Cancel culture hits on the left and the right
The Mandalorian star Gina Carano has been sacked from Disney because she tweeted:
“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,” she wrote.
Now Holocaust comparisons are usually stupid, and Carano’s was no exception. But the point she was making is don’t hate your neighbour because they may have different political views to you. And that got her canceled.
And the irony is her co-star also did a Holocaust comparison tweet, where he actually compared to the US Government to Nazi Germany. Yet nothing happened to him.
Also Ben Shapiro pointed out that if there is anything that is closest to The Holocaust happening today, it is what China is doing to the Uighurs with mass sterilisations etc. But DIsney recently filmed Mulan in China and thanked the Chinese Government for their co-operation. Yet Carono gets cancelled for her tweet.
Cancel culture is primarily used against people on the right, but as it grows it catches those on the left also. That is why everyone should oppose it.
Leftist Nathan Robinson was a columnist for The Guardian. He had previously said there is no such thing as cancel culture. Then he tweeted:
“it’s the law” that “the US Congress is not actually allowed to authorize any new spending unless a portion of it is directed toward buying weapons for Israel”
Now this was pretty obviously a satirical tweet. I didn’t find it anti-semitic. If it had been “The Jewish lobby is so powerful they force Congress to include arms for Israel in every bill” then it could be problematic. But is at worst a sarky tweet.
But cancel culture meant he got dropped by the Guardian, despite him even clarifying in a follow up tweet it was satirical. There is no way he should have lost his column for that one tweet. Just as Gina Carono should not be blacklisted in Hollywood because of her tweet.
So all those who take part in cancel culture should beware – because it will probably turn on them and bite them one day.