On February 12, actress Gina Carano, who played the role of Cara Dune on the Disney Plus show, “The Mandalorian“ was fired. This happened after Carano shared numerous conservative leaning views on her social media, including criticism of the Black Lives Matter organization, the COVID lockdown measures, and the widespread usage of mail in ballots in the 2020 election.

Many progressive and liberal fans of the show were unhappy with these statements, and demanded she be fired. For a little while however, Disney ignored these outcries and decided to keep her employed with the show. Recently though, Carano posted an image comparing the treatment of conservatives in the United States to that of Jewish people before the Nazi regime’s violent takeover during World War II, and she was fired from the show shortly after.

Disney released a statement saying, “Gina Carano is not currently employed by LucasFilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

This prompted backlash from conservatives saying that nothing said in the post was denigrating Jewish people, but rather that she was comparing the political climate of today to that time in history. They also used an example of Pedro Pascal, another star on “The Mandalorian” who plays Mando on the show, for comparing the United States immigration system during the Trump administration to that of concentration camps in Nazi Germany, and how he had not been fired for making a similar comparison.

Carano wasn’t unemployed for long however, as conservative media company The Daily Wire, co-founded by conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, who ironically is Jewish himself, made the decision to bring on Carano to produce and star in her own film in the future. However no other details about the project, such as the plot, release date, or even the title of the movie are known.

Carano released a statement saying, “I am sending out a direct message of hope to anyone living in fear of cancellation by the totalitarian mob. I have only begun using my voice which is now freer than ever before, and I hope it inspires others to do the same. They can’t cancel us if we don’t let them.”

This whole situation involving Carano opened up a national debate on the ethics of firing people for their political beliefs. On one hand, one could argue that Carano’s comments were out of line and conspiratorial, and could alienate viewers from the audience, that the celebrities that Disney hires are a reflection on the company, and that they have the right to not hire those who are too out of line. Obviously if someone is genuinely racist and advocates for violence against people, then I don’t think anyone would have any issues with Disney dropping someone from their media, but the question is, where exactly is the line and did Carano cross it?

One could also argue that while Carano’s posts were out there, conspiratorial, and potentially misleading, people in Hollywood have stayed employed for saying far worse things and that she has the right to say whatever she likes on social media. They could also argue that none of Carano’s posts encouraged violence towards anyone and endangered no one, even if the posts were far fetched.

Personally, I think if you’re a celebrity that is in a show or movie that is too much of a cultural force in American society, you shouldn’t be too out there with your political opinions, unless you really know what you’re talking about. However, that would be in an ideal world, and we don’t live in one at the moment, so I think celebrities should have the ability to say whatever they like on both sides of the aisle, as long as they aren’t encouraging violence, but they should be mindful of their platform and use it in a responsible way.

All in all, I don’t think politics should impact whether someone is fired or hired, people should be judged by their individual character and how well they are able to portray a character. It’s completely understandable to be angry over either Carano or Pascal’s political opinions, but I don’t think either one of them deserve being fired from their job because of it. I don’t think it helps at combatting bad messages, and it certainly doesn’t help lower the temperature in the country currently. Carano is currently scheduled for her first interview on Sunday, February 21, after being fired.