Jeremy C Kester

The other day I made a major mistake. But in a way, this was a good mistake. Looking through my YouTube feed, I stumbled upon a video by a YouTuber I’ve been enjoying lately, The Critical Drinker. For those who have never heard of him, he’s a writing critic who posts videos where he often blasts terrible choices in writing in a kindof drunk-sounding rant. I like him a lot thanks to that bitter snark that he runs with in his videos. However, my mistake was watching a video on Gina Carano called “The Girl Who Wouldn’t Back Down”. Before that, I was oblivious to the controversy surrounding Gina and Disney and Star Wars. Hmmm…

Then I watched another video from a random Star Wars commentator who had outlined what was going on in the fallout over what ended up being the firing of Gina. That video appeared because I watched the first which appeared because I was subscribed to The Critical Drinker. And that was my mistake.

So even though I watch ASMR videos (because I am one of those freaks that actually finds them extremely relaxing) at a 5:1 ratio vs anything else on YouTube, with music being the closest second, and then a weird hodgepodge of other things including writing videos and other things, my YouTube feed has been inundated with videos regarding the whole Gina Carano event. Besides the two videos I did watch, I’ve had to almost play dodge-ball to keep from even accidentally clicking on another and ruining my targeted algorithms for a month.

Suffice to say, from what I understand of the whole of the situation is this: Gina Carano, who played Cara Dune on the hit Disney+ series “The Mandalorian”, was fired after posting a tweet (although I’d argue a series of tweets) where the Twitter populous found grounds to grant her with a call for cancellation. Then, after these mobs got their wish, a counter revolt against the news came with scores of people canceling their subscriptions to Disney+. One thing is certain… nevermind, there is not much that is certain here.

From what I can tell, the problem that Gina had was that she was an outspoken conservative voice in Hollywood. Being conservative isn’t as much of the problem as much as that she was one who not only spoke openly about it, but also was not afraid of confrontation. Combine that with the unreality of Twitter and the rest of social media, which leans much further left than I’d argue the average citizen and things can descend into madness fairly quickly. (Note that I am not arguing that the average citizen leans right, only that social media tends further left than the average.) Confrontation on social media is a lot like screaming into a wall with someone else screaming on the other side, no matter the political leanings. Neither side hears the other, but they all believe they are doing good. When one even goes far enough to either side of the spectrum, this arguing becomes virtually incoherent and illogical at best.

There’s something than could be argued here. One might say that it is reasonable that Gina should have known better than to be so overt about her beliefs, particularly when working for a company such as Disney. I would agree with this if the same standards were held across the board — on both sides of the aisle. I don’t like the “it’s only OK if my team does it” bullshit that happens to the point that I have to almost enter a drunken stupor to forget exists. In this case, it was shown that the star of the show, Pedro Pascal, had posted similarly themed content only from the other end of the political spectrum. Morals and ethics should stand on both sides equally. I might understand where the thinking is on one side that leads them to less-than-optimal behavior, but the end result is that either one chooses to hold everyone accountable in equal terms, or they choose to behave hypocritically. In this case, those who fired Gina opted for the latter.

Now, before I go much further, I fucking love Disney. That is even as the third trilogy of Star Wars was a flaming piece of writing garbage. (Seriously, the characters were all weak, leaving alone the plot — but that is for another rehashed topic.) My family and I are planning to go back to Disney World (and Universal Studios — I mean, Hogwarts!) as many times as we can manage in our future. We love the attention that Disney puts in to ensure that everyone has a wonderful time there. (And I am watching Tangled for the umpteenth time as I write this — it is one of my absolute favorite movies.) One of the many things I espouse though is that whether one loves something or hates it, one should be able to view the thing objectively. In other words: I believe Disney done fucked up.

The thing is, Gina played a popular character on the show. Though she might have misbehaved, or in this case she behaved in a manner that a group of people did not approve of (can’t please everyone, right?), Gina could be said to have been acting as herself. She was being true to what she saw herself as. Isn’t this the ultimate goal that we all are shooting for? That people can be themselves without retribution being taken on them for it? Unfortunately there will always be people who don’t like others who are confident with themselves… particularly when that confidence doesn’t align with their own beliefs. I know this all to well as an atheist in a religious family. Gina’s character was a solid piece on the show and maybe some other measures could have been taken short of an outright cancellation of her contract. In a show that is as good as “The Mandalorian” is, we have to be able to make some distinction between the art and the artist… or in this case, the actress. Oh wait, I made a post about this already.