Which brings us to the opposite side of that coin and why your comments are misplaced as are far right snowflakey whinings about cancel culture.
Free speech as a political right must be available to everyone equitably or it is meaningless. It becomes tyranny and a political tool to abuse and manipulate the populace by the minority.
In other words, one has the right to say anything they want publicly so long as it does not cause harm to another person or infringe upon their rights. (Many of Trump’s supporters are about to learn this salient point via lawsuits for their election fraud lie slandering companies that build election machines.)
Anything.
Even the most vile, heinous, inhuman, horrific things that no one else, no rational, normal, humane person could ever agree with.
Having the right to say such things however does not absolve one from responsibility or accountability for doing so should that person be so imprudent as to not test out their hairbrained theories in the relative safety of privacy first.
Such comments, publicly made, are then subject to public response ALSO protected by freedom of speech. If you say something stupid, you absolutely do have the right to do so.
And everyone else has the right to tell you how blisteringly stupid you and your comment was.
That’s not cancel culture.
That’s how freedom of speech works in the public space. If you don’t like it, stay out of public space. It’s not a hard concept.
The First Amendment does not protect freedom of speech for some and deny it to others just because some people can’t handle the fact that their ideas and ideologies were rejected by the public at large. The marketplace of ideas means that consumers get to pick their fruit. It’s their choice, not the producers. You cannot force the sale by barring others from the marketplace, lying, slander, or hate speech because that’s not free speech. If consumers choose a different vendor, you’re not being canceled, they just don’t like your fruit so they bought someone else’s. That’s an indication that you should rethink what you’re selling.
Freedom of speech can never be a one way venture. If you find yourself advocating against someone’s right to respond negatively to publicly made ideologies and comments and calling it cancel culture, you might want to take a break, take a breath, step away long enough to get yourself in check and think it through before you respond.
John DeVore’s comment was not a vicious attack on Carla Giancarlo. He clearly stated she had the right to say what she wanted. He supported her right to free speech. His article was even less about her specifically than it was about whether or not she was being unfairly targeted by “cancel culture”.
I happen to know that Disney employees sign a contract that stipulates as terms of their employment protection at all times (on and off the clock) of the Disney name so long as you are in their employ. Assuming things haven’t changed dramatically since my exposure to the contract clause, her comments, while she has the first ammendment right to make them, violate the terms of that contract. Thus, her firing is not an act of cancel culture but due to a breach of contract.
Maybe she should have read her contract before she signed it. Or again, checked with a lawyer BEFORE making asinine comments on social media. Or kept her political views out of public space until she had a firmer handle on the consequences of her words and ideology or what accountability she might have been liable for. Or engaged in public space anonymously rather than using her notoriety to spew inflammatory rhetoric on the masses in a more amplifying fashion.
What would she have lost by doing so? By acting prudently as a public figure?
Not a damned thing other than the dopamine hit of being an asshole and “owning” the libs.
What would she have gained?
I don’t know. Does she value self respect? Does she value her reputation ? Does she want to be seen as more than a fringe hate junkie? Continued employment and opportunities that Disney can provide. A chance to develop a much larger loyal fan base who would have followed her throughout her career. I could go on.
She’s being pretty flippant about it. As she pleases, she has the right to continue being as much of an idiot as she wants. The rest of us have the right to point out the eye roll worthy idiocy of her conduct, wish her well on the journey to right wing obscurity, and then forget all about her.
