But it needs to be viewed in light of her previous comments and (presumably) her warning status with her employer. The two recent posts are an indication of what Disney could expect if they kept working with her.
It feels good when you stop.
Comparing the media treatment of pandemic-denying conservatives—a group of people who are collectively okay with shaming, shunning, physically attacking, and occasionally running down those who don’t agree with them—to how the Nazi regime treated Jews (and Roma, Slavs, homosexuals, “defectives”, et cetera), e.g. by rounding them up into “concentration camps” and executing over 18 million non-combatants in a deliberate campaign of genocide and ‘liquidation’ to the condemnation of conservatives for rejecting science, fact, and actual compassion (as opposed to “Conservative Compassion” which is about as Orwellian NewThink as it comes) is pretty much the apex of deliberately hyperbolic and hypocritical offensiveness. If you are going to compare some group to Nazis in a public way, it should be because they are advocating for rounding people up and having them executed.
Is the character really that cool or difficult to replace? She’s kind of a generic NPC ally who is good at punching stuff, and doesn’t have any particular ties to the main storyline. You could swap in any other generic good-at-punching figure without missing anything plotwise. Given that the entire show appears to be Jon Favreau’s Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG campaign put to film, I’m sure he can roll up another character in time for the next series.
Stranger
She apparently thinks wearing masks isn’t a big deal and that the election was rigged – wrong on both accounts, but these are fairly mainstream conservative opinions. Are we going to fire people for being conservative now, just because in some cases, we can? We’re just feeding the martyr complex.
I have no doubt Disney went through a systematic process. They aren’t stupid. They covered all the bases. I remain convinced similarly “offensive” comments made in the past wouldn’t have cost an actor a gig.
I’d posit that it’s only the hullaboo that you really object to. Let’s say Gina Carano wasn’t on S3 of The Mandolorian, and nobody said anything about it. Then a few years later you read some article on page 12 of Variety where someone says “Oh yeah, Gina Carano said some dumb shit about Jews a few years ago and Disney didn’t renew her contract because of it.” What would your reaction be? Probably a big ol’ meh. Just like if Jim from accounting got let go for making an off-color comment in the break room.
I think the difference is that this is so public, and people are so outraged, it all feels like way too much. Boring inner workings of Disney contracts shouldn’t really be America’s entertainment for the day, and I think that might be what has you feeling uncomfortable.
She was fired for being offensive and stupid. That’s not really being conservative or Republican, however the Venn diagrams happen to overlap a lot these days.
People aren’t being fired for being “conservative”; they’re being fired for actively spreading harmful disinformation. The former is about what people are; the latter about what they do.
And if the Venn diagram of the two groups substantially overlaps, maybe that’s something the conservatives ought to be doing something about themselves rather than whining about persecution.
ETA; Aw snap…
If you all really wanted to punish Carano, why not just set up a match between her and Cyborg Justino Venancio? Now that’s punishment!
I think one of the things that’s sticking with me, @asahi , is where do you draw those two lines ?
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What sort of action/speech on the part of what sort of employee (or putative representative of a business) crosses the line between appropriate and inappropriate, and
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What sort of consequence do you think is reasonable when that line is crossed ?
Maybe it’s also helpful to discuss whether your view is different if there is a contract with a clause that specifically addresses “potentially damaging to the brand” (or equivalent), and/or if it’s a serial offender who has/hasn’t been counseled about the behavior.
It feels like your argument in this case isn’t particularly nuanced. I think there are lots of potential cases and each needs to be understood on its own particulars.
I think the word “we” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in those last few sentences. “We” didn’t fire her. “We” didn’t fire anyone. The multinational Disney conglomerate, which employs more people to manage its brand than my company has employees in total, has decided that association with Gina Carano hurts their bottom line more than it helps.
The very second that I, or you, or anyone posting to this thread or living in the world becomes a net negative in profits for the people who write our checks, those people will stop writing us checks.
I’m not sure what, really, is being pitted here. Capitalism?
