Far-left novelist and Hollywood producer Stephen King found himself in hot water Tuesday when he announced, “I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.”

King’s fellow leftists immediately lost their collective minds.

The blue-on-blue violence was glorious…

Overrated director Ava DuVernay freaked:

When you wake up, meditate, stretch, reach for your phone to check on the world and see a tweet from someone you admire that is so backward and ignorant you want to go back to bed. https://t.co/nPXOeAebkb — Ava DuVernay (@ava) January 14, 2020

Writer Roxane Gay found it “painful”:

As a fan, this is painful to read from you. It implies that diversity and quality cannot be synonymous. They are not separate things. Quality is everywhere but most industries only believe in quality from one demographic. And now, here you are. — roxane gay (@rgay) January 14, 2020

That’s just a taste. And as we all knew the moment King published that tweet, the Cuckening soon followed as King tried to weasel out of the uproar:

“The most important thing we can do as artists and creative people is make sure everyone has the same fair shot, regardless of sex, color, or orientation. Right now such people are badly under-represented, and not only in the arts,” King later tweeted, adding, “You can’t win awards if you’re shut out of the game.”

Obviously, no one was happy with this update. Overrated DuVernay spoke for many:

Wait until people begin to tweet you with the cleanup tweet he posted two hours later to justify it all. pic.twitter.com/6fcXy5h8q5 — Ava DuVernay (@ava) January 14, 2020

Before we get to his hypocrisy, let’s talk first about what King is saying…

Well, to begin with, what he’s saying is about as conservative and as Trumpian as it gets. King doesn’t believe people should win affirmative action awards. In other words, awards should be handed out based on merit alone, not the color of someone’s skin, their gender, or how they conduct their sex lives.

In his follow up tweet, King was still just as conservative and Trumpian. After all, what could be more conservative than calling for equal opportunity and an equal playing field?

Leftists like Overrated DuVernay hate the concept of merit, though, because they support affirmative action; not just because they personally benefit from a system that rewards people based on everything but actual talent, but also because affirmative action is un-American and keeps our country divided on race, gender, and what people do with their sex organs.

The left is empowered by social division, and what better way to keep us divided than to reward a Protected Class based on everything but actual merit?

Now I’m going to emphasize the part that most intrigued me about King’s original tweet: “I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality.”

“In matters of art.”

King appears to be singling out art as the one thing that should be above diversity promotion aka affirmative action.

Apparently, he’s perfectly fine with diversity promotion everywhere but NIMBY — Not In My Backyard.

Is this not typical of the left?

Because King is an artist, he doesn’t want to have to live under the oppressive rules he would have the rest of us live under.

Art is of course singled out by King because as an old, white guy artist, King sees the injustice of rewarding anything other than merit. When diversity promotion affects Me. Stephen King, Mr. Stephen King is all, Wait a minute, wait a gosh-darned minute here, this isn’t fair. This isn’t right. This isn’t good. This is wrong.

And of course he’s correct. As we have seen over the past couple of years, especially when it comes to the art of moviemaking, Hollywood’s woke fascists and their patronizing push for diversity have already destroyed several film franchises, including Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Star Trek, Terminator, and Men in Black.

Don’t misunderstand me, there’s nothing wrong with merit-based diversity. As I already pointed out this week, over the last two decades, Americans have embraced a disproportionate number of movies that tell black stories (while Oscar has not). Another example: I happen to think Idris Elba would make a fantastic James Bond — not because he’s black but because he’s perfect for the role in every way that matters. Idris Elba deserves to be James bond based on merit and merit alone.

Anyone who’s read my work going back to my Dirty Harry days some 16 years ago, knows I was chastising Hollywood for its prejudice against minority actors, most especially black actors, more than a decade before this #OscarSoWhite stuff. No one can look at how the everyday American people have embraced (for decades) one black superstar after another and justify the lack of racial diversity in movies and television.

Bottom line: opportunity means casting a wide net to find the best. To find the best, employers and landlords should advertise in urban news outlets. To find the best, recruiters in every field that uses recruiters should venture into minority neighborhoods.

You can’t find the best if you ignore large swaths of the American population.

But “the best” is all that should matter in American life.

King, however, would only inoculate his particular piece of the world, the world of “art,” which once again proves how the elite left see themselves as above the rules only we “little people” should have to live with.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.