Entertainment Industry Cancel-Culture Producing Free Speech “Martyrs”

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  • 03/02/2023

At the very moment that this story from Human Events news writer Celine Ryan is being published, the United States Senate is engaged in the formal process of debating whether or not to  "cancel" a former United States President under the guise of impeachment.  Human Events News is committed to bringing you stories about other people, not just Presidents and celebrities, but everyday people who find themselves being "cancelled", or "martyred" as we will term them, in order to shine a bright light on the new dissident movement that stands opposed to the blatant encroachments upon freedom being made by big government and big institutions on daily basis.   HE News Director

As the range of viewpoints deemed acceptable within America's entertainment industry narrows, the 'woke' mob continues to weed out more and more benign figures from Hollywood and the wider entertainment industry. But when public figures find themselves at the middle of a "cancel culture" controversy, they often next find themselves being crowned the newest hero of a movement fighting for freedom of expression in America.

This phenomenon most recently manifested within public view this week, when actress Gina Carano has been dropped from the Disney Plus' Star Wars programming after social media posts that Disney Subsidiary Lucasfilm called "abhorrent."

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

Carano, who played Cara Dune on the popular program 'The Mandalorian', made the mistake of sharing a political post on social media that attempted to draw parallels between today's society and Nazi Germany.

“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.

Before ultimately being  cancelled for this post, which some are going so far as to characterize as "Anti-Semitic," Carano has been criticized in recent months for other social media posts, including the following:

The irony of Carano's post referring to "hating someone for their political views" being Disney's last straw was not lost on the American public. Disney's dropping of Carano suddenly launched her into the position of Martyr of the Moment, celebrated by anti-cancel culture advocates -- many of whom had likely never heard her name before Thursday. Online conversation around Disney's actions forced the hashtag #CancelDisneyPlus to the #1 Twitter trending term nationwide.

Of course, gaslighting detractors returned to their standard refrain of insisting that "cancel culture" is simply a simpleton's phrase for "being held accountable.

"Gina Carano’s Mandalorian exit proves ‘cancel culture’ doesn’t exist – despite what her fans say" is an actual headline that ran in the Independent Thursday atop an article that seemed to make the disjointed argument that Carano should or would have been fired earlier, for less offensive tweets, if the phenomenon actually existed.

"By the laws of our supposed 'cancel culture', she should have already been pariahed months ago. She wasn’t even made to apologise."

 

As many have pointed out, ‘Mandalorian’ actor Pedro Pascal also made a social media post comparing current events to Nazi Germany. Disney did not make any such condemnation statement about Pascal, whose post framed Trump supporters as the modern-day Nazis.

Others have pointed to Disney's apologist attitude toward concentration camps currently operating in China as wholly hypocritical given their reaction to Carano's language about Nazis.

In October, Disney defended its choice to film 'Mulan' in an area of China widely criticized for putting Muslims in internment camps, saying it had to do so for the sake of "authenticity."

Hollywood is not the only wing of the entertainment industry casting out those with unsavory opinions.

In June, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation ousted its long Custom Shop Master Builder, John Cruz. Why? Cruz had posted a Mean Meme about driving through protesters blocking the highway.

The meme, which made no mention of race, was posted during the widespread BLM protests and riots of 2020.

Fender's statement on the matter accused Cruz of "racism."

"We must continue to amplify voices of protest, voices of healing, voices of love, voice of peace but most of all, voices of change," read the statement from Fender CEO Andy Mooney.

But the truth is that speech-policing and idea-policing has even seeped its way into the culture of rebellion that used to exist amongst rock musicians. Rock legends Eric Clapton and Van Morrison dared to release a song criticizing the government in 2020.

The artists were sticking it to the man about the wrong thing, as it turns out. "Stand and Deliver" included choice words for the UK government, accusing it of an abuse of power in attacking individual liberties as a means of containing the coronavirus.

“Stand and deliver / You let them put the fear on you / Stand and deliver / But not a word you heard was true,” read the lyrics. “But if there’s nothing you can say/There may be nothing you can do/Do you want to be a free man/Or do you want to be a slave?”

Morrison had released a number of similar songs, including the aptly titled "No More Lockdown."

A Rolling Stone op-ed attacked the artist, and accused him of choosing "to attack attempts to protect the old and vulnerable in our society."

"There are also so many things in the world to sing protest songs about, like poverty, starvation, injustice, racism, violence, austerity – there’s a long list," read the peace.

Clapton stood behind Morrison at the height of the controversy, saying “There are many of us who support Van and his endeavors to save live music; he is an inspiration. We must stand up and be counted because we need to find a way out of this mess. The alternative is not worth thinking about. Live music might never recover.”

Image: by is licensed under
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