That “these are fairly mainstream conservative opinions” is indicative of a major problem that demands scrutiny and criticism. This isn’t a matter of a difference of opinion; it is a denial of verifiable fact. I have zero problem with “cancelling” someone who walks around promulgating transparent falsehoods, especially those that have substantive harms resulting from them.
As for the “martyr complex”, that is an identifiable characteristic of the modern “Conservative” movement. These are people who have no problem shouting loudly about how celebrities like George Clooney, Cameron Diaz, Matt Damon, et cetera shouldn’t use their platform as an entertainer to express political views, but then whine and snap like a particularly soiled Chihuahua when someone expressing their preferred views is publicly critiqued. Where were all these people when the Dixie Chicks were “cancelled” for protesting the invasion of Iraq?
Stranger
Good for you for posting this. It is getting ridiculous; whatever happened to agreeing to disagree and letting people learn from their mistakes? Nowadays it’s one wrong tweet and the social media crowd want to throw the whole person away.
Also in today’s cancel culture news: a Guardian journalist who previously denied the existence of cancel culture was fired for a tweet criticising Israel. Ironic.
Or Colin Kaepernick. “You’re an entertainer, shut up and play.”
It’s a shame, I liked her character. But as long as Disney warned her sufficiently I don’t have a problem with her being fired.
But if they didn’t say “quit posting controversial stuff or we will no longer be employing you” and just fired her because she has some stupid views, can’t shut up about them, and people on the internet want to dispense their armchair justice, that would be unfortunate.
Again, it was not just a single tweet in this case.
The Colin Kaepernick kneeling outrage is a whole ‘nother level of hypocritical horseshit. There is apparently no problem using sporting events of all kinds as promotional platforms for military recruitment and jingoistic patriotism, but how dare a player make a silent, token act in demonstration of a prevalent social issue. I think Conservatism as a whole had a collective figurative stroke over the “issue”, which had the benefit of pushing it to the forefront of news and opinionating rather letting it disappear as a brief aside between announcers.
Stranger
So.
One - NOT an anti-Semitic comment.
Two - YES an OFFENSIVE comment. Offensive in its dumb as fuck stupidity, and offensive that someone solidly of the group appealing to anti-Semites, racists, anti-immigrants, transphobics, and much more, is whining that people are calling them out, portraying that as similar to the Nazi propaganda machine against Jews in the '30s.
Three - I actually have some begrudging respect for someone who expresses a position they believe in knowing that it may cost them dearly, such as their career. I respect that when it for a position I agree with, such as Kaepernick’s taking his knee, and I respect it when the position is a horrific one, like this idiot’s. Overall I have very little respect for Carano, as what she believes in is so horrible, but this little bit? Yes. I do not think that even she is so dumb as to not realize that after the firestorm she was facing over her past tweets that this one might be the one that had her bosses say buhbye.
Fourth - HMS has it exactly right. She is not an accountant; she is the product. The public’s take on her is part of what is getting sold. She’ll now be able to sell very well to 30 to 35% of Americans, but Disney doesn’t want something on their shelf that repels 50 to 55% of their consumers, especially since that 50 to 55% includes more of their most desired demographics. Controversial “bad” boys and girls can sell well, but it is not the Disney brand. You do that after you stop being Hannah Montana.
(IMHO the character is no great loss from the franchise.)
I think this is my bottom line.
Look, if Carano had posted something along the lines of ‘the Holocaust was a Jewish hoax’…okay, yes, absolutely, fire her ass.
We need to have some built in level of tolerance for occasionally controversial views. I am increasingly seeing none, and I haven’t changed my worldview one iota: I am still hyper-progressive and have strong attitudes toward modern “conservatism.”
But my worldview also has some space for right wing shit that I don’t agree with, even some things I find downright kooky.
I don’t doubt that Disney can fire her – they had legal recourse to do so, and they did. That’s not debatable.
Can, and should are different things, though. I don’t know if they absolutely had to fire her.
There has been a big movement for a while to get her dumped based on her long track record of social media statements that do not appeal to target demographics. Anyone with two neurons that are on speaking terms with each other would know their ice is thin without an explicit warning.