Vito Gesualdi, comedian and YouTube personality, discusses his participation in the counter-protest against the Netflix employees who staged a walkout outside the company’s headquarters in Los Angeles on 20 October. Discussing how “cancel culture” has affected comedy and screenwriting today, Gesualdi discusses the importance of protecting free speech and how the social media era has spawn social justice activists who believe themselves to alone have all the “right answers” to perceived injustices while creating a culture of victimhood, what he calls a “new religion.” He elaborates how major media like Variety and the Associated Press lied about his participation at the protest of Dave Chappelle’s The Closer, casting his comical and peaceful presence as aggressive and violent. Detailing how his sign was destroyed by a Netflix screenwriter, Joe Cristalli, Gesualdi was left holding the stick onto which his sign was affixed as Cristalli shouts out to the crowds “He’s got a weapon” only to later take part in the physically assault of his co-host, Dick Masterson.

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