The Situation: A Messy One
The situation with James Gunn is a messy one. Not just for Gunn, Disney, and the MCU but for all of us. Let me briefly explain, for those who aren’t Marvel Fans, don’t bother with social media, or just have no clue what has happened with James Gunn.
Director James Gunn, the man behind the blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy movies, has been fired by Disney and therefore will not be working on the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 due to the fact that several of his old tweets, which contained some severely offensive and shocking jokes about material that really isn’t funny (pedophilia and rape), were unearthed and passed around social media by far-right activists; some point specifically to pundits Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec as having unearthed the tweets.
These two men are known for pushing conspiracy theories such as Antifa’s involvement with a train derailment near Dupont, Washington and the infamous “Pizzagate.” The well-known fact that these two were conspiracy theorists might not be a reason to entirely discount what they had to say but it certainly should have given Disney pause when it came to making decisions. The fact that one of them has stated his strategy for defeating people he sees as the enemy is “To beat a person, you lower his or her social status,” should have been a red flag. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
The Cost Of Being Kind
It bears mentioning that this all seemed to coincide with a Twitter event which involved Gunn, Ben Shapiro, and Gunn’s defense of fellow filmmaker Mark Duplass. Gunn had the audacity to attempt to get people to look at the Mark Duplass situation from a different perspective and immediately the hounds of Twitter turned on him. There is a terrifying irony in that fact.
Looking at what both Duplass and Gunn were put through is it any wonder that people have become quick to attack their perceived enemies but slow to defend their friends and allies? When we talk about the lack of civility, maybe one of the things we need to look at is the price people are paying for anything that resembles kindness, compassion, or loyalty. It’s a sad statement on our society that we have reached a point you have to be as brave as Drax to stand up for someone you care about. Incidentally, while others have since come to stand beside Gunn, it was Dave Bautista who was the first reported to his side.
I will have more to say but for right now all I will say is this..@JamesGunn is one of the most loving,caring,good natured people I have ever met. He’s gentle and kind and cares deeply for people and animals. He’s made mistakes. We all have. Im NOT ok with what’s happening to him
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) July 21, 2018
Where We Are Now
In spite of Disney’s failure to “consider the source” or to even look at the context of the entire situation because few companies have the time to do that, the fact remains that Gunn did tweet those things. Not only did he say them, but in the years since he has addressed them, acknowledge his responsibility, and demonstrated a desire and ability to evolve beyond them. A desire that his brother Sean goes in to detail about in a recent interview.
The fact is that what happened to Gunn isn’t about him as much as it is about us as a society. Recently, we’ve seen more careers destroyed over words than over actual behaviors. Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit have been around more than a decade. In spite of the good that comes from the added connection, we are seeing more and more often that social media can be weaponized as ways to hurt, humiliate, threaten, and even destroy those with whom we disagree. One only has to do a simple Google search using “fired over social media” to find a plethora of examples from both the world of celebrity and the day-to-day lives of average people.
What will you do when the #cybernazis attack you? Who will stand by you? Who will cowardly distance themselves from you? Who will punish you for horrible JOKES in the past instead of defending you for INSPIRING millions? MILLIONS!!! #Redemption #injustice @JamesGunn
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) July 22, 2018
Is This How Freedom Of Speech Dies?
I mulled over the potential death of freedom of speech given the state of our society and rapidity with which words can get a person fired. Dave Banks, my GeekDad colleague, reminded me “The fact that people are still speaking means that freedom of speech is still alive and well. It’s civilized discussion that’s on life support. There’s too much yelling and very little listening.”
One only needs to spend 5 minutes on any social media ‘discussion’ about any hot button topic to see he is right. While, the loss of civil discourse is part and parcel to the weaponization of social media and worthy movements like #metoo, that is a rabbit hole I will save for a later date. His point reminded me that all too often we confused “freedom of speech” with “freedom from consequence.”
