Thread by @Okwonga

Thread. All very true, it’s a question of sadly finite resources. It’s very hard to pick and choose what to respond to, because if you fight every battle that’s all you end up doing. This takes such careful coordination - and so much money.

https://twitter.com/hannahrosewoods/status/1402884065724977153

Investigative journalists have never been more important, because their stories are one of the few things that have the power to disrupt the manufactured controversies of the “culture wars”. They help set the agenda. They need resources so urgently.

It’s so interesting to see how the hard-right are terrified of well-informed celebrities, because they are the sole group with the credibility and reach to consistently battle tabloid headlines.

Imagine the rage (masking fear) you'd see from the hard-right if a group of well-informed celebrities started a progressive media venture: a venture which funded a rotating cast of investigative journalists, who published their stories on the eve of major cultural events.

People who say "politics and sport don't mix" are terrified of the combination of the two, which is still largely untapped. Look at the astonishing impact of Colin Kaepernick. Think about how many "culture wars" he knocked off the front page, just by kneeling. Protest works.

I keep thinking about Dominic Cummings telling Boris Johnson not to pick a fight with Marcus Rashford. A Prime Minister with an 80-seat majority, scared of a 23-year old footballer. And Cummings was right. Johnson lost. That's part of the answer, right there.

The trick is to get a critical mass of well-informed athlete-activists, so they don't feel isolated in their advocacy: to normalise the mixing of sport and progressive politics. I think the WNBA managed that really well and were forerunners of that approach in the modern era.

Marcus Rashford terrifies the hard-right not only because of the brilliance of what he has done but because it can be replicated by other athletes. Pick a single issue, give it a human face, pursue it with relentless focus. That can be taken to scale very quickly.

Hard-right commentators are sweating and sweating about "The Rashford Model", trying to call Rashford a Marxist because they know that sounds scary to people, but people thinking "he doesn't look scary". Fear is such a hard sell. This is the most likeable England team in years.

Anyway, thanks very much to @hannahrosewoods for inspiring this thread. I think a lot about how people can disrupt the narratives around the "culture wars", it's not an easy thing to do, so I just thought I would write down some ideas (and sympathise with her too). /End