Matthew McConaughey calls out cancel culture as he doubles down on ‘illiberal left’ criticism

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Matthew McConaughey doubled down on his recent controversial comments about the ‘illiberal left’ by calling out ‘cancel culture’. 

The Wolf Of Wall Street actor was accused of white privilege earlier this month after criticising those in Hollywood outraged over Donald Trump challenging Joe Biden’s election win. 

During his appearance on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, Matthew stood by his comments and expressed his concerns for the future of freedom of speech. 

‘You need liberals, what I don’t think we need is the illiberals and what I don’t think that some liberals see is that they’re often being cannibalised by the illiberals,’ Matthew told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid. 

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The Dallas Buyers Club actor continued: ‘There are extremes on both sides that I think are unfair, that I don’t think are the right place to be. 

‘The extreme left and the extreme right completely illegitimise the other side. The liberal and the conservative side… or they exaggerate that side’s stance into an irrational state and that’s not fair when either side does that.’ 

He added: ‘Where the waterline’s gonna land on this freedom of speech and what we allow and what we don’t on this cancel culture… is a very interesting place in society trying to figure out because we haven’t found the right spot.’ 

Matthew McConaughey worries about the future of freedom of speech (Picture: ITV, Rex)

Piers interjected: ‘I find it particularly worrying that university campuses for example have become very trenchant in their illiberalism where they don’t allow speakers to come. I’m a liberal myself, I wrote the book as a liberal, but I follow people on Twitter whose views I don’t agree with. 

‘People on the right, conservatives, but I want to hear what they say and I want to see if I can reach a point of consensus, which rather like British politics has become so tribal now that consensus is getting buried in the mix.’ 

Matthew agreed: ‘There’s no room for any consensus. You’ve got to have confrontation to have unity, I think we can all agree on that. That’s when the democracy works really well. 

‘I would say we don’t have true confrontation right now… And that means that actually in a way it’s sort of unconstitutional.’ 

Piers weighed in: ‘If we promote this tribalism, we get to a position where the electoral college will validate biden as president but the incumbent president is building a narrative that it was stolen he was robbed… but there are millions of Americans who do agree with [Trump].’ 

The Oscar-winning actor was previously accused of white privilege (Picture: TNS)

‘Fake news, who knows what to believe what leaders do we trust,’ Matthew replied. 

The Oscar-winning actor continued: ‘There’s so much distrust right now… you start distrusting yourself and we know that leads to some really tough places. 

‘We’ve got to find that place where some kind of form of leadership that we can listen. Facts, they’re quite radical right now.’ 

Piers then joked: ‘Don’t be so outrageous matthew, how dare you.’ 

During an episode of Russell Brand’s podcast, Under The Skin, earlier this month, Matthew called out the so-called Hollywood hypocrites who have slammed Trump for refusing to concede but also being in disbelief when he won the election in 2016. 

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More: Good Morning Britain

‘There are a lot [of people] on that illiberal left that absolutely condescend, patronise, and are arrogant towards the other 50%,’ Matthew told the comedian. 

He continued: ‘I’m sure you saw it in our industry when Trump was voted in four years ago, they were in denial that was real. Some of them were in absolute denial.’ 

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV. 

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