Keeping in mind, the difference between “freedom of speech” and “freedom from consequence” when dealing with the issues of civil discourse prevents us devolving to the point where our political ideologies become our defining characteristics. As a society, we never want to get to the point where you are expected to only do business, speak to, or associate with those of a like mind. That creates the mentality of “sticking to our own kind” and I think our history shows us clearly how dangerous that mentality is to our humanity.
We also need to avoid that sort of an echo chamber because it not only further divides us it makes us more stupid. We learn more when we are willing to have our thoughts and beliefs challenged. That is how we learn. That is how we grow. When we open our minds to a broader range of perspective even if, in the end, we still adhere to our original thoughts / beliefs on an issue we are now more informed.
Freedom of Speech vs Freedom from Consequence
The most common argument I see on both sides in these types of situations is the “Freedom of Speech” argument. The claim that anyone, anywhere, should be able to say what they want at any time. That’s a horrendously broad definition of the first amendment. Too often, people talking about “free speech” are advocating “freedom from consequence.”
Even Gunn recognized this as you can see in his referenced tweet above. I would bet money that this understanding was why he is quoted by BuzzFeed as saying:
I understand and accept the business decisions taken today. Even these many years later, I take full responsibility for the way I conducted myself then. All I can do now, beyond offering my sincere and heartfelt regret, is to be the best human being I can be: accepting, understanding, committed to equality, and far more thoughtful about my public statements and my obligations to our public discourse.
The first amendment is specific in stating that Congress is not to make a law prohibiting or reducing free speech. It doesn’t say that you can say anything anywhere anytime without consequences. It says you will not go to jail or be persecuted by your government for what you said. Free speech is the reason you can say “President [insert any president’s name] is a big jerk face who stinks” without being arrested.
- If you are caught shouting “Fire” in a crowded theater, or joking about blowing up a plane while on an airline and you will suffer legal repercussions, likely jail.
- Call your boss a foul name to his face, or post that you hate the company that employs you on twitter and you will not face jail or legal issues. You will, however, be without a job (unless your boss or company are very easy going).
This is the difference between “freedom of speech” and “freedom from consequence.” Too often, when the person in the hot seat is someone we like or agree with we start yelling “freedom of speech” when what we are really saying is we want them to be free from consequence. Yet, when the person in that same hot seat is not “one of our own” we dismiss the very same arguments and demand to see the full weight of consequence brought to bear.
False Equivalency & Double Standards
This brings me to my next point and one that I wish more people online understood. The danger of double standards and false equivalency. I cannot count the number of Tweets I saw that evoked the Roseanne Barr situation as a reason Gunn should be fired. There’s a false equivalency there.
Roseanne made those tweets and received immediate consequence for her actions. They were not something from nine years earlier that someone with way too much free time dug up. There was an immediate shock and outcry. Also, she didn’t exactly give a heartfelt and sincere apology. She didn’t have years of personal change and growth prior to her being fired.
Gunn's offenses were a decade or more ago — and he's since changed his behavior.
If Roseanne makes a sincere apology and changes her behavior, then maybe ABC will hire her again in a decade.
— Tyghe_Bright (tyger, tyger burning bright) (@Tyghe_Bright) July 22, 2018
Gunn had already apologized and addressed his abhorrent tweets in 2012. There is no way that Disney didn’t know about them. Disney knows where I am every minute I am on their property and exactly what my kids want for their birthday. They had to know. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration (about the birthday thing) but given the extremely public apology Gunn gave in 2012, it’s safe to say Disney knew. This was very much like having your kid own up to breaking a vase, you forgive him and then two months later in spite of no further infractions you ground him for that same vase.
At the same time, we can see that a number of people defending Gunn are the same ones that want people they consider “on the opposite side” held accountable for old comments. I was quite proud to see one of my online associates give a very salient example that most of the internet could identify with of why we can’t just excuse a person that we like from something for which we’d hold a person we dislike accountable. I’m paraphrasing his comment:
If we hold Trump accountable for his infamous ‘grab them’ quote then we should expect the same level of accountability when the accused is someone we don’t find reprehensible.
