Kevin Hart has learned his lesson and it’s not the one you think

Hart stepped down as the host of this year’s Oscars after past homophobic remarks came to light on social media. The remarks were made in joke tweets and in old standup routines. The context was comedy, something that doesn’t mix well with the current social justice climate where everything is deemed to be unsafe or hateful.

There was some hope that Hart would come back after his appearance on Ellen where he apologized for his previous language. Ellen then endorsed his return to the Oscars, tweeting that Hart “was authentic and real” and declaring that she was “in his corner.”

But of course, that appearance led to more outrage as progressive scolds took to Twitter to shame an black man for not groveling enough and a lesbian woman for not being woke enough.

Don Lemon used his CNN Tonight show as a platform to wag his finger at Hart, saying, “Apologizing and moving on does not make the world a better place for people who are gay or people who are transgender. Being an ally does.”

Hart responded on his own Sirius XM show “I don’t like the forcing. Don Lemon goes on CNN [and says] you can fix this. Become an ally. That’s not my life dream.”

Then, when pressed during a tense interview on the Today show with Michael Strahan, Hart said, “I want everybody to know I'm done with it. I'm not addressing it anymore. ... I’m not giving no more explanation of who I am.”

Good for him. You see, Kevin Hart has learned his lesson. And I’m not talking about the “how to be a better ally” lesson. What Kevin Hart learned was to never apologize to social justice bullies. Especially about jokes. The worst thing you can do is grovel at the feet of online shame artists.

That’s the one vital takeaway from this whole debacle: If you apologize to the mob, they won’t forgive you. They will say your apology wasn’t good enough and then they will come after you harder.

So now, according to Variety the Oscars will be hostless “barring an eleventh-hour pivot by the Academy.”

If you stop to think about it, having a hostless Oscars may be the most appropriate course of action. The most popular online activity in 2019 is unpersoning. So, in this brave new era of erasing people, who better to host The Oscars than literally nobody?