A while back, when Facebook was first becoming a thing, I recall there was an article imploring people to be careful with what they posted on the then rising platform.
Specifically, they noted that some people posted information about how excited they were about going on an upcoming vacation which took them away from their home. When the vacation was over and they got back, these people were shocked to find that their home/apartment had been broken into while they were gone.
What happened? Well, it seemed the thieves were scanning postings on Facebook and realized they had an unoccupied home available for them for X number of days and simply broke into it knowing the owners were away.
Sadly, I saw some friends of mind doing this same stupidity, posting on Facebook that they were eager to head out to, say, a Disney trip over the weekend, essentially telling anyone reading their post that their home would likely be left vacant while they were gone.
Which brings us to Gina Carano.
Don’t know who she is? Maybe this will help:
Gina Carano is an ex-MMA fighter turned actress who played Cara Dune on the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, the very popular set in the Star Wars universe TV series.
She played the character (past tense) because Disney has decided to part ways with her (the below link is to an article by Ed Mazza and was posted on huffingtonpost.com)…
The Mandelorian star Gina Carano axed after “abhorrent” social media posts
Like the Facebook postings I mentioned above, there remains to this day a big problem with people feeling the need to post their thoughts and, in the case of Ms. Carano, posting thoughts which expose her as… well… a person who maybe has fallen under the sway of alarming elements within society.
Look, I know not everyone out there is going to share my mostly liberal leanings. I know there are those out there who are very logical, well balanced, yet may have diametrically opposite political views to my own.
The world comes in all flavors!
But… if one begins to write outlandish ideas, far right screeds, and shows themselves to be in league with -or at least sympathetic with- some of the more out there ideals, and especially if you’re an actor who works for a company that doesn’t like the idea of hiring anyone with any dirt or controversy in their “character”, then maybe its best you keep some of your opinions to yourself.
In the case of Ms. Carano, she is clearly a person who espouses right wing ideals, but its one thing to have such ideals and another to go too far. In this case, going too far for Disney was comparing the current political climate in the United States -and against those who espouse right wing ideology- as being like living in “Nazi Germany”.
While it appears this was the post that precipitated Ms. Carano’s firing, she’s been posting uncomfortable material for a while now (the below linked article is by Joanna Robinson and Anthony Breznican and found on vanityfair.com)…
As Gina Carano and Star Wars fans clash, hero worship turns to scorn
From the above article:
Two months ago, Carano made dismissive remarks about trans pronouns. She’s also shared unproven theories about both the presidential election results and COVID-19 mask mandates. The hashtag #FireGinaCarano began trending Saturday, after Carano announced that she was setting up an account on Parler, a social media platform that has recently become a hit with Donald Trump faithful.
I find myself, again as a liberal individual who values free speech, rather uncomfortable with the idea of punishing people for certain free speech.
Again: If you are a conservative and into right wing ideology and can present well reasoned arguments for your philosophies, there’s nothing, IMHO, wrong with that even if I may totally disagree with your points.
However, there comes a point where one takes it too far.
I don’t know Ms. Carano, only the items linked above which got her into hot water and eventually fired, but I do know this:
I’m uncomfortable with people who espouse the idea that COVID-19 is a hoax and/or actively -and proudly!- endanger others by not wearing a freaking mask when in public. I’m very uncomfortable with people who allow themselves to be whipped into a frenzy under the lie that an election was stolen despite no evidence at all to prove this and 62 lawsuits, all but one of which were dismissed because Trump’s team couldn’t prove their heated rhetoric.
And I’m uncomfortable as hell with people who feel entitled to “protest” and create an insurrection by forcing their way into government buildings, the worst example of which was what occurred on January 6th.
I’m certain most -perhaps even all!- of these people do not view themselves as bad guys, but they are.
And they are because they allowed themselves to be convinced of multiple lies by an -admittedly!- charismatic man who played them all for his own benefit.
But…
Free speech can have consequences and Ms. Carano is experiencing them.
You can have your opinions and you can hold them very dear to yourself.
Realize though that by stating them out loud, whether in an interview or posted on Facebook or Twitter, there can be consequences.
If I hire someone at my business and it turns out they were involved in the events at the Capitol on January 6th, I’d think really hard -and ask plenty of questions before hiring them.
If I’m a multi-million dollar conglomorate like Disney and spend millions on a TV show, the last thing I want is to have one of the actors courting controversy and making fans unhappy by their mere presence.
Personally, I haven’t seen a single episode of The Mandelorian and have no idea how good Ms. Carano was in her role. I did see her in the movie Haywire, where she essentially played a female James Bond-like character, and I enjoyed her in that role.
I hope she takes this moment and instead of lashing out, dedicates herself to read and watch more legitimate news articles and gain a truer understanding of the world around her and not the conspiracy-twinged world of these right wing platforms.