So I’ve been watching the William Sitwell Waitress vegangate scandal play out on Twitter all day. It’s been fun. I haven’t got involved, because really sometimes it’s more interesting to watch. But it’s late on a Wednesday night and I have thoughts. You ready? Thread time! 1/
This has become episode 20 million of the culture war. It’s the outrage army (mostly millennials and younger) who say damn right Sitwell resigned after joking about killing vegans vs the PC-gone-mad brigade (mostly older) claiming it’s an affront to free speech. And jokes 2/
But it isn’t. Here’s why. Swap a joke about “killing vegans” with “killing Tory scum” and you can bet the two sides would be pretty much reversed. Most of the free-speech mob would suddenly be outraged and the outrage crusaders would be defending Sitwell's right to hate Tories 3/
Which tells us this isn’t about morals, it’s about culture and tribalism. And here’s where it gets interesting. If he’d joked about “killing Muslims” or “killing gays”, 99% of people would be horrified. If he’d joked about “killing men in red trousers”, no one would have cared 4/
So veganism has become a tribe somewhere between religion/sexuality and fashion. That’s fascinating. It’s not just a food choice, it’s a political/social identity signifying a certain set of beliefs. Try the thought experiment with the paleo diet and neither side would care 5/
Then there’s the class element. This is Waitrose magazine. That’s a middle/upper class symbol. What if it had been a socialist paper slamming veganism? Sitwell’s defenders would be talking about entitled metropolitans mocking working-class food choices in their liberal bubble 6/
I’m not defending team outrage. It’s a risky game when people lose jobs because of things in private emails. And it hasn’t done the “vegans are humourless moralisers” narrative any favours. But I think it’s much more about identity - on both sides - than anyone is admitting 7/
And yes you should be polite at work and it wasn’t a nice email, but which of us would be totally OK having our inbox sprayed all over Twitter? I wouldn’t. I’ve also heard Waitrose may have used this as an excuse to get rid of him. No idea if that’s true, throwing it out there 8/
So there’s an etiquette question too, and maybe that’s partly about age as it does seem to have split mostly on generational lines. But anyone who thinks their take on this story would be exactly the same had he made that joke about a different group is deluding themselves. 9/
And that’s why it’s been so fascinating watching it all play out on Twitter. It IS part of the culture war, but the cultural battles are much more nuanced and intriguing than it seems on the surface. In short, that’s why I got zero work done today. Goodnight! /end
