McConaughey on cancel culture, freedom of speech and illiberalism in interview!

LONDON, England (PNN) - December15, 2020 - Matthew McConaughey has elaborated on comments he made last week about the “illiberal Left” and has explained why he thinks our society’s tendency to avoid true confrontation is “unconstitutional”.

Appearing live today (December 15) from his home in Texas on the ITV show Good Morning Britain, the actor discussed topics ranging from fake news to freedom of speech.

“We need liberals, what I don’t think we need is illiberals,” he told hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid. “What I don’t think some liberals see is they’re being cannibalized by the illiberals. There are extremes on both sides that I think are unfair… the extreme Left and extreme Right completely illegitimize the other side. They exaggerate the other side’s stance into an irrational state that makes no sense. That’s not fair.”

The actor also broached the topic of cancel culture. “Where the water line is gonna land on freedom of speech, what we allow and what we don’t, where this cancel culture goes, is a very interesting place that we’re engaged in as a society and are trying to figure out. We haven’t found the right spot,” he said.

The famously loquacious McConaughey, who is promoting his new book Greenlights, an unconventional memoir that also unravels his mantra for living, claimed our society needs more legitimate confrontation and for people to hear opposing opinions to allow our democracy to function.

“You’ve got to have confrontation to have unity. That’s when a democracy works really well,” he commented. “I would argue we don’t have true confrontation right now; confrontation that gives some validation and legitimizes the opposing point of view. We don’t give a legitimacy or validation to an opposing point of view, we make it persona non grata, and that’s unconstitutional.”

“Fake news - who knows what the heck to believe, who to listen to, where’s that consensus?” He continued. “What leaders do we trust? What media outlets do we trust? There is so much distrust right now, you start distrusting yourself, that leads to some really tough places. We have to find some form of leadership that we can listen to - agree with it or not - but trust it.”