While I was the first to point out earlier that this was not identical to the Roseanne situation because of the time issue, it is disingenuous, or at the very least naive, to want to think that they don't have more in common than not. They both were clearly jokes, and even if you don't believe Roseanne that she thought she was making a joke about another white woman, does anyone really want to try to get into the weeds with what Gunn actually said and claim that a racist joke is worse than vile pedophile jokes?
In both cases, the outrage that fueled the action Disney took was politically motivated. When you look even broader, as these Outrage incidents keep happening it is becoming rather clear that it doesn't matter if "back then 'nearly everyone' was" doing something, or it supposedly wasn't a big deal at the time. Has #metoo taught us nothing?
In the reactions to Gunn's firing, I have seen quite a folks having a difficult time coming to terms with the fact that we have made our beds with this brave new world we have created. Social media/outrage culture has been weaponized, with a rigid ideology that ignores all context and intention. The biggest thing people are missing with Gunn is the message that the Al Franken situation should have already demonstrated - now that this spark has been lit, you don't get to control where the fire spreads.
I keep seeing people and articles try to claim that "well, the problem is the demand here came from terrible far-right wingers!" like that matters. at all. I mean, people really seem to not understand that companies like Disney haven't been on some noble social justice crusade with them, trying to "do the right thing". They have been desperately scrambling to do everything they can to maintain a semblance of control as they navigate this new world, where a few hours of social media outrage can destroy a person or fatally damage a brand (potentially affecting billions of dollars) in the span between breakfast and lunchtime.
Outrage culture has demanded that zero tolerance is the only acceptable policy. And zero tolerance is, well, zero tolerance. It is too late to go back now, and start deciding that we get to pick and choose who gets to pick up the weapon and use it. Once you have decided that "it was just a joke" or "I didn't know then what I know now..." is not an excuse, and an apology or offer of penance isn't enough - you don't get to retroactively say "all ties must be cut and the person banished, except when it is something that doesn't personally offend me or that is from someone I really like or agree with otherwise".
It has never been about corporations sharing social justice aspirations - they do these things to shut up the outrage on social media as quickly as possible, in a desperate effort to mitigate the damage done to them to bide their time until a mob gathers to decide who the next target is.
