Thread by @janemerrick23

Since reading Gareth Southgate’s Dear England piece, this line - “we are independent thinkers” - has stayed with me. That’s it isn’t it?

We lament division, rightly, when it causes harm but we have always embraced debate, constantly questioning group think. This isn’t unique to England or the U.K. of course, but diversity of opinion has been a common quality of successful political parties, culture, the arts

We’ve always embraced individuality and questioning of authority. It’s why tribal politics makes me - and many others - feel a bit itchy. The MPs I admire the most are those who challenge their own parties’ orthodoxy.

And yet this is what we are losing through Twitter, particularly quote tweets. I admit I’ve QTed in the past but I’ve also lost count of the number of times I’ve deleted a drafted tweet in case it goes against the grain. Twitter has become an easy place to drag through the QT

anyone who writes something they disagree with. Instead of debating and celebrating differences Twitter allows people to shout down those who don’t think alike. Instead of saying “that’s interesting, I think differently” it encourages shouty pile-ons of people who dare to say

something another disagrees with. This has been amplified by the pandemic and the debate around lockdown, and, dare I say it, culture wars. In the past few weeks I’ve watched scientists/data people/journalists be attacked on here for expressing an opinion, in whichever direction

that others happen to disagree with. As Gareth says, we are independent thinkers. We should respect each other’s independence of thought