To me, the problem with Disney firing James Gunn from GOTG3 is that in doing so, they simultaneously legitimize (somewhat) Cernovich’s baseless conspiracy theory AND undermine the whole point of accountability in the first place.
Giving *any* kind of credibility to a man who has genuinely tried to sell “super serum” (don’t ask what’s in it), routinely conducts unethically, and profits off of peddling toxic conspiracy theories, is a huge mistake on Disney’s part.
And that’s not even the worst part.
And that’s not even the worst part.
Gunn is a fairly rare case of someone who made a bunch of bad “jokes”, got called out for them, and OWNED UP to them, apologized sincerely, and changed himself to be better.
We already *had* accountability for Gunn. He has become a better person*.
We already *had* accountability for Gunn. He has become a better person*.
Meanwhile, there continues to be a lack of meaningful accountability for perpetrators of bad *actions*, not just “jokes”, and that includes other people employed by Disney.
Firing Gunn was clearly a knee-jerk reaction to this alt-right faux outrage. It’s not accountability.
Firing Gunn was clearly a knee-jerk reaction to this alt-right faux outrage. It’s not accountability.
Reactionary decisions and behaviors are bad regardless of politics or even context, but Disney had an opportunity here to show how accountability—Gunn’s previous owning up of his mistakes & improvements as a person—can matter for your future, and they botched that entirely.
This *was* an opportunity for a healthy example about accountability being a GOOD THING™.
Instead, we’re forced to have more conversations around why and how accountability should work and what it should do in the context of a company messing it up.
Instead, we’re forced to have more conversations around why and how accountability should work and what it should do in the context of a company messing it up.
(* Gunn having become a better person is based on his public behaviors. If he’s just been hiding it better and has a dark secret life, then this point is less valid, obvs.)
However you may feel about James Gunn having become a better person, this is a mature and exemplary response to today’s events: 
Source is @Variety’s article about James Gunn’s firing of GOTG3 by Disney: variety.com/2018/film/news…
Here’s James Gunn’s brother Sean on how James transformed into a better person, in part *because* of making the Guardians films:
Disney really screwed the pooch on this one.
This is basically what Disney fell for:
