On The Gina Carano Situation...
A Pretend Victim of The Highest Caliber
Gina Carano is an actress and a mixed martial artist, who also happens to be very right-wing in her politics—and she isn’t quiet about it. She’s shared posts on social media mocking people who wore face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic (despite us having evidence that face masks, especially respirators, reduce COVID transmission [1] [2] ), and claiming voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election (despite having zero evidence to back it up). The final nail in the coffin for LucasFilm, however, was her tweet likening being a conservative in America, to being a Jew in Nazi Germany. [4]
What got Gina ‘canceled’ wasn’t necessarily her tweet, it was the fact that she doubled down on it. If she had just said, “Hey look, what I said wasn’t appropriate. It was insensitive to those who survived the holocaust (as there are still holocaust survivors alive today), those who died in the holocaust, and to those who lost loved ones in the holocaust. As well as to those who were truly oppressed and persecuted under the Nazi regime. I shouldn’t have said it, and I’m sorry.” If she would’ve said that, even if she reiterated that she still holds the belief that conservative voices are being suppressed, she wouldn’t have gotten canceled. What got her canceled was a) continuing to post offensive stuff that goes against the values of Disney and LucasFilm, even after being warned multiple times by Disney and LucasFilm not to do so b) doubling down on her tweet, and then crying when she got fired.
I could get fired from my job if I put something on my social media that the company I work for doesn’t like, especially if I’ve made it known on that platform that I work for my employer. Like if I have a profile picture of me in my uniform, or have my workplace in my bio. Why should she be any different just because she’s an actress? Private companies reserve the right to fire an employee if said employee doesn’t align with their values as an organization. Even then, she wasn’t technically ‘fired’ per se, her contract just wasn’t renewed. Like yeah, read between the lines. But her contract wasn’t renewed by a private company at the end of the day, and that doesn’t violate free speech in any way. Freedom of speech protects you as a citizen from government prosecution, based on words you’ve spoken or written. For instance, you can’t be criminally prosecuted, where it would be like The State of Ohio v *your last name* [3] , for tweeting or verbally saying racist shit. However, there are limits to free speech even in that regard. Because it’s illegal (meaning you can be criminally prosecuted) to verbally threaten a law enforcement officer, and to yell “fire” in a public place if there isn’t a fire. So, there are limitations to free speech. That said, what happened to Ms. Carano wasn’t criminal prosecution, it was a ‘social consequence’, wherein lies the judicial-adjacent body colloquially called “the court of public opinion”. Essentially, she faced a fair and protected reaction from a corporation (and ultimately from the public at large with #FireGinaCarano) for actions she took, even after plenty of warning from said corporation. This is something we’re all subject to as employees of a company. If you had a company you built from scratch, with love and care, and hired an employee who seemed great at first, but who would then go on to get swastika tattoos, including one on his forehead, and hold Nazi rallies on his time off—would you want the government to force you to continue to employ that person if you didn’t want to? Or would you like the right to terminate employment as that person is displaying what is, hopefully, behaviors that do not align with your company’s values. You probably wouldn’t want your company’s name and image besmirched by a Nazi wearing your company’s uniform, and representing your company in public as an employee. Right? Equally, if you were for some reason completely fine with a Nazi working at your company, so long as they showed up and did good work, you wouldn’t want the government to force you to fire that employee for being a Nazi, would you? A ‘right’ comes with protection on both sides, meaning the inverse of a stated right is inferred for protection by default. If you want to own a gun, you have that right, but you also have the right to not own a gun. You have the right to an attorney, but you also have the right to not have an attorney and represent yourself. You have the right to remain silent and not make any statements, but you also have the right to not remain silent and to make statements. You get it.
For me, the bottom line is that if she had a measured, responsible and adult response to being fired, she may not have gotten rehired, but people would’ve been like, “Okay, that was a mature response, she acknowledged her wrongdoing and apologized. She owned up to it.” She could’ve went on to have a good career and people would’ve respected her more, as other reputable talent agencies and production companies probably would’ve felt like she was okay to hire. Gina wouldn’t have been basically blacklisted. Now, she’s stuck doing shitty little movies for the Daily Wire that no one watches, because no one wants to hire her. She’s playing the victim, and trying to gaslight her fans into believing she was wronged by Disney. She’s so pathetic and has lost all respectable relevancy, irrespective of the outcome of her case against Disney.
Reference & Citations:
[1] National Library of Medicine
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10446908/
[2] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7106e1.htm
[3] University of Minnesota
[4] PBS
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/gina-carano-fired-from-mandalorian-after-social-media-post