Comedian Ricky Gervais has once again voiced his opinion as he slammed cancel culture and suggested people shouldn’t try to get others fired just because they disagree with their opinions.
As the 59-year-old comedian, actor, writer, and producer suggested, people who believe that those with different opinions than themselves shouldn’t be allowed to express themselves freely and openly “don’t agree with freedom of speech.”
“When people are trying to get someone fired because they don’t like their opinion about something that’s nothing to do with their job, that’s what I call cancel culture and that’s not cool,” Gervais said in an interview with Metro.
As the comedian, who is well-known for making controversial jokes, went on to say, people have a right to choose who they want to watch and listen to based on their preferences.
“Everyone’s allowed to call you an a******e, everyone’s allowed to stop watching your stuff, everyone’s allowed to burn your DVDs, but you shouldn’t have to go to court for saying a joke that someone didn’t like,” he added.
“And that’s what we get dangerously close to. If you don’t agree to someone’s right to say something you don’t agree with, you don’t agree with freedom of speech.”
Sharing a story of his own, the actor revealed how he was confronted on social media after quoting Winston Churchill. After the person asked him if he knew that Churchill “was a white supremacist,” Gervais responded by saying: “Not in that tweet he isn’t.”
As the comedian suggested, it doesn’t mean that everything is wrong with people who once made mistakes or did something wrong.
“You are allowed to have things in common with bad people as long it’s not the bad things. I’m a vegetarian and I love dogs, like Hitler. But the only thing I have in common with Hitler are the good bits!” Gervais told Metro.
Previously, the co-creator of The Office spoke out against ‘wokeness’ that is sweeping across the world and branded it “a weird sort of fascism.”
“There’s this new weird sort of fascism of people thinking they know what you can say and what you can’t and it’s a really weird thing. Just because you’re offended it doesn’t mean you’re right,” he said.
Replaced!