Yet again, the woke mob came for Gina Carano.
And just like last time, Carano managed to come out on top.
The beloved actress and former MMA fighter has been the target of political activists ever since she took a stance against political persecution via a 2021 post on Twitter.
Often mischaracterized as an attempt to equate Holocaust Jews to American conservatives, the post merely pointed out that political demonization can lead to greater evils.
Disney chose to fire Carano from their then-hit (the show has since dipped in viewership) Star Wars show “The Mandalorian” in response to the contrived backlash.
Nevertheless, Carano did what she was known for — fighting back — and quickly managed to land back on her feet with several projects, including the starring role in the Daily Wire’s 2022 critical success “Terror on the Prairie.”
Now, the mobs are back and just like last time, their attempts to cancel Carano have ended in miserable failure.
This latest online brouhaha began on Jan. 9 when it was announced that Carano would be appearing at February’s FAN EXPO Vancouver in Vancouver, Canada.
In response to the announcement, several accounts commented promising they would be contacting FAN EXPO in an attempt to get Carano kicked out.
Do you support Gina Carano?
I’d like to speak to someone from @FANEXPOVAN about this choice, and explain why it is so detrimental to our diverse and inclusive community of nerds in the city. Please reach out to me via DM or email.
— BlackwaterDND 🔜 ECCC Feb 29th to Mar 3rd! (@BlackwaterDnd) January 9, 2024
Some accounts even suggested Carano’s inclusion would put others “at risk.”
genuinely incredibly disappointing that fanexpo has decided to platform her. fanexpo is supposed to be an inclusive space. However, her past antiemetic, transphobic, and other right wing rhetoric puts marginalised people, who will be attending the con, at risk
— Juniper (@crimsondianxia) January 9, 2024
Then, on Friday, Global News, a Canadian news outlet, ran a piece that seemed to paint the cancel-mobs demands in a positive light.
“One of the few safe spaces that we have no longer feels safe,” one cosplayer told the outlet.
“[FAN EXPO Vancouver] should know who is their target audience, being young people, queer people, LGBT people. It was just an enormous slap in the face,” Lana Redlich, another Vancouver cosplayer told the outlet.
Global News’s coverage forwarded a slog of dubious and/or misleading claims, such as that Carano was directly comparing Jews in Nazi Germany to modern-day conservatives in her aforementioned 2021 tweet, and that “Carano never addressed her firing” (Carano addressed the controversy at length during an hour-long interview which garnered over three million views on YouTube).
Without providing examples, the outlet further claimed Carano posted “transphobic, anti-mask and conspiracy theory-related content.”
Despite the misleading media coverage and calls for Carano’s cancellation, FAN EXPO Vancouver refused to give in.
Instead, Carano was asked to stay on for an additional day.
Vancouver.
We’ve added a day to the fan expo.
I’ll now be there both:
Sun/Mon
February 18 & 19Looking forward to meeting you.
If you’ve never been to one of these I highly recommend. I can’t believe how much I enjoy them. ✨ https://t.co/AcFn2M1cab
— Gina Carano 🕯 (@ginacarano) January 15, 2024
“Vancouver. We’ve added a day to the fan expo,” Carano wrote on Monday.
“Looking forward to meeting you. If you’ve never been to one of these I highly recommend. I can’t believe how much I enjoy them.”
YouTuber Jay David, who goes by the pseudonym Drunk3PO, gave some behind-the-scenes insights on the exchange in a video posted Wednesday.
David knows Carano and is set to work her booth at the Vancouver event. According to him, the event’s management wanted to add another day because of how many tickets Carano was selling for them.
The recent flood of fan support isn’t anything new for Carano.
In a similarly striking show of love in the face of cancellation, the star received a standing ovation during an appearance at a live Daily Wire event held in 2022.
Beautiful moment from @realDailyWire’s “Backstage Live” on Wednesday.
An outpouring of well-deserved love for @ginacarano. pic.twitter.com/8Fb9eLbSvF
— Michael Austin (@mikeswriting) July 3, 2022
Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of love out there for Gina Carano.