Recently I've been seeing in the media stuff about cancel culture and the reactions that people have to public outcry. It's interesting to see so many people be so shocked and appalled that people don't agree with their opinion or feel like they are unfairly being attacked. It's almost laughable because the people put their opinions out there so freely but don't expect someone to say something to the contrary in a land where we have freedom of speech and social media.
To give you an idea of what I mean, I'll use Gina Carano as an example. For those of you who do not know who she is, she was a mixed martial artist that moved into acting. She currently has a role on the Disney+ show The Mandalorian.
Recently she has come under fire for several things. First thing was that she refused to put her pronouns in her bio on social media in support of the LGBTQ community and instead put "beep/bop/boop", or something like that, in her bio which spark controversy because people said she was making fun of the situation. I agree, she could have just not put anything on her bio and let people talk. If she doesn't want to publicly support anything then she doesn't have to but when put that stuff in her bio I felt she was trying to slight the people who were talking about her, so I think the backlash from that point on was warranted.
More recently she has shared posts on social media support the idea of mail-in ballots being fraudulent as well as circulating memes that promote not wearing a mask during this pandemic. Again she is receiving backlash from her actions and people are even asking for her to be pulled from The Mandalorian. Current reports are saying that Disney is asking Carano to apologize if she wants them to proceed with the spin-off show with her as the lead.
It's situations like this where is Gina sticks to her guns and doesn't apologize she will feel like she is being censored and can't speak her mind. That's 100% not true.
The Problem with Opinions
Here's the problem with opinions, everyone has one but no one thinks anyone should challenge their opinion and that there shouldn't be any consequences to sharing a specific opinion.
The problem with this idea is that it gives people a false sense of security to say whatever they want and people either agree or say nothing. That's not the way the world works especially if you are someone who makes a living off of being famous. Being famous is nothing but a popularity contest. You go out and you perform whatever talent you have to build an audience. Once you make it to being famous, you have to maintain it by making sure people like you for who you are because if they don't then your meal ticket is gone.
Case in point: Johnny Depp's divorce has ruined his career. He was forced out of several roles and will probably have a hard time finding work because of the allegations that he is an abuser. Now I know that this is isn't an opinion, but because the public sees Johnny Depp as a bad person he has lost some of that star power and the same thing happens to CEOs, models, and anyone else the deals in public perception.
One thing we need to realize is that our opinions are powerful and they do influence people especially when we share then on social media. If you're someone that famous, even more so because no one wants to watch
The Mandalarian spin-off if the lead actress is promoting behavior that undermines the constitution and safety protocols during the pandemic.
Another problem is that we feel like no one should challenge our opinions. We need different opinions to further conversations, but one thing about sharing your opinion is to make sure that you are ready to defend it. Just because you read it in an article doesn't mean it's the whole story. Sometimes you have to do more research.
Case in point: I was having a conversation with someone about Covid when they said that they thought China released Covid intentionally. I asked them to tell me why that thought that and they simply replied, "Didn't the news say it started in China?" Surely if you believe that logic then the Spanish Flu certainly came from the Spanish, right? Wrong-- this is what I mean, you need to be able to defend your opinion because if you share it freely then someone may challenge it and you need to be able to tell people exactly why you have that opinion otherwise you're just reading something and repeating it.
One thing people think is that being educated means having a degree or going to school; it doesn't. Being educated means that you took some time to understand the subject and really gain some mastery of the concepts. For instance, I have never been a computer expert but over the years I have had to do research on computers because I wanted to purchase one, so I had to compare.
I had to look into what computers were the best for just basic everyday use and then I started looking into the more complex computers. The research I did, the more information I gathered and while I might still not be an expert, I can definitely teach you how to shop for computers based on your needs, I can give you basic information on the computer hardware/software, and I can show you how to set up your own basic home network of technology. All of that stuff I learned just by doing a little reading and now I when I talk to people who are way more into computers than I am, I can actually have an educated opinion on certain topics and I can generally understand the concepts and opinions they might have.
In the end, we all have opinions and I think we should be encouraged to share them, but we should also be ready to defend them in an educated manner. To have an educated opinion doesn't mean you took some class or got a degree, it just means that you took some time to investigate the subject in order to gain understanding. An example of an uneducated opinion is someone saying that they don't like cheese but have never tried cheese. You can have an opinion without understanding, but no one will take it seriously so it's important to make sure that you understand what you are talking about otherwise your opinion is nothing more than words you put together without any real context or understanding.
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