Many people have a love/hate relationship with conservative celebrity Dan Bongino in that they love to hate that guy. Bongino was behind my very first experience with someone who uses the word “snowflake” and then ends up getting their tender feelings hurt. He blocked me on Twitter a long time ago.

But the world hasn’t heard much from Danny Boy in a few weeks. He’s in the middle of a self-imposed exile from his radio show, all because of the dastardly vaccine mandate by the parent company, Cumulus Media, that syndicates his program.

On its face, that’s petty — like a kid who won’t eat any of his dinner because his mom is making him eat two more bites of broccoli. But it gets funnier than that: Bingo Bongo is already vaccinated. He’s just “taking a principled stand” against the idea of vaccine mandates and refusing to work for a company that imposes one.

He’s already eaten the broccoli, folks.

The radio program, syndicated through Cumulus, which has a vaccine mandate — that conversation has not been going well. It’s been degenerating even worse. It is ongoing, but as I said to them, and I will repeat again with Cumulus: I am not going to be there while there is a vaccine mandate. They can have the vaccine mandate or they can have me, but they can’t have both.

It’s silly for a couple of reasons. Number one, saying “they can have me” if they put everyone who works for them in danger is a wild overestimation of his value.

But number two, he knew about this mandate a long time ago — they announced it back in the summer — and there are no coworkers’ rights he’s “protecting” by being the famous guy who famously opposes the mandate. Anyone who refused the vaccine, a source inside Cumulus says, has already been fired.

Now his fellows inside the right-wing radio circle are beginning to call him a virtue signaller. Since he can’t be fired over a mandate he’s already complied with and anyone who doesn’t is being fired regardless of his stance, the protest is meaningless.

In fact, Cumulus and some of the stations that air his show are starting to suspect that he actually just doesn’t want to stay committed to a 3-hour daily broadcast, and would rather go work full time for Fox. They believe he’s trying in a roundabout way to get his upper management to break his contract and send him packing.

In the end, Bongino is certainly not appealing to his pals in the infotainment industry. By casting himself as the last bastion of freedom against the yoke of vaccine fascism, he’s inadvertently making all the other right-wing hosts who aren’t doing this look like they’re kissing corporate butts.

Conservative commentator Derek Hunter maybe spoke on behalf of many of them:

When you aren’t live for 2 weeks, and so few people notice, it’s not a good sign. If you are really so full of principles, resign already.

— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) November 1, 2021