That perverted Puritanism is why it seems so terribly important to some Americans that actors, comedians, athletes, etc., be cast into the outer dark for moral transgressions. For progressives, a moral transgression consists in holding a view at odds with the progressive consensus arrived at five minutes ago, or having a lifestyle that violates their sense of etiquette and propriety of however immature vintage.

So, of course, Gina Carano must be professionally ruined and ritually denounced.

Growing up in the 1980s, I had no desire for Mötley Crüe to comport themselves like Osmonds (the nice Mormon singers, I mean, not the charming monster from The Portrait of a Lady) nor was I worried too much about Ice Cube’s ugly racial politics. I still don’t. Call me a reactionary, but I liked it better when we just simply assumed that rock stars and Hollywood types were sex-mad dope fiends, criminals, and scoundrels of various kinds. I prefer them that way rather than as the divine persons we have made of them.