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February 23, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Former Star Wars actress Gina Carano is opening up about her experience being fired by Disney-owned Lucasfilm for dissenting from left-wing orthodoxy, giving an in-depth interview to conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, whose Daily Wire is partnering with the actress on an all-new film.
Earlier this month, Lucasfilm terminated its association with Carano following online activists’ uproar over an Instagram post in which the former MMA fighter warned 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?”
In response, Lucasfilm issued a statement saying Carano, who co-starred as heroic mercenary Cara Dune in the popular streaming series The Mandalorian, “is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”
The statement did not identify any post by Carano that “denigrat[es] people based on their cultural and religious identities.” The Hollywood Reporter quoted one source as saying Lucasfilm had “been looking for a reason to fire her for two months, and today was the final straw.”
“I’ve never really been interested in politics,” Carano tells Shapiro in the hour-long interview. “As soon as I started seeing what was happening, I guess, in 2020, I started looking up like, well, maybe the adults don’t have it under control, and maybe I’m an adult now and maybe I have a responsibility to pay attention.”
One early contribution to her political awakening, she says, came last fall, when pro-LGBT activists attacked her for refusing to add “preferred gender pronouns” to her Twitter bio, an act of solidarity with transgenderism. “I ended up putting ‘beep bop boop’ in my Twitter bio, and it was 100% to go to the Twitter mob that was telling you what to do; and it had zero to do with trying to go after the transgender community,” she recalls.
Another major factor was the economic shutdowns mandated last year by various state governments in the name of containing COVID-19. “I was really upset about the shutdowns,” Carano says. “I know what it’s like to be working and then not to work … I know the depression that comes with not working because my job has been on and off its entire life. Not having a job and not having purpose, it’s devastating. You know, you go through a depression.”
Online activists continued to heckle Carano and Disney over the actress’s conservative commentary on social media, which also touched on vote fraud and COVID-19 mask mandates. Left-wing calls for her head were not acted upon, with rumors persisting that Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau intervened on her behalf, until February, when Lucasfilm executives reportedly went over Favreau’s head.
Carano tells Shapiro that nobody within the company informed her she was being let go before publicly announcing the news.
“You know how boxers head-hunt sometimes and forget to go for the body?” she asks. “I feel like Disney or Lucasfilm or whoever it is, just certain people at that company … I feel like I’ve been being head-hunted and you can feel it. Just a couple of weeks ago, Lucasfilm asked an artist that they employ to erase my character and put a different character in place, and he proudly announces this on Twitter, and erases my character, and puts another character in place.”
“All the fans of Cara Dune were just outraged,” she notes. “They were like ‘Why didn’t you add the character? Why did you have to take off the character? Is there something wrong? Is Gina getting fired?’”
“I saw someone from the company accidentally send me a conversation, that they were tracking the ‘Fire Gina Carano’ hashtag on content that had nothing to do with me,” Carano reveals. “It actually had zero to do with me, and all of a sudden, I get thrown into the mix … They accidentally sent me an email, which was very enlightening, so I knew. I knew they were paying attention.”
“I know there were some people who went to bat for me, but I know that they didn’t win out at the end,” Carano says.
“I was prepared at any point to be let go because I’ve seen this happen to so many people,” she continues. “I’ve seen the looks on their faces. I’ve seen the bullying that takes place, and so when this started, they point their guns at you, and you know it’s only a matter of time. I’ve seen it happen to so many people, and I just thought to myself … ‘you’re coming for me, I know you are.’ They’re making it very obvious through their employees who were coming for me, and so I was like ‘I’m going to go down swinging and I’m going to stay true to myself.’”
During the interview, Carano reveals that she is “not the only one that’s ever been bullied by this company,” but cannot relay stories shared with her in confidence. Suffice it to say, however, “everyone is afraid of losing their job.”
In the wake of her firing, conservatives quickly noted that her Mandalorian co-star Pedro Pascal, who plays bounty hunter and main protagonist Din Djarin, was not similarly disciplined for a 2018 tweet containing a far more inflammatory Holocaust analogy, comparin the Trump administration to Nazi Germany over the former’s policy of temporarily separating minors from illegal border crossers (while using a photo that was actually of Palestinian children in a food line):
#ThisisAmerica pic.twitter.com/LR3Yjj4JEQ
— Pedro Pascal he/him (@PedroPascal1) June 20, 2018
Shapiro asked Carano about the apparent double-standard, which she acknowledged but stressed does not impact her friendship with Pascal.
