Addendum: 2-12-2021, 5:30 p.m. mountain time: I was reminded that what happened to Gina Carano makes Disney+ and the social media cancel culture/hate mob guilty of the decades old practice of Hollywood Blacklisting. Click the link and have your eyes opened.

Addendum: 2-12-2021, 11:59 a.m. mountain time: Looks like Gina has a new project set up as well as new representation. I hope it all works out for her.

Addendum: 2-11-2021, 3:20 p.m. mountain time: Terrific 13+ minute video (some language) giving a detailed description of the cancel culture and yes, though they don’t think of themselves this way, the “hate mob.” Give a watch.

“Nobody has the right to live their life being protected from offense, or from insult, or from hurt feelings. It is an occupational hazard of living in Society! And if you really can’t take it, become a hermit”

-Ann Widdecombe

Yes, we all say and do things that sometimes upset others and sometimes other people say and do things that upset us. It’s the nature of being human to disagree with one another.

However, in the case of actress Gina Carano, it’s gone well beyond that. For the “crime” of expressing her opinions, she’s now out of a job. In other words, she was fired.

You may or may not know that Ms. Carano was featured on the highly popular Disney+/Star Wars television series The Mandalorian as the character Cara Dune. I must confess that although I’ve heard great things about the show, I’ve never watched an episode. No, not because I’m a Star Wars snob (although I am), but because I don’t purchase streaming services.

I may have to amend that practice relative to my admiration for Ms. Carano, but only to see the episodes in which she acts. On the other hand, with the #CancelDisneyPlus movement trending, I’m reminded not to give money to people who hate me.

So what did Ms. Carano do to get fired?

According to Newsweek:

The actress and ex-MMA fighter is no longer a part of the cast of the Star Wars series after she shared a post on social media that compared being a Republican today to the experience of Jewish people during the Holocaust.

Well, that must have upset a lot of people, but really, that was it?

Probably not. A Lucasfilm spokesperson is quoted as stating:

“Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future…Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

There’s got to be more.

Well, she was a Trump supporter, which all by itself, was probably enough. However, she issued this quote on instagram (which may not have originated with her):

“Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors… even by children… Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”

Given the rabid attitudes many leftists have against ANYONE who did or may be perceived to have supported Trump (not all conservatives supported him…I didn’t), I can see her point, but obviously others won’t.

According to the Hollywood Reporter:

On Wednesday, the hashtag #FireGinaCarano was trending following an Instagram post from the outspoken conservative actor and former mixed martial artist that was met with severe backlash. The post has since been deleted, but screenshots were widely shared by users on social media who called for her firing from the hit Disney+ Star Wars show.

This is not the first time Carano, who played former Rebel Alliance soldier Cara Dune on The Mandalorian, has been the focus of social media ire for her political comments. Last November, she issued contentious tweets, one in which she mocked mask-wearing amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and another in which she falsely suggested voter fraud occurred during the 2020 presidential election.

“They have been looking for a reason to fire her for two months, and today was the final straw,” a source with knowledge of Lucasfilm’s thinking tells THR.

Let that sink in. “They have been looking for a reason to fire her for two months.” Wow!  Lucasfilm said “We don’t agree with her opinions so we need to create an excuse to fire her.” What does that sound like?

Oh, and again according to Newsweek:

Back in September, she was accused of transphobia after making a joke that mocked the use of pronouns.

After being asked by social media users to add her pronouns to her bio, she added the words “boop/bop/beep” to her Twitter name, in apparent ridicule of the convention which seeks to normalize their inclusion to avoid the misgendering of trans people.

Really? Since when does anyone owe “social media users” their personal pronouns? On twitter, I list mine as “Dude” and “Dudester,” which is basically a send up of the main character in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski starring Jeff Bridges and John Goodman.

So far, no one has complained (although I do more or less regularly “trigger” people on social media and I’m sure this blog post will do it again).

And it’s not like Gina hasn’t received more than her fair share of sexist harassment. She just doesn’t take it lying down as her detractors want her to.

I almost forgot, Variety states:

Another photo on Carano’s story featured a person with several cloth masks covering their entire face and head. The caption said “Meanwhile in California.”

You mean like this? I’ve posted numerous, similar memes on social media and hardly anyone blinked.

One of the sources I found was Deseret.com which is associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints (LDS or Mormons). Their take is:

People on social media responded to the actress’ tweets. Of course, the responses are really isolated to social media, and there’s no indication the general public is feeling this way. Still, fans did express backlash to Carano’s tweets about voter fraud, saying the former UFC fighter might need to be let go from the show.

However, if you are in the public eye as a famous actress, author (J.K. Rowling) or even a dead politician (Winston Churchill), social media is all that’s required for the cancel culture to demand your head on a pole (metaphorically speaking, of course).

For instance, these quotes from social media:

the only reason gina carano is so buff is because she spends her days digging herself into a deeper hole
— CEO of Pedros PR Team (ง •̀_•́)ง (@pollito_pascal) November 8, 2020

Lol, I am not surprised Gina Carano believes some great conspiracy is happening. It’s called counting, Gina.

