Don’t look twice, it’s true: Gina Carano has officially been “cancelled.” After doing some digging into Carano’s social media presence, this is not the first time the actress has exposed herself to public criticism over heinous posts.
Known best for her roles as Cara Dune in Disney’s The Mandalorian and Angel Dust in Deadpool, Carano had finally begun building a successful acting career in film and television.
Carano has a history of potentially problematic social media posts, her Twitter page littered with her conservative political views. Carano has also been accused of transphobia, evident by her brief social media bio featuring the mocking—and unoriginal—pronouns of “beep/bop/boop”.
Carano has also made public her disdain towards America’s mask protocols, posting a photo to her Twitter page reading, “Democratic government leaders now recommend we all wear blindfolds along with masks so we can’t see what’s really going on.”
Her most recent post regarding the German government’s role in the Holocaust would eventually lead to her inevitable firing by Disney.
Many Twitter and Instagram users believe Carano is attempting to compare American Republicans to the Jews during the holocaust—however, this is pure speculation. There is no mention of Republicans in the post itself.
But the context is evident. Seemingly, Carano is referencing our society’s current political climate—a stance she has taken in the past—and directly comparing it to the slaughter of millions.
“Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children,” read her post.
Carano explained her intent further, posting a quote that read, “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?”
Well, Gina, I’d say it is. Politics are seeded in laws and customs. Religion is often based on faith and belief in spiritual forces. Religion is not always a voluntarily formed opinion. Quite often, people are simply brought into a religion through a spiritual upbringing or family tradition, amongst other involuntary motives.
More often than not, political views are a conscious decision made by free-thinking individuals. No one is born a Capitalist. Understand the disconnect.
Professor Daniel Maoz, Martin Luther University College’s Jewish scholar in residence, shared a comforting sentiment from his father; “If people didn’t drive in ruts, there wouldn’t be any.”
“It’s just my way of following my dad’s advice that ‘let’s see what else we can find out too.’ Because we already know what others have said. So that’s always been my mantra, to find a path that isn’t rutted.”
Carano has definitely found her path of least resistance. Although the sentiment mentioned above is not necessarily one of support, I believe it is one of understanding.
More than many celebrities of the past decade, Carano continues to receive overwhelming support from fans over social media. Although I’ve made it evident which side I’m taking, this is by no means the consensus. These perspectives go both ways.
“Political disagreements can get violent, that’s for sure, but have 6 million trump supporters been murdered by the government? no? then don’t compare the two,” wrote a Twitter user by the name of Sarah (@leiaswinterfell).
It’s an elementary comparison. The point she is trying to make is clear, but by comparing today’s political divide to the mass genocide of the Jewish people serves to discredit the pain and suffering of an entire race of human beings.
“I’m going to go down swinging and I’m going to stay true to myself,” Carano said during an interview with Ben Shapiro, a well-known conservative political commentator.
That’s fine and well. We are all entitled to our opinions; just don’t be surprised when a massive conglomerate like Disney, a company who often aims to capitalise on watered-down, family-friendly content, takes a stance of their own.
Not to say Disney isn’t flawed itself. We all remember their racist act of cropping John Boyega down on the Force Awakens poster for the Chinese release. It’s yet another case of the pot calling the kettle black.
But although my post-pubescent, pessimistic opinion is by no means unique, it is limiting and quite unforgiving. It’s often quite difficult to write without fear, passion and opinion. To a fairly socially-isolated, Italian Catholic like myself, the context of this situation can often be outside of my worldly perspectives.
“One of the biggies for me is to never ascribe to anybody; any intention that you don’t know from them, that that’s what they had as an intention,” Maoz said during a discussion on Gina Carano’s comments.
“Now, that is one of the most powerful, limiting and freeing pieces of Jewish tradition that I live by,” Prof. Maoz added. “On the other hand, the world lives by ascribing intention to others and judging others, it’s just another part of human nature, and so it’s sometimes very awkward to not take a judging stand and an ascribing intention stand when everybody around you is.”
“When a person is genuine, they’re not trying to cover their anatomy. They’re really just trying to be true to what they think and they mean and how they feel. And they’re leaving the rest of the universe to decide what to do with it,” Maoz added.
I do believe our society needs and deserves more optimistic, fresh perspectives like Professor Maoz’s mentioned above. Although my personal perspective is one of hostility and anger, it is and will always be important to assert your own opinion. When it comes to “cancel culture,” I think it always remains key to take a second look.
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