Matthew McConaughey laments 'cancel culture' in US
Matthew McConaughey again lamented what he believes is the lack of real debate in the United States these days.
"You’ve got to have confrontation to have unity. That’s when a democracy works really well," the Oscar winner said an interview with "Good Morning Britain" on Tuesday. "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," he continued. "We need liberals, what I don't think we need is illiberals."
The "Wolf of Wall Street" star first weighed in on the topic earlier this month, when he told actor Russell Brand in a podcast interview, "There are a lot [of people] on that illiberal left that absolutely condescend, patronize, and are arrogant towards the other 50%."
In his more recent interview, McConaughey said liberals are "being cannibalized by the illiberals."
"[T]he 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," he said. "That’s not fair."
McConaughey, 51, also touched on so-called "cancel culture" and said the fear of being punished for saying the wrong thing is counter to the First Amendment. "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."
Said the star, who was rumored to be considering a step into politics, "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."
