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This year has seen a lot of heroes and villains. This year has seen a lot of heroes and villains. But let’s move beyond that and talk about the 2023 superstars. Despite the bad events in 2023, there are plenty of deserving candidates, so it’s easy to start with the good guys.
Much of the year was spent fighting over speech, culminating in a public battle against and for anti-Semitism. (Ladies and gentlemen, our education system.) Conflicts over free speech have rapidly declined since 2016, when many conservatives realized they were actually organizing and commenting online. Therefore, they had to be stopped.
In 2023, many heroes are trying to fight back. Most of the people on my list of heroes are people who have made a mark by fighting for speech.
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The strange thing is that the first four people on my list have something unusual in common. Wait until you get to number 4.
1. Elon Musk
Elon Musk He’s a hero straight out of a Hollywood script – just in that movie, he’s probably a Bond villain. He’s rich, smart, young, and plays baby daddy to over a dozen children. But he also wants to take us to Mars and free humanity from its earthly bonds.
No one has had more influence on pop culture in 2023 than Taylor Swift. She is the first A-list celebrity to truly take over the post-COVID-19 world. After all, she did it.
He’s an imperfect defender of free speech, but he tries and speaks his mind when the time comes. Under previous management, Twitter/X had become almost unbearable for conservatives and those who didn’t toe the party line.
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Almost everyone, down to a certain former president, was banned or restricted. Controversial topics like COVID-19, foreign policy, and baking can lead to suspensions or bans.
Musk’s takeover hasn’t changed everything, but it continues to challenge his opponents who are trying to force him into censorship. He made international news in late November. Standing up to advertisers like Disney And its CEO, Bob Iger, tried to bully him into imposing speech restrictions.
“Don’t advertise. What if someone tries to blackmail me with an ad? Blackmail me with money? Stop it yourself,” Musk said, adding: , if you’re in the audience. That’s how I feel, please don’t advertise. ”
It’s not elegant, but as one of the richest men in the world, he probably has enough funds to take on the biggest companies. And users of the platform should thank him.
2. JK Rowling
Author JK Rowling has been oddly cast in the role of free speech. She wrote Harry Potter, one of the best-selling books in human history. There was a time when almost everyone loved what she wrote. So it seems unusual that she would have to defend her speech, even her own speech, but that’s exactly what happened. To her eternal credit, Rowling is now famous for insisting that women are women, and that she refused to bow to the transgender agenda. (Shocking, I know.)
She posted a photo of the slogan “Repeat after us: Trans women are women” displayed on the UK’s Justice Building. Her comment was simply “no.” But she didn’t stop there. She said she is willing to go to prison to protect her rights.
Rowling said that even if it meant imprisonment, “I would gladly serve two years in prison if there was an alternative to forcing speech and forcing denial of the reality and importance of sex.” posted on X. “Take it to court, I say. It’ll be more fun than anything I’ve ever had on a red carpet.”
3. Bill Ackman
Bill Ackman, the billionaire CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, has become a thorn in his alma mater, Harvard University, and in woke academia as a whole.Ackman and at least More than a dozen other CEOs Hamas urged employers not to hire radical leftist Harvard University students who blamed Israel for terrorist attacks.
bill ackman (Chris Ratcliffe/Michael Fine/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Mr. Ackman has become one of the most prominent voices calling for and challenging the discriminatory system. In one post, he criticized university presidents who testified before Congress about anti-Semitism. “The presidents’ responses reflect serious educational, moral, and ethical deficiencies that pervade some elite educational institutions, largely due to failures in their leadership,” he wrote. Ta. accurately.
If the Ivy League can make a comeback, it will be thanks in part to the efforts of good people like Ackman.
4. Taylor Swift
No one has had more influence on pop culture in 2023 than Taylor Swift. She is the first A-list celebrity to truly take over the post-COVID-19 world. After all, she did it. She is a highly successful businesswoman, star singer, and even more popular than her famous boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
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Her film, “Taylor Swift: The Else Tour,” raked in $178 million and was No. 11 of the year domestically.
Americans don’t have royalty, but some people here do. We’re going with the Royals, but Taylor is a popular choice. It seems like the 33-year-old sensation will be famous forever, as her career spans nearly two decades.
In October, Forbes estimated her wealth at $1.1 billion. (Yes, the Swifties can join in the celebration, too. The first four on my list are all billionaires.) His relationship with Kelce increased his social media fandom overnight, and the NFL brought a whole new fan base to .
She was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” earlier this month, and is the only woman to earn that title more than once. She also won the title in 2017 as part of the group. After a year like this, what will happen in 2024? Maybe a celebrity wedding?
5. Chaya Laichik
The brains behind one of the most influential social media accounts, Chaya Lajcik is better known as the Liv of TikTok. She has amassed 2.7 million followers on her Twitter/X, and her videos regularly go viral, showing her left wing in her natural habitat, Crazyland. Think of her as Paul Revere telling you how bad her left has gotten. And they can’t stand what she tells the world.
Lychik exposes the left just by sharing the insane videos they posted Chinese spy/propaganda app TikTok Her disturbing stances on gender, sex, and America led to a media campaign against her.
News outlets regularly write hit stories about her, angry that her coverage exposes their allies. The Daily Beast published a “neutral” article on her in November called “Why Her TikTok Library Is a Ticking Time Bomb.”
But the Anti-Defamation League also acknowledged that she was not as problematic as she had previously claimed, and removed her from its “Extremism Glossary.”
She lights up dark places. And sunlight is the best disinfectant.
6. Tim Scott
South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott took on one of the media’s evils this year: The View. The show has been running for more than a quarter of a century, but instead of getting smarter over the years, it’s gotten shriller and stupider. (Who would have thought that such a thing was possible?)
Cue “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin regularly makes dirty or hateful comments about anyone who disagrees with her opinions, including most of America, including Scott. But like the heroes of old, he took on his enemies in a lie-down by joining the show. Hostin asked Scott about systemic racism and his status as an “exception.”
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He shot back and reminded her that it wasn’t true. “In fact, we’ve had an African-American president, an African-American vice president, and two African-American secretaries of state. In my home city, we have an African-American police chief. People. Now I’m running for mayor.”
The battle didn’t end there. By September, “The View” was following Scott’s dating life. Hostin expressed concern that Scott would marry “someone like Ginny Thomas,” referring to Justice Clarence Thomas’ white wife. Scott fired back, accusing them of bigotry. “The Democratic Party and the progressive left are still stuck in the Jim Crow of the 1920s and ’30s,” he said.
More politicians need that kind of willingness to fight back.
7. Riley Gaines
Last, but definitely not least, are skilled athletes. Former college swimmer Riley Gaines has become a powerful advocate for women to maintain their place in sports. She competed at the 2022 NCAA Swimming Championships against Leah Thomas, who is a biological male.In the words of her Congressional testimony, she had to Sharing a locker room with Thomas “A 22-year-old male, 6 feet 4 years old, with exposed male genitalia.”
Since then, she has become a leading spokesperson for female athletes. It means she was threatened or attacked. At a recent Congressional hearing, Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pennsylvania, called Gaines a “transphobe” for not wanting to compete with biological men.
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Gaines was prepared for the fake attack. “And Ranking Member Lee, if my testimony calls me a ‘transphobe,’ your opening monologue makes you a misogynist.”
The world needs more female athletes to compete for their sport. Gaines is in the lead. they should obey.
Click here to read more from Dan Gaynor
