It’s all over the news: Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has been fired. It’s hard to argue that Disney’s squeaky clean image meshed with Gunn’s pre-Disney career, spent with Troma Entertainment. Yet, Gunn has been open about his shock humor in the past, apologizing it some years prior — and Disney was not unaware of his past. The firing has been controversial on both sides, with people on both sides of the political spectrum emerging as supporters and detractors.
Gunn has been accused of going too far with tweets that were by any measure in incredibly bad taste. Rape jokes and pedophilia jokes were found among his older tweets, which he deleted back in 2012. Mike Cernovich set his targets on Gunn earlier this month, publicizing tweets that he made years prior. A prominent online right-wing figure, Cernovich was offended by some of Gunn’s political statements.
Many argue that Gunn has changed; he deleted these tweets six years ago while also publicly apologizing for them. Disney knew about these tweets when they hired Gunn — they were public knowledge — but have fired Gunn now because they are afraid of public outcry and over-sensitivity. It’s further been pointed out that in context, these were roughly two dozen tweets out of over 20,000 — Gunn was a prolific tweeter and, at the time, working for a company that was known for its shock humor.
The question then becomes less about Gunn and more about his firing.
Gunn was fired through what the media has called “alt-right activism,” but that has led to some controversy even in the conservative sector. Those supporting the firing believe that liberals should be held to the same standards they hold others. This has led to Cernovich to investigate other comedians such as Patton Oswalt. Earlier in the year, Roseanne Barr was fired from Disney for a racist comment — she now supports the firing of Gunn for the same reasons.
However, other conservatives are concerned about the precedent that this could set, as this appears to be an off-shoot and escalation of the “#metoo” movement that is widely criticized in alt-right circles. Both Dan Harmon, the co-creator of Rick and Morty, and Rian Johnson, the director of The Last Jedi, have recently deleted their previous tweets — perhaps out of fear of the same treatment.
Critics of the firing point out that this is the same type of “over-sensitivity” that is widely criticized in liberals, and that it could ultimately lead to individuals losing their jobs over their own free speech. If the conservative party becomes over-sensitive about “PC” culture, then “PC” culture could run rampant.
In the case of James Gunn, much of the argument rests on whether he was advocating for the actions that he was joking about. Many of his tweets appear to have been largely tongue-in-cheek, but still highly inappropriate. Notably, a few of them are outright rape jokes.
But rape jokes aren’t unusual for comedians, especially ten years ago. In fact, Cernovich — the man who exposed Gunn — made rape jokes on his own Twitter account. The question then becomes whether anyone should be fired for jokes that they make on a public forum, especially jokes that they make well before they are hired on with a company.
It’s likely that when they hired Gunn, Disney put the condition that he would censor his future tweets. Indeed, his relationship with Disney may have had to do with the deleting of his tweets and the public apology that he made. Disney has a reputation to uphold and is extremely sensitive about its image.
Yet this also means that companies may be declining to work with those who have had a poor reputation online — ever. Whether the jokes have been deleted and forgotten won’t matter; if the jokes are there, somewhere, they can be found and people can be fired.
Whether James Gunn should have been fired is a separate question from whether companies should be encouraged to fire employees based on their personal media, opinions, and thoughts. This is going to be a debate that is going to become more serious over time, as more people are spending substantial portions of their time online.
Regards,
Ethan Warrick
Editor
Wealth Authority
