Mega-Viral Tweet Calls For Chris Pratt To Be Canceled From "Guardians of the Galaxy" — Director James Gunn Shuts It The Fuck DOWN

Huffington Post — Given how Chris Pratt is set to voice what feels like every animated character in a slew of upcoming franchises, job security likely isn’t top of mind.  But he at least has confirmation that “Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn has his back, with the filmmaker coming to the actor’s defense on Twitter Monday amid calls to ax him from future Marvel films.

Responding to a viral tweet calling for Marvel to replace the actor with Patrick Wilson, Gunn said he would “never” oust Pratt, who is set to reunite with the director in a third “Guardians” film next year.

James Gunn, after thinking it over and giving it careful consideration: 

I distinctly remember when the first whispers of Chris Pratt Hate started to hit the internet — even at the time, when Cancel Culture had established complete dominion over Twitter and your head told you it was clear absolutely nobody was safe, your heart could still be surprised when someone like the lovable doofus from Parks & Rec was Enemy of the Day.  My memory was pretty vague on what specific crimes against humanity he was charged with, only that they weren't any of the big ones  — someone like, did a psychotically deep dive on his Instagram and a comparative analysis on his followers and concluded that it was possible that he may have potentially maybe voted for Trump? Or something like that. Something that sane people didn't care about.  But when I saw that a tweet calling for Pratt to be kicked off 'Guardians' got 14,000 retweets and over TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND likes just this week, I figured I obviously missed something big. 

So I went straight to the first link I saw to get some much needed clarification. 

Pratt has fielded plenty of backlash in recent years over his rumored political affiliation.

Oh okay so my memory served me well — political affiliation. And it's still "rumored" political affiliation? This was like 3 years ago, apparently no inroads have been made since then to actually confirm if he thinks the things we're mad at him for thinking. 

…He sparked controversy ahead of the 2020 presidential election for mocking the importance of voting. 

"Sparked controversy"…with whom? Whom was smashing their keyboards in a rage over "mocking the importance of voting"?  If controversy is in any way sparked, piqued, provoked, revved up, stimulated, or stirred inside you over someone "mocking the importance of voting" and you're not literally one of the Founding Fathers,  you need to log off and go for a long walk and ideally never, ever come back.

However, the actor has largely stayed out of the political fray, having previously said that he doesn’t feel represented by Democrats or Republicans.

So what you think Chris Pratt's politics are is still a rumor years later, but what Chris Pratt has said about Chris Pratt's politics is…the opinion every normal person has?  

(I feel it's helpful to remind people sometimes just how little of the actual real world is reflected by your Twitter feed.  About 23% of people are on Twitter — out of that 23%, 1/4th users account for the actual talking going on, and out of that 1/4 of 23% that tweets, a vast majority do not actively talk about "politics or public affairs." Whatever that % is you're left with, 1/2 of that small minority of 1/4 of 23% agrees with you politically.)

He’s also come under fire for his past connections to churches that have a history of discriminating against the LGBTQ community.

"Past connections" to "churches" seems kind of vague…this isn't another "it is rumored" thing right? Someone has confirmed where the guy goes to church?

Back in 2019, Elliot Page publicly called Pratt out for attending an “infamously” anti-LGBTQ church, which prompted Pratt to make a rare statement about his beliefs.

“It has recently been suggested that I belong to a church which ‘hates a certain group of people’ and is ‘infamously anti-LGBTQ,’” Pratt posted on social media at the time. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I go to a church that opens their doors to absolutely everyone.”

That was also one of Gunn's tweets —

Obviously I'm not just taking Chris Pratt's word as gospel (church joke). And Gunn's assertion, strong as it may be, is just one person, someone on Team Pratt.  But, unless the article's author decided to leave out some pretty crucial evidence, it seems like the counter-argument is still just "rumors from Twitter people"?  In which case the Pratt/Gunn side has a major advantage.

And that's it, by the way.  Those were the charges laid out in support of forcibly removing Chris Pratt from "Guardians of the Galaxy" in their totality.  Which is, again, just to put it as clearly as possible so we all know what we're talking about here: firing someone from their job on which their livelihood depends because of a rumor that they supported, in their mind, 1 of the 2 choices for president, and an unsubstantiated claim (which they directly and forcefully dispute) about the location where they choose to practice their religion.

Oh and it also bears mentioning, it's not just director James Gunn who supports and defends Pratt:

The actor’s wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, previously called out the “meanness and bullying” of an Instagram post that ranked Pratt as the least popular Hollywood Chris ― a common internet competition that pits Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pine and Chris Evans and Pratt against each other.

A handful of Marvel stars, including Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldaña and Jeremy Renner also voiced their support for Pratt in strongly worded public statements.

Now, before I screw off for the weekend, I just have to point out this sentence from the Huffington Post — this is how that support you just read was framed:

The people in Pratt’s orbit have made a habit out of defending him in recent years.

That sure is one way to phrase it.  

Those "people in Pratt's orbit" are his wife, friends, and colleagues: Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldaña, and Jeremy Renner, to name a handful. 

With that in mind, here's an alternate phrasing:

Chris Pratt's widely-respected friends and colleagues who work on years-long shoots for blockbuster movies with him, and the woman who knows him better than anyone and lives with him and loves him, have made a habit out of speaking "strongly" and publicly about what Chris Pratt is like as a real-life person, in their real-life experience, in response to anonymous strangers with 14 followers and profile pictures of anime characters tweeting about what they think he might be like because of a rumor they read on a gossip blog about what he might think and where he might pray. 

Just my first shot at it, I can clean it up a bit.