I could never appear on a discussion prog with @y_alibhai I would either end up with a brain haemorrhage or by punching her in the throat
— Michael Fabricant (@Mike_Fabricant) June 20, 2014Oh dear. The mask has slipped. The bants, the joshing, it's crumbled away leaving something behind suggestive of a deeply unpleasant personality.I'm not going to spend any more time on Fabricant, especially when Dan Hodges has done a good job. Instead, I'd like to turn my attention to the clots who would defend him.
Who should we find at the head of the pack? Surprising no one, it's the idiot Delingpole. Now chief pinhead at Breitbart London, James has completed his long hike from rock to crock journalism - as his short piece covering for Fabricant shows. Here, his argument amounts to "it's wrong to punch Yamin Alibhai-Brown, but nothing at all wrong with wanting to punch her." Profound.
As it happens, I will concede that Twitter is home to bands of people who do jump on comments made by politicians and celebs. But no way are hard right fools like Fabricant victims in this regard, it comes with the territory. The powerful and the privileged have long had the power to determine how people with certain shared characteristics are represented officially and in the media, against their will. Twitter and social media are taking pickaxes to the hierarchy. Symbolic violence - look it up, Jimbo - is getting a rougher and rougher ride. You can't expect to say how you'd like to punch an Asian woman in the throat and get away without being challenged any more.
And they hate it. For Delingpole and co, free speech is being able to speak their limited, lazy minds without any comeback. It's part and parcel of their so-called libertarianism, a fancy-sounding word that lends their anguish and brittle selfishness philosophical cover. If Fabricant and Delingpole want to make violent statements, here I agree with them, they are completely free to do so. But it's pathetic even by schoolyard standards to cry about "PC conspiracies" and bigoted leftyism when people answer back and force our right-whinging heroes to justify their words.
Standard procedure for a bully they can dish it out but don't like taking it.
ReplyDeleteTrying to be a Jeremy Clarkson
ReplyDeleteSaying you want to punch someone while making it clear you have no intention of actually doing so is a misdemeanor that is a total and complete irrelevance compared to say invading Iraq and killing half a million Muslims, or abducting 200 school girls in Nigeria and selling them into slavery or forced marriage. Or indeed arranging forced marriages in the UK.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never taken any interest in Fabricant and know next to nothing about him, but if the best or one of the best criticisms that can be made of him is that he said he wanted to punch someone, then he’s just gone up in my estimation.
I agree, and would add that Fabricant also retweeted something suggesting YAB should be deported.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those moments when I have to stand back and consider the thought that he was trying to be funny.
ReplyDelete(meanwhile, the usual crowd shout up about domestic violence).
Wasn't there a sketch somewhere observing a man bashing another man's head with a fridge door?
Violence, even on TV should not be tolerated and he should be appointed into a high paid position so that we can then sack him.
You see, I'm a bit leaning towards the view that Fabricant was just having a laugh.
It's not cricket to go around 'punching a woman in the throat' or anyone for that matter, but I would ponder the very thought that it was all said in jest by a known parliamentary comedian.
Oh, and by the way, I wouldn't have said that without being on 'have I got news....'
But hey, let's make the most of it while we can.
Did I ever tell you of my quote that ended up in all the glossy left/right politico magazines and wide ranging media?
'The only good Tory is a dead Tory etc...'