Cancel culture takes no prisoners and a small but growing group of celebrities know it.
On Monday Jan 25, The Walking Dead actor Ilan Srulovicz told Harris Faulkner of Fox News that the growing intensity of cancel culture is dangerous to American freedom and culture.
"The foundation of any country that's getting any society that's going to progress is going to be built on the notion of freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of thought. We've been having a decay of that for quite some time,” he said, explaining:
The notion that people are now saying we have to reprogram people to think the way we want them to think is scary. I don't care which side of the aisle you're on. It should be something we can come out and say, ‘Hey, this is wrong.' We should be able to have dialog. We should be able to have debate when that's out of the equation.
Srulovicz decided to put his money where his mouth is and use his business, Egard Watch Co, to do something about it. Earlier this month the company posted a video on YouTube entitled “WHAT IS FREEDOM - A MESSAGE TO US ALL” with the statement “As of making this video the censorship continues. The Walk Away movement has been targeted by Facebook. If companies, organizations and those with influence don't start speaking up to say it's wrong ... we will all lose.”
When asked why the company decided to make the video he explained, "I felt like it was very important for a company to come out and take that stand. It wasn't as an individual. So I put my company, Egard, behind it. We have a big following and, essentially, I just wanted to start fighting back against the extreme kind of censorship that we're seeing nowadays. I wanted to show that also companies can take a stand.” he said.
This is not the first time Srulovicz or Egard Watch Co has publicly entered the culture war arena. In Nov 2020 he spoke out against the stifling of free speech on the Tucker Carlson Show and in 2019 Edgar Watch Co created a response ad to the insulting toxic masculinity ad campaign put out by Gillett.
Srulovicz and Egard Watch Co join the ranks of a growing few Hollywood personalities condemning cancel culture. Over the last two months, Bryan Cranston and Ricky Gervais made similar remarks noting that cancel culture has created a culture of unforgiveness (Cranston) and destroyed livelihoods (Gervais).
Srulovicz recognizes the power of corporations and artists who shape the culture of America and in many ways the culture of the world. Hopefully his willingness to stand for freedom of speech will encourage others in the entertainment industry to do the same.
