Thread by @MrsNickyClark

After a fun 24 hours of being called a nazi I thought I’d do what I never do & that’s defend myself against Twitter BS. Because the ludicrousness of social media has no bounds when it comes to misinformation targeting women.
Ok. So first my views of Gary Lineker ….

Gary Lineker is great. I agree with his view on asylum seekers. We need to do much more & government policy on this needs to be challenged. The problem I have isn’t political. We totally agree on that. It’s about his comparison his star power & the shift in focus by social media

Comparisons to Germany in the 1930’s means the nazis (Hitler was made Chancellor in 1933) are deployed by everyone from anti vaxxers/anti maskers/ trans activists & those opposing Self ID & gender ideology. It’s used by everyone & IMO it shouldn’t be.
It diminishes genocide.

Lineker saw a similarity and said so. Britain is one of many