6 Celebrities Who Risked Their Careers to Defy Cancel Culture
Celebrities realize the ugly truth about Cancel Culture.
Love it, hate it or keep your head buried in the sand about its implications. Cancel Culture can cost you a job, your reputation and even your career.
Cancel Culture is a cultural landmine, and some stars avoid mentioning it at all costs. Others, like Seth Rogen, bow to Cancel Culture dictates. Perhaps he hopes atoning for past jokes will keep the Cancel Culture mob away.
A microscopically small group of celebrities actively fight Cancel Culture and its woke implications. They correctly see it for what it is, part of a larger Marxist movement that will crush creativity, individual freedoms and more.
They’re not stupid, though. They understand the risks they invite by taking such a stand. They do it anyway, making them far more brave than the vast majority of their peers.
Here are 6 stars who stood up to defy Cancel Culture, no matter the risk.
Jon Lovitz
Not every “Saturday Night Live” alum enjoys a robust post NBC career. Do the names Melanie Hutsell, Gary Kroeger and Charles Rocket ring a bell? If they don’t, it’s because they struggled to find fame after their time on the iconic show.
There’s no shame in that. Hollywood can be brutal.
Lovitz, best known for his Tommy Flanagan “Liar” character, used “SNL” to fashion a steady career on TV and film (“A League of Their Own,” the “Hotel Transylvania” franchise, to name just a few post-“SNL” gigs). Still, he lacks the kind of career heat to insulate him from Cancel Culture cultists.
That didn’t stop him from excoriating Cancel Culture earlier this year in a Page Six interview. He even compared the cultural scourge to McCarthyism.
The comic actor shredded those offended by jokes in the first place.
“If you don’t have the ability to laugh at yourself, don’t go to a comedy club. I’m not changing my act. If you’re watching TV and you don’t like the show, change the channel. It’s very simple.”
Lovitz probably gained a few new enemies in Hollywood courtesy of that outburst. It’s clear he’d rather attack Cancel Culture than kiss up to those who hold it close to their chest.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images for SLS Las Vegas
John Rich
The country superstar isn’t shy about sharing his views on both the culture at large and his own industry.
“There are many conservative country music singers that just won’t say anything to push back against the ideologies that aim to erase what they care about. Why? You know why. I hope soon we see them start to speak up. The country music industry is out of touch with the audience.”
The Big & Rich star wasn’t done. Rich turned his ire against his own industry, again, during a more recent interview with Breitbart News. He says country music insiders are more open about their liberal leanings over the past year, and it’s impacting the artists trying to work in the genre.
“They’ve started coming out more and more and the problem you get is if you’ve got artists that are conservative but their record label, their publicist, their manager, a lot of the radio stations are being overseen by liberals. We used to be able to make music and get it played and still say what we wanted to say and still get our music played but that’s not really the case now.”
He says the industry fear is so strong artists don’t even attempt to speak their minds for fear of cancellation.
“… they still want to get their records played and they still want to be invited to the award show and get the big tours and those kinds of things so is it cancel culture? No, because they’re not even stepping forward to be canceled.”
Frederick Breedon IV/Getty Images
Adam Carolla
The “Loveline” host turned podcast giant essentially slammed the door on a conventional Hollywood career. Sure, he’ll flirt with the mainstream now and then, witness past work on “Dancing with the Stars” and the late Spike TV.
His constant attacks on Hollywood and the woke mindset over the years made him radioactive to the powers that be.
He just doesn’t care.
Carolla carved out a creative niche all his own, from his podcast empire and stand-up work to peddling his personal line of liquor (Mangria) between gigs.
The comedian refuses to do the one thing Cancel Culture demands. Apologize. He said as much in the opening to his last book, “I’m Your Emotional Support Animal.”
He’s not immune from cancellation, though. His podcast appears on PodcastOne, a platform that could be pressured to erase his “problematic” voice. And any entrepreneur knows the line between failure and success can be wafer thin.
Still, Carolla cares more about doing comedy his way than placating his critics.
Gina Carano
The MMA fighter turned action heroine knew she was on thin social media ice last year. Her nonconformist Tweets on COVID-19, for example, caught plenty of media heat. Woke critics demanded her removal from Disney+’s “The Mandalorian.”
Anything she shared on social media next could crush her career, and she knew it. She refused to stay silent, perhaps acknowledging her liberal peers said far worse on platforms like Instagram and Twitter sans punishment.
Her sobering message about intolerance then … and now, a narrative tied to the rise of Nazi Germany, gave the Mouse House the excuse it craved to fire her.
Her career could have stalled, if not ended, then and there. Instead, The Daily Wire hired her to star and produce her own action movie. Without that support, Carano could find snaring gigs hard, if not impossible, with the scarlet “C” emblazoned on her.
Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage
Rob Schneider
Why are “SNL” alums refusing to play by the woke rules? Perhaps decades of fame gave them enough cash to survive potential blowback. More likely, working on the legendary show let them see the power, and glory, of creative freedom, and they’re not willing to give that up.
For Schneider, it means defying COVID-19 groupthink and defending free speech via platforms like Twitter. The “Real Rob” star is constantly poking the woke bear online, saluting free speech victories, slamming “totalitarian crap” and sounding the alarm about erosions on our personal liberties.
Schneider has a good thing going with Netflix. The company released his latest standup special and a third season of “Real Rob” remains a possibility. Speaking out like he does can’t be helping his career. He does it anyway.
Ricky Gervais
The British comic leans to the Left on many issues, loathes Donald Trump and would likely have voted for Joe Biden if he were an American citizen (he’s not).
So why do many conservatives cheer his every statement? When Gervais isn’t making people laugh he’s defending free speech in no uncertain terms.
He also delivered the most accurate, and withering, attack on political celebrities during his 2020 Golden Globes monologue. That alone could have, in theory, earned his industry cancellation.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=sR6UeVptzRg&feature=oembed
He does have an ace up his sleeve, though.
Like Carolla, Gervais’ free speech activism works as a shield in some ways. We all know he’s an absolutist on the issue, and he isn’t going to start apologizing for anything he’s said now. The woke mob are bullies, first and foremost, and they’re less willing to attack those eager to fight back.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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