Gina Carano is ignorant AF, but cancel culture is really getting ridiculous

The BBQ Pit
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I am a fan of the Mandalorian. I thought Carano’s character was okay. I liked how television had a warrior woman who actually looked like a warrior; she was clearly physically capable to portray the role and didn’t derive all her strength from her “pectorals” like many implausible female characters. She didn’t have the best screen presence but it wasn’t a role that required it. I felt her character’s presence was an asset to the show; not a critical one but still a good one.

I was aware of her public stances in the past and they bothered me but not enough for me to not want to watch the show, or despise her character. I was okay with her still being on the show. When I heard that she was no longer going to be employed by Disney on this or any other show, I understood that too, and it doesn’t bother me. I get it and don’t begrudge them for it.

I remember when James Gunn was fired by Disney. That bothered me.

The reason it bothered me was that those were old tweets that had been dug up; they weren’t some new revelation and weren’t a secret. And they were a decade old, it didn’t represent anything about how he portrayed himself anymore, and he clearly didn’t stand by them any more, and made no excuses for them. Fortunately, after a public apology Disney changed course and brought him back into the fold.

Of course the Carano thing is different. We aren’t talking about old tweets that she made many years ago; these are things she is saying now and clearly represent her sincere views, and she is making no apologies for them.

It’s just to show, in my mind at least, that Disney isn’t totally unreasonable about these things. And I’m sure it also makes a difference that Carano is a supporting actress and a fairly minor part of a hit show, while Gunn was and continues to be a director of multiple blockbuster films that have really helped Disney in the box office.

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Kinda important to distinguish that James Gunn’s comments were jokes, tasteless maybe and not super funny, but they were very, very obviously jokes.

Carano ain’t joking. She literally believes the bile she spews.

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An excellent point. Bad jokes to be ashamed of but they were jokes. Gina means what she says.

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You are, though. You’re pushing the deplorable nonsense that it’s okay during a pandemic to spread anti-mask falsehoods that kill people. You’re pretending it’s okay to continue saying the election was fraudulent after it was proven not to have been, and the guy claiming it was staged a coup against the United States. You’re saying it’s okay to mock trans people. And you’re saying it’s okay to mock the millions of people who died Holocaust by comparing your minor inconveniences to their very real suffering.

You’re trying to push that it’s okay now to support deplorable nonsense now that this deplorable nonsense has taken over the Republican party. Before you were against it. Now it’s nothing to get upset about. Trumpism takes hold, and you suddenly are okay with that. Rather than stay strong as part of the opposition, you want to just give in.

It’s also utterly inconsistent with your claims in the Twitter banning thread, where you are arguing for social media to censor the very things this woman has Tweeted, and even seem to be pushing that this should be enforced by law. If you’re okay with Twitter banning people, why not with Disney firing people? It’s the same sort of thing.

So your saving grace, in my eyes, is that you this seems to just be someone you like who you are going to bat for. That’s the only way your inconsistent positions make sense. You wouldn’t be the first person letting whether or not you like someone cause you to do a complete 180 on your beliefs. Heck, people did it to you at times because you were annoying them.

But it’s still dumb that you’re posing a thread that could have been made by @DemonTree, and making all of her arguments. The woman who is against any and all consequences for anything bad, even against Trump being banned because we’re persecuting him by doing so.

It was right to fire her. She said several very awful things. She’s not the right person to be heading their new Mandalorian spin-off, because the people who would like a female-led series are unlikely to want to watch someone who says all of these things.

She was given the chance to recant. This stuff started in November. She refused. If you refuse to recant your awful positions, don’t be surprised when you face consequences.

I lament that more people don’t face consequences for this crap. And you used to be with me on that stuff.

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I also don’t give too many rat’s asses either way but Disney making any other decision than this would have surprised me. She hurts the brand’s image while being of little value to the show. No brainer decision. And it seems like the decision predates this most recent idiocy posting.

Yeah this may have been calculated on her part - already knowing that her time at Disney was over doing something to double down with what might be her key demographic going forward. Win for Disney and win for her given that Disney was already not going to use her in the future.

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In my understanding, burning bridges, like she appears to have done, in the entertainment industry, is a terrible idea, and it’s likely she’s done permanent damage to her career. I think it’s likely that, without some major change of heart and a very sincere apology, she’s not going to be hired for any except fringe or right wing nutter productions.

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Replying to this sentiment, also expressed previously, and not so specifically to your take.

There’s a theory at work here, among some/many/any number of the MAGAts that’s reminiscent of something I remember Jerry Garcia (of the Grateful Dead) once saying:

Our music is like licorice. Not everybody likes licorice, but people who like licorice like licorice an awful lot.

I think there’s some unconscious calculus being done by many of these fucking morons that says something like: I’ll take 20% of Americans really loving/worshipping me over 50-70-ish% appreciating me, being nonplussed by me, or not knowing who I am.

Economically … cynically … financially … I’m not even sure it’s necessarily a bad bet – witness every well-known RW talking head.

It just requires you be just about totally fucking evil.

Now if that was your thing in the first place … no major loss, eh ?

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You saw her “acting”, right? It isn’t like she her acting chops were going to ensure her a great career in any case. She’s pegged for parts that sell her muscular build, and there will be action movies explicitly aimed at MAGA crowds that she will find parts in, more now than before. Just not with Disney.

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With any other big studio? I’m skeptical. I think she’s made herself essentially untouchable.

If she had already been a major star with clout, then maybe she’d be okay. But she’s not.

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For certain values of “big” … but big enough.

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Indeed; I think, at this point, it’d be more likely that she’d wind up making lower-budget action films with a smaller (maybe non-US based) studio, the sort that, before streaming took over, used to go direct-to-video rather than to theaters. That sort of film has been what Steven Seagal has made for the last 20 years.

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I’m sure she can star in an Uwe Boll film in the future.

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Wow, you must really hate her!

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I may have gone a bit too far. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. I retract that.

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Or… people go on and on about trivia because it’s a break from some of the very big scary real stuff that’s out there. It’s a weird form of escapism or entertainment. Recreational outrage indeed.

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Co-starring Kevin Sorbo and Kirk Cameron.

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No, Ukrainian nationalist. And the one with the baton is not a man.

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Amused by this interchange on Twitter:

Ted Cruz:

Respondent 1:

Respondent 2:

Solid burn.

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That was brutal.
I approve.

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Does SDMB do any active recruiting ? The author of that one is a bona fide walk-on.