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The theme this year, stupidly enough, is \\u2018America Uncanceled.\\u2019 But the only real way to get any kinda cred at the 2021 Conversative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, to make a stink about how you\\u2019ve totally been canceled.

One easy way? Refuse to wear a mask, even though the host city and the hotel both require it. \\u201cWe\\u2019ve seen these conservative influencers who, it seems, are deliberately getting kicked out of CPAC by not wearing a mask,\\u201d The Daily Beast\\u2019s Will Sommer tells Molly Jong-Fast on the latest episode of The New Abnormal. \\u201cBecause for them, CPAC is sort of just the place to see and be seen. They don\'t really care if they get kicked out. I mean, they don\'t want to hurt their brand by wearing a mask. And so we\'ve seen a lot of these guys [showcase] the video of the ceremonial ouster from CPAC.\\u201d

\\u201cThey\'re really against being canceled, but it actually seems like the culture of conservatives now\\u2014the merit badge is, you got canceled. Like, Marjorie Taylor Greeene is a celebrity now, because she got canceled,\\u201d adds producer Jesse Cannon.  

But there\\u2019s a reason the CPAC posse is coalescing around cancelation. It\\u2019s because they can\\u2019t agree on much else. \\u201cThe thing that I was really struck by, Jong-Fast says, \\u201cwas that they\'re so light on policy\\u2026 There\'s no nuts and bolts stuff.\\u201d 

\\u201cThe only policy discussion you hear at CPAC is when some lobbyist is clearly trying to plant something,\\u201d Sommer replies. \\u201cTheoretically, CPAC is supposed to be a bring[ing] together of the factions of the conservative movement. But this year I think everyone is so shell-shocked from 2020, they can\'t acknowledge that they lost. Because that would mean acknowledging that Trump lost. And everyone\'s just so terrified of Trump.\\u201d

The only thing left to fill the space is the performative resistance. 

\\u201cSo, apparently, to get this hotel, [the CPAC organizers] had to promise that people would wear masks,\\u201d Sommer says. \\u201cBut at the same time you\'re inviting the people who are least willing to wear masks, to celebrate often how much they hate masks. So you have speakers like Ted Cruz saying how dumb it is to wear masks.\\u201d

Sommer adds, \\u201cSo then occasionally in CPAC you have to have the organizers stand up and say, \\u2018we all love property rights, right?\\u2019 \\u2018Yeah!\\u2019 And they\'re like, \\u2018well, what about the right to have people a mask on your property?\\u2019 And everyone goes, \\u2018boooooo!!!\\u2019\\u201d

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