subscriptions.
Biased news reporting: Disney's subsidiary, ABC News, has been pushing a pro-Israel narrative that continuously ignores Palestinian perspectives and war crimes. ABC News constantly portrays Israel's actions as "self-defense" while downplaying Palestinian suffering.
Hulu running Israeli propaganda ads: In early 2024, Israeli propaganda videos ran on Hulu, which is owned by Disney, in another example of Disney's complicity in promoting pro-Israel messages.
Disney has largely maintained its position, insisting that its actions support “innocent people affected by the war and condemn terrorism,” while its approach shows a clear bias that disregards the devastating impact on Palestinian civilians.
All of this didn’t move you to cancel your Disney subscription, but removing Jimmy Kimmel, in the words of Dave Smith, “a guy backed by every giant corporation in the world” — did. I’ll let Dave elaborate on this. You should watch Dave’s podcast on this whole Jimmy business and how it intersects with the limitations of a liberal mindset.
Please watch. Let’s do better.
“There’s something particularly infuriating to see someone like Jimmy Kimmel, who of like I’m saying with all the liberals is just totally ignorant of all of this in his own mind, I’m sure actually does conceive this as it’s like — the regime is Trump and we’re the little guy standing up to them. Yeah, we’re the little guy backed by every giant corporation in the world. It’s unbelievable. It’s almost like the whole nature of the government is just the gang that’s perceived as legitimate.”