His point is that we all too often see double standards on both sides of the aisle. We reserve our outrage only for those we see as the opposition. This is perhaps the most difficult bias to combat and yet the most dangerous thing to allow. It promotes the ‘Othering‘ of someone based on ideology. We lose our compassion when we see those we disagree with as nothing more than the dissenter, the opposition, an enemy to be destroyed rather than as a human.
We also run a dangerous risk of excusing those we agree with of horrific acts, insidious cruelty based solely on the fact that they are “one of us.” It evokes an almost Stepford-like mentality that brings me back to my argument about the echo chamber. Progress comes from diversity and growth from accountability. We, as a society, need both.
A Dangerous Lesson
As it stands now the biggest takeaway from what has happened to Gunn is a dangerous lesson that is being taught to every one of us. Never make a mistake. However, mistakes are how we learn, how we grow. Without failing a time or two (or two dozen) we can never succeed. Yet here we sit, in judgment on a man over jokes made in his past without considering any of the following very salient facts:
- The world was very different a decade ago
- The individual in question has demonstrated personal growth
- The individual in question accepted accountability and addressed about six years ago
- The intention behind these tweets was pure malice not the greater good
One of my colleagues, Stephen Clark, made a solid point that I have seen echoed in a few tweets about the real damage that this does to us as a whole.
“This is telling people who try to make themselves better that it will never matter.”
This is a very legitimate concern. Have we really, as a society, hit the point where if you have ever done anything wrong, stupid, offensive, or immature that you shouldn’t bother doing the work to move pat that stage because it will be dug up when you least expect it? Are we going to spend our lives chasing down the social sins of others just so we can see their nose rubbed in it. Have we reached the point where we judge others not on the content of their character but on the content of their Twitter Feed?
Never bother to apologize. Never try to change because in the end you will still be forced to pay for it, no matter how long or (more importantly) how much change you have experienced. We no longer believe that humans are capable of character development.
It’s sad to see that in a society where we as fans demand well-developed comic book and movie characters, we treat real humans as if they are two-dimensional, flat characters incapable of personal growth. We want to see our fictional heroes overcome hideous personality flaws and experience tremendous moments of personal reflection and redemption. Yet, we cannot imagine that a human being might be prone to precisely these things.
So tell me again why you need sympathetic villains, anti-heroes, great moments of redemption, and characters with depth of personality when you cannot look at your fellow humans with those eyes and believe the same is possible for them? I will leave you with a gentle suggestion to read this thread by Ashley Lynch and a tweet from Selma Blair.
https://twitter.com/SelmaBlair/status/1020913925594857473
James Gunn can be great person who has genuinely learned from his mistakes, and removing him from this franchise can still be the right thing to do. Centering the story on the effect on Gunn, a rich, influential white man, rather than on the harm his comments caused at the time or are causing now that they’ve been dug up in screenshot form, privileges the powerful at the expense of the powerless. It may not be fair to Gunn, but even Gunn seems to accept in his Buzzfeed statements that actions have consequences.
Yeah BUT. Yeah but he ALREADY apologized for this long ago. Christians make a big deal about forgiveness. Parents, at least good ones, routinely tell their children that making a mistake isn’t the end of the world as long as they REACT appropriately to their mistake, meaning be your own worst critic, apologize to those you’ve hurt WITHOUT being forced to (no ‘fake’ apologies where you’re only apologizing because you got caught), and LEARN from your mistakes to grow and become a better person. Comparisons I’ve read to Roseanne and many others who only apologized AFTER being caught fall short. Apologizing only after being caught just comes off as insincere. From what I’ve read it sounds like James Gunn did his ‘soul-searching’ and made his apologies long ago. We all live in glass houses at some level so let’s quit throwing stones. None of us have 100% spotless lives.
Keith, I agree with you; I have been forgiven for mistakes that I’ve made. I’ve encouraged my children to learn from their mistakes, and not to apologize unless they mean it. I’ve taught them that being honest about themselves and their mistakes is valuable, and I’ve rewarded honesty and being forthright.
But I have not taught my children that their honesty and empathy for those they hurt will erase the consequences of their actions.
