Thread by @sturdyAlex

Just a few factual points on Birbalsingh's letter about @jessphillips, which involves - rather unsurprisingly - several dubious claims. 🧵1/

The timing of events, as described, is entirely misleading - and I would point to the time being cropped off tweets selectively as evidence that this is deliberately. Birbalsingh's original post was all over twitter and trending, an hour before Phillips got involved. 2/

What really set Twitter aflame was Birbalsingh claiming it was a GIF (she may well have intended that, but it's clear in every screengrab she actually posted a static image), and that anyone saying otherwise was "a lunatic". That tweet also PRECEDES Phillips' and got 1m views. 3/

So, by 10:41, eleven minutes before Phillips got involved, Birbalsingh had already deleted her tweet and was on the attack. Actually, the very FIRST tweet that Birbalsingh cites as the pile on "off the back of" Phillips, in fact, also PRECEDES Phillips' first tweet by 42mins. /4

So, the actual accusation - that Phillips somehow caused the Twitter storm - is misconceived. The original tweet caused it, exarcebated by Birbalisingh's doubling down.

Now, let's look at Birbalsingh's "serious accusation" that Phillips was motivated by racism. /5

Birbalsingh bases this incredibly incendiary allegation on three things:

a. That, of all the speakers, at the Nat-Con conference, Phillips attacked only her.

Did she though? /6

This is not just a lie, but comically untrue.

I covered the conference for work and recall that Phillips was in bed with food poisoning, live-tweeting barbed comments at every speech. She attacked most speakers, over dozens of tweets. Here are some examples: /7

b. That Phillips mocked Birbalsingh's commitment to women's safety, which is disrespectful of her Jamaican heritage.

Convoluted reasoning aside, Phillips was replying to the ridiculous dog-ate-my-homework GIF excuse and calling people 'lunatics' (carefully edited out by KB). /8

c. That Phillips refuses to use Birbalsingh's name because she considers her a "slave".

This is the most bizarre aspect of this diatribe. Phillips is explicitly referring to the fact that Birbalsingh tweets under the moniker "Miss_Snuffy". /9

Birbalsingh's wider claim is that she's punished for speaking at NatCon, by the repetition of "Hold The Line".

But could that not simply be mocking one of the most bizarre speeches most people who follow politics (on either side) had seen? You judge. /10

It's not for me to judge whether Phillips fell short of some implied duty of care that she owes to Birbalsingh.

But facts matter and I wanted to set them straight. Because twisting facts degrades the very nature of the national conversation, which Birbalsingh claims to want. /11

This isn't about whether Birbalsingh is good at her job. I have thoughts on that, but they're not pertinent.

It shouldn't be controversial, however, to point out that courting notoriety may be not be complementary to, or even compatible with, being a custodian of children. /12

If you make bizarre rants at ultra right wing events, sharing a platform with those who think Hitler "mucked up", maybe people will assume the worst of you.

Maybe you forego an expectation to "measured and proportionate" if your behaviour is consistently the reverse. 13/13 END🧵

PS. As @PhelpsieSarah has pointed out, Birbalsingh even posts an old tweet of Phillips in which she says "You ain't no Aslan." AsLan. In the Chronicles of Narnia. Of course, Birbalsingh reads it as "Asian".

The very definition of cognitive bias from this 'top' educator. 14/13