Thread by @garwboy

Ranty thread

So many media hot takes this morning on Boris Johnson's vile behaviour in Parliament, focusing how it's all 'intentional', 'calculated', an 'electoral strategy', and so on.

I don't buy it.

/1

I think old Occam's razor should be applied here. What's the simplest explanation for Johnson's actions?

He's a c*nt. He's always been one, he still is one, and he's behaving even more like one now that he's not getting his own way in all things, like he always has done

/2

There may be some aspect that he's 'playing to the Leave voter base' with his despicable output, but I'd wager that's a secondary concern at best. It's also about as insulting an assessment of those who voted Leave that you could hope for.

/3

So why are so many analysts and reporters so keen to push though "Johnson is behaving tactically for electoral gain" line?

Because the idea that a genuinely unpleasant, uncaring, narcissistic bigoted man-child could end up leader of the country is deeply unsettling. Rightly

/4

Even so, it's happened. Blatantly.

And when confronted with this unpalatable reality, it's human nature to try and find 'alternative' explanations, to maintain your assumptions of how things should work

e.g. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-worl…

/5

So, you've got this unrepentant moral vacuum of a human as PM, being appalling in Parliament, trampling over all assumed standards of decency. That's an awful thing to have to accept as reality

...unless there's some 'other' explanation?

/6

"Ah, of course, he's actually whipping up his base, he's positioning himself for an election battle on a people v Parliament strategy. Nobody would *really* behave like this"

But they would. And he is. And he's PM. These, sadly, aren't incompatible.

/7

This is especially uncomfortable, I'd wager, for political reporters and the like, even if it's on a subconscious level. They've largely given him constant, positive coverage, treated him seriously. They're partly responsible for this situation

/8

To help a man get elected (whether it was your choice or not) and he promptly reveals himself to be so unpleasant, it suggests you were fooled, or didn't do your job, or were just wrong about things. Again, it's human nature to want to 'cover your arse', so to speak

/9

And one way to save face is to overestimate the abilities/intelligence of those who duped you
"It's actually all part of a very clever long-term strategy formed by geniuses. I wasn't outdone by a racist narcissistic buffoon, no. That would be ludicrous"

/10

This is, I'd wager, a big part of the bizarre reverence for Cumming's 'abilities'. And we saw it when Trump got elected, with all the frantic speculation of Bannon's nth-level master planning for a right wing coup etc.

boingboing.net/2017/01/30/was…

/11

It's distressing to think that bad people win. It's not comfortable to realise that the systems you've long assumed keep everything in place mean nothing to some people, and that you may have had a hand in helping them, even if unwittingly

/12

My take? Media types pushing the 'Johnson is being tactical and manipulative on purpose to get votes' angle, it's basically political conspiracy theorising. It's an instinctive effort to find alternative explanations for a reality that is too grim to accept

/13

I could be wrong, obviously. I often am. But if reporters could stop automatically attributing cunning and strategy to despicable behaviour in public, particularly when the evidence doesn't support that, the greater the odds it'll stop happening maybe?

/14

Basically, it's entirely possible we have a genuinely nasty unrepentant human as leader of our country, who is behaving consistently. I'd say it's pretty much a certainty. Trying to excuse that or explain it away with cunning master plans and political gaming helps nobody

/end

Thread from earlier, about why pundits constantly explaining Johnson's rancid actions as 'tactical' or 'strategic' is potentially a psychological defence mechanism to avoid acknowledging what a shit human he is

https://twitter.com/garwboy/status/1177135957537165318