Tells you the kind of person she is and the kind of person she supports. This is who you’re working with, @starwars. Just FYI.
— Johnamarie Macías (@BlueJaigEyes) November 5, 2020

I should note that @pollito_pascal‘s twitter account is suspended and @BlueJaigEyes protects her tweets. I guess there’s a good reason why in both cases.

That being said, the #FireGinaCarano hashtag worked. She’s gone.

This is yet another signal that you cannot work in the entertainment industry or be prominent in any creative community if you do not “toe the line.” It’s not just the quality of your work, but your opinions, who you are, your values, and your beliefs that they’ll judge you on. Your work and your career lives or dies at the whim of the “triggered.”

Yes, I agree, people can and have gone too far. If you are posting white supremacist hate, making fun of Down’s kids participating in the Special Olympics, issuing racist epithets (no, just being white and having a heartbeat doesn’t automatically make you a racist), or anything undeniably and demonstratively harmful to other individuals or groups, then yes, you could lose your job.

In 2017, a woman riding a bicycle flipped off then-President Trump as his motorcade was passing her. This was photographed, put on social media, and she was subsequently fired. However, she leveraged that into winning an election for a local office in Virginia, so in her case, I guess it wasn’t all bad.

Right here in my own backyard, a school teacher who said that Boise Mayor Lauren McLean ‘should “get laid” by Black Lives Matter members’ lost her job due to that statement, and rightfully so (I don’t agree with many of Mayor McLean’s policies either, but don’t wish her any harm, nor would I make such an outrageous suggestion).

As a somewhat related aside, I noticed that the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America are offering a deal on a StoryBundle as follows:

Since the early days of science fiction, authors have explored the future of humanity and what other life might be out there among the stars. From cybernetics to spaceships to alien contact, future-focused sci-fi lets us explore complex issues while escaping from everyday life. Eighteen diverse visions of Expansive Futures have been gathered in a special collection curated by SFWA members, now available in a limited-time bundle.

SFWA is an organization dedicated to promoting and supporting science fiction and fantasy writers in the United States and worldwide. Featuring award-winning authors and fresh new voices, the Expansive Futures StoryBundle is sure to please fans of futuristic sci-fi and space opera.

Read more about the EIGHTEEN books in the bundle here, and make sure to click on each cover for a synopsis, reviews and preview of each book!

Given my general experience with the SFWA and how they have “weaponized” diversity (they haven’t come after me personally since I’m too small and thus beneath their notice), the implied statement is:

SFWA is an organization dedicated to promoting and supporting science fiction and fantasy writers in the United States and worldwide as long as you are a diverse, marginalized voice, a white person who unreservedly supports and affirms diverse, marginalized voices at the cost of their own self-esteem and self-worth, AND an author who crafts tales elevating only diverse, marginalized voices to the exclusion of all else, even good writing (emphasis mine).

Okay, maybe that was a tad overstated, but SF/F in particular and the entertainment industry in general has been nurturing a very specific bias over a decade or more (probably much more) and it’s only plunging further into that direction.

That means if you are a writer, artist, actor, or other creative individual and you DON’T fit that mold, bowing down to the gods of progressivism, if you come to public attention with your values, opinions, and beliefs (let’s say you are over sixty, male, white, Libertarian-leaning, Christian, pro-free speech, pro-family, love your grandchildren, don’t believe the mid-west is merely “fly-over” country, and long for the days when science fiction was sold based on good writing rather than social posturing), then there will likely be a hashtag with your name on it.

I’ve been watching Mike Glyer’s fanzine File 770, but they haven’t published anything on Carano’s firing yet. They will. I’ve tried to make comments on Glyer’s platform in the past and was thoroughly flamed for the effort. I had to stop following the blog and twitter account of a fellow in Australia who disagrees with many of my opinions, but who I thought was fair. Recently, I made a comment to him on his blog mentioning I was conservative (which he had known for quite some time) which he took well. However, a number of people following him immediately jumped all over me, accusing me of “crimes” of which I had not even remotely committed, all because of their assumptions on the definition of “conservative.” He didn’t step in to cool down the “surly mob” which I took as a “get out of Dodge” sign.

Glyer’s fanzine has the sub-title “Mike Glyer’s News of SF Fandom.” As we’ve seen on multiple occasions, and as Gina Carano is currently experiencing, fandom is toxic.

Even if you don’t agree with Carano’s opinions (or at least some of them), you might still want to support her. After all, if it can happen to her, it can happen to you and me, at least if you have a career or even an avocation that you need to market (such as being an indie SF/F author).

Consider:

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

-Martin Niemöller

For more details on the blatant, unjust harassment Gina Carano is taking, visit Dataracer‘s twitter thread.

Also check out this Not the Bee article (this means it’s not satire although it is silly enough to qualify).

The final quote from that publication’s article:

Even author Christian Schneider, who believes her posts were “abhorrent,” admitted “if what she was tweeting was just as crazy, but on the left, she’d still be working for Lucasfilm.”

The backlash to this move was (fortunately) massive and swift. “#CancelDisneyPlus” went trending on Twitter. I am just one of the people who followed through on that call to action.

Ya done messed up, Disney.

Remember, powerful female characters are needed – but only when they toe the ideological line and don’t tick off the hypocritical men that run the company.