But I think this is all beside the point; “Justice For Gunn” is not the most important thing at play, here. Even granting that Gunn doesn’t “deserve” to get fired because of this, I am prepared to accept that very likely, him losing this job is the outcome that causes the least harm overall. People lose jobs unfairly all the time, and Selma Blair only rarely comes to their personal defense.
That the harm caused by his tweets is hard to see doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. For example, is it possible that any of the following groups of people exist:
– Women who did not apply to work on one of Gunn’s movies because of his tweet about rape
– Women who worked for Gunn and found other employment after his tweet about rape because they no longer felt safe at work
– Survivors of sexual assault who read the tweet about rape, either then or now, and had a traumatic reaction
– HIV-positive actors or film crew who did not apply to work on one of Gunn’s movies because of his tweet (which I have not read and am not seeking out) about AIDS
– HIV-positive actors or film crew who worked for Gunn and found other employment after his tweet about AIDS because they no longer felt safe at work
– Victims of child sexual abuse who read about the tweets about pedophilia, either then or now, and had a traumatic reaction
If so, those are all people who were harmed by Gunn’s tweets, either a decade ago, or now, or both, and they deserve justice too. That they are nearly invisible and hold no power is exactly why those who do hold power need to act. I believe it is more important to protect those people, and future people like them, than it is to protect any one person whose previous bad acts have come back to haunt them, regardless of how well they’ve redeemed themselves. Gunn deserves sympathy; the people he harmed deserve more.
The white-washing by the far-left of their favored pedophile is rather remarkable. You don’t know that they were jokes, nor do the thousands of far-left pedophile apologists who have rushed to protect one of their own.
The most amazing aspect to me is the literal hundreds of careers of conservatives that far-left lunatics have destroyed using these tactics for far less innocuous comments, and the ONE time that it is used against their own side, they rally as if it is WWIII. It’s both impressive and a powerful reminder of the remarkable cultural power that they hold. The same dynamics played out with Sam Seder – within days of his contract not being renewed by MSNBC, an absolutely massive, coordinated campaign involving the most powerful and rich media corporations was undertaken to publicly extort MSNBC into rehiring him, which they did. It’s good to be King. It’s good to be the Rulers. Not so much for the Peasants and the Slaves. We see our people routinely destroyed for “jokes” all the time. No massive, coordinated, billion-dollar corporate media campaigns to restore their reputations and careers. This is in essence a story about the Rulers and the Slaves.
This atrocity of an article intentionally suppresses, hides, and omits key facts about James Gunn, not the least of them being that he fraternized and talked about child molestation with a CONVICTED pedophile, Huston Huddleston. They were the ones swapping the inappropriate underage back and forth, to which Gunn responded after watching, “I came all over myself”.
THESE WERE NOT JOKES.
They were the dialogue between multiple individuals, REPEATEDLY describing inappropriate fantasies involving underage people. Gunn, Huddleston, Lloyd Kaufman, and more all somehow managed to “joke” about pedophilia over and over again.
This is not a story about “Nazis”, the “alt-right”, Cerno, or anything else.
This is a story about the Ruling Class, who hold absolute power over the Amplifiers of culture. They control the vast, vast majority of the billion-dollar media corporations that influence the public dialogue and conversation.
And they don’t like that one man, sitting in his living room, utilized far-left tactics of public shaming to reach out and affect a fellow member of the Ruling Class.
Think about that as you are now witnessing an absolutely massive, coordinated, intense campaign of public pressure, directed by the cultural Rulers who own the most powerful Platforms in our society today. This isn’t supposed to happen to them. Usually they decide whose character is assassinated. Usually they decide whose reputation lives or dies. Usually they are the ones celebrating and laughing when they kill Roseanne’s career, or dig up Josh Hader’s 10-year old tweets to publicly humiliate him, or destroy Jeffrey Lord’s contributor contract with CNN, or get their political enemy at Papa John’s fired, or any one of the other HUNDREDS, if not thousands, of people that they gleefully enjoy targeting and destroying.
It’s not supposed to happen to them. They’re the Rulers, after all.