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Offensive tweets and genocide

By James Barraford


Gina Carano has been fired from the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.”


She posted a black-and-white photograph of a battered Jewish woman running in her undergarments from a mob of Nazis. The caption above the photo explains there was a process of indoctrination that made Nazis hate their Jewish neighbors.


She compared the plight of European Jewry in WWII to being an American conservative today.


“How is that any different from hating someone of their political views?” Carano’s tweet asked.


On Feb. 9, a LucasFilm spokesperson announced she would no longer be a cast member of “The Mandalorian.”


“Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.” The spokesperson said.


Carano had also posted a tweet in the past mocking mandatory COVID-19 mask policies and questioned the results of the recent Presidential election.


This is the problem with Twitter. It allows us to project our impulsive thoughts and perpetuate feelings into “fact.”


I find Carano’s tweet mind-numbingly stupid. Hatred in this country must be treated as a social crisis. Her tweet added absolutely nothing of value to that conversation.


Anyone who tweets making fun of those who wear masks during a pandemic is naïve or unintelligent.


However, her tweet hurt no one physically.


Has her tweet enabled the genocide Uighurs face under the Chinese Communist Party’s regime? No.


Has Disney+ worked closely with the government that is leading a systemic genocide of China’s inconvenient minority? Yes.


With the release of Disney+’s “Mulan,” it was revealed part of the movie was filmed in Xinxiang. This is the region where Uighurs are being held in internment camps. Disney+ also thanked eight CCP offices in the movie’s closing credits.


The Chinese government is undertaking measures against the Uighurs, such as forced sterilization and IUDs, according to the AP.


“The campaign over the past four years in the far west region of Xinjiang is leading to what some experts are calling a form of ‘demographic genocide,’” according to the AP.


Even Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the actions of the CCP, “speak to an effort to commit genocide.”


If history tells us anything, the genocide of the Uighurs will only become more aggressive.


On July 3, 2020, New York federal agents seized 13 tons of hair to be sold as weaves. It was not synthetic hair. It was hair from Uighurs detained in China.


Let that sink in. Thirteen tons of human hair.


What is occurring in Xinjiang, under the authority of the Chinese Communist Party, is evil. The genocidal impulse of President Xi Xinping will only grow.


LucasFilms made a choice to align itself with Disney+. Disney+ made a choice to work with government agencies within the CCP that are leading a systemic genocide of the Uighur minority.


Their business model is based on platitudes. Their dream machine is not concerned with actually making the world a better place.


As a liberal, I uphold Carano’s right to free speech. I don’t agree with her grotesque tweets. But social media has supplanted face-to-face interaction.


With so much communication done on social media, the potential for missteps grows. All the nuance of talking to a live person is lost on Twitter.


We are reduced to a profile picture. We are reduced, as a human being, to whatever message we wrote in under 280 characters.


While I understand the desire to hold people accountable for idiotic or hateful rhetoric, at some point we must ask ourselves if our desires for justice are based on pragmatism or perfectionism.


LucasFilm has the right to fire her. But what happens if moral tastes change as they so often do?


Will the righteous of today be the canceled of tomorrow?


For those who called for her -ring on Twitter, you are welcome to block her.


You are also welcome to tweet about the genocide occurring in Xinjiang.


We cannot be silent anymore.

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