“I adore him,” she says. “I know he’s said and done some hurtful things … but I know that, you know, he thinks a lot of the stuff that I post, y’know, like, but there’s so much love there still, you know? And we had an agreement after we realized we were a little bit politically different. We had an agreement that — first and foremost — you’re a human being. And you’re my friend first.”
PETITION UPDATE (2/23/21) -
LifeSite has signed on to a Media Research Center (MRC) letter to all 50 state Attorneys General, calling for an investigation into Big Tech.
Google, Facebook, and Twitter have monopolized the industry, and are using their influence to collect user data, suppress content, and silence those who voice ideas and beliefs counter to their own.
As we urged prior, action must be taken to combat these efforts, and that is why we’ve joined the MRC in this fight.
Please take a couple of minutes to READ this LifeSiteNews article about MRC's initiative: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/lifesite-joins-effort-asking-state-attorneys-general-to-investigate-big-tech-for-deceptive-trade-practices
Then, please SIGN and STOP using Twitter, Facebook, Google (YouTube) and Amazon to take back your privacy and freedom of speech!
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PETITION UPDATE (2/9/21) -
YouTube just completely removed the LifeSiteNews YouTube channel. This isn’t a ban, every single one of our videos is completely gone. Being completely removed from YouTube means we’ve lost access to 300,000+ followers.
This is the latest and appalling affront to free speech which is happening to many conservative and Christian organizations.
Please SIGN this petition and STOP using YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google (owner of YouTube) and Amazon to take back your privacy and freedom of speech!
We are not going to take this lying down!
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PETITION UPDATE (1/26/20) -
Twitter has again locked LifeSiteNews out of two of our accounts on the platform for displaying a message noting that President Joe Biden’s newly named Assistant Secretary of Health “Rachel” Levine is a man.
Both accounts displayed a simple message which read: “Biden names transgender ‘woman’ as Assistant Secretary of Health. ‘Rachel’ Levine is a father of two who divorced his wife in 2013 after 30 years of marriage.” The tweets also included a link to LifeSite’s article Biden names transgender ‘woman’ as Assistant Secretary of Health, and contained part of the opening sentence of that article, “Joe Biden has announced his intention to appoint a gender-confused man” as Assistant Secretary of Health.
For stating biological or Biblical truths, Twitter and Big Tech are trying to shut down conservative voices.
Therefore, it is now more important than ever to consider dumping Twitter, Google (who own YouTube) and Facebook. To be clear: LifeSite is still using Twitter and Big Tech to encourage others to migrate away from these illiberal platforms.
This is not the first time that LifeSiteNews has been censored by Twitter. In December 2019, Twitter indefinitely suspended our account for a tweet that linked to an article on transgender activist Jonathan “Jessica” Yaniv.
At the time, Twitter gave LifeSite the option to delete the tweet and reactivate our account right away. LifeSite remained steadfast that the tweet did not violate any of the company’s “rules and policies,” and sought several appeals with Twitter, while looking into legal action against the company.
And, while LifeSite's account was eventually restored, we must now consider what course of action we will pursue in this case, over and above appealing the ban.
Meanwhile, since taking office on Wednesday last week, Joe Biden has already signed an executive order which will force women’s athletic programs, restrooms, and locker rooms to be open to men. He has also turned back the Trump administration’s policy protecting women’s sports programs in schools.
Last week, LifeSite was banned for two weeks from our YouTube channel, after the site determined that one of our videos about vaccines violated YouTube’s “community guidelines.” We are also in the middle of appealing this ban.
Please considering SIGNING and SHARING this petition. Thank you!
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Twitter just deplatformed President Trump premanently! And, other conservatives, including General Flynn and Sidney Powell, were also summarily deplatformed.
Conservatives, Christians and freedom-loving Americans of all political persuasions must now take a decision to preserve their free speech AND their ability to peaceably assemble by dumping Twitter and Big Tech, and by finding other good alternatives to communicate with each other and share their opinions.
Please SIGN our petition-pledge to Dump Twitter and Big Tech, and take back your freedom of speech and privacy. [CLICK HERE for our "Goodbye Google" resources page to find good alternatives to Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and Google!]
When you use Twitter or Facebook to communicate, and, or, Google and Amazon to search for something online, these companies can stifle your ability to share your thoughts and opinions and manipulate your search results, threatening your privacy, your freedom of speech, and even our democracy.
Evidence suggests that Twitter and Facebook's 'community guidelines' are selectively enforced against conservatives and Christians, while Google rigs their search algorithms to direct traffic away from conservative and Christian websites, effectively choking traffic to those sites.
Simply put, Twitter, Facebook, Google (who owns YouTube) and Amazon appear to be actively suppressing access to pro-freedom, pro-family and pro-life news and opinion.
Don't contribute to this assault on democracy: Stop using Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon as your default social media platforms and search engine! [CLICK HERE to find a good alternative to Google.]
To repeat: a few liberal and completely unaccountable computer programmers in Silicon Valley are dictating what we do and do not see in our Twitter and Facebook feeds, and in our Google searches.
We, here, at LifeSite, also recently had our Twitter account suspended by the company over "misgendering" a man who claims to be a woman.
LifeSite has also experienced a fall-off in Google search-related traffic since the company updated its search algorithms at the beginning of May.
And, since the November election, Twitter and Big Tech appear to have dramatically INCREASED their censorship of conservatives and Christians as the President Trump disputed the results of the election and when evidence of election fraud began to mount.
Now, it seems likely that they are trying to cut-off conservative leaders (like President Trump) from conservatives on the ground, and effectively exclude us from the national conversation.
But, this tactic will not work. Because Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon are not the only game in town! There are a good number of excellent alternatives which we list in our 'Goodbye Google' Resources page.
The great irony is that, while Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon executives talk a lot about maintaining freedom of speech and diversity, in fact, these hypocrites are ATTACKING free speech point-blank!
This kind of manipulation poses a lethal threat to our democracy, but as we see so clearly now, Twitter and Big Tech have shown no hesitation in excluding conservatives and Christians from the public square.
So, at this point, the only way to stop Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon is to quit using their platform.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition to pledge to stop using Twitter and Big Tech. Then, please CLICK HERE to find alternative search engines and social media platforms. Thank you!
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'BREAKING: Twitter permanently bans President Trump from platform' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-twitter-permanently-bans-president-trump-from-platform
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“I love that we’re just both passionate, you know?” Carano said. “And we just, we think a little bit differently … through our different experiences. I know that we both have misstepped on our tweets. We’re not perfect. We’re human beings, but he’s not a bad human being. He’s a sweet person.”
Nevertheless, she says the hostility she’s received has taken its toll.
“I’ve been called so much,” she says. “I’ve been called ‘racist,’ I’ve been called ‘transphobe,’ I’ve been called ‘homophobe,’ I’ve been called now ‘anti-semitic,’ and I’m like, I don’t take those lightly. Like you’re calling me, my soul, the blood that runs through me, you’re calling me that … you say that once to me, like, you’re done. I don’t want to talk to you ever again.”
This is despite the fact, she says, that “my actions towards other human beings have spoken for themselves … I am the one that, on sets, people come and cry to. I’m the one that sticks up for someone … like, ‘Hey, this is enough, this person needs out of this, like, they can’t breathe.’ And I’ve always been like that. I’ve stuck up for, like, minorities everywhere. I’ve gotten in fistfights. I’ve been in actual fights growing up in Las Vegas because I cannot stand bullying.”
“My body still is shaking, you know? It’s still devastating,” Carano admits. “But the thought of this happening to anybody else, especially, like, somebody who could not handle this the way I can? No. They don’t get to do that. They don’t get to make people feel like that.”
That, she says, is what keeps her going: “If I buckle, then little girls and little boys, who are not getting … a good fair shake at growing up right now, if I buckle, it’s going to make it okay for these companies who have a history of lying to be lying, and to do this to other people. And they’ve done it to other people and — and I’m not going down without a fight.”
Following Carano’s firing, the Daily Wire announced it had partnered with the actress to have her produce and star in an all-new film, as part of the conservative media outlet’s foray into non-Hollywood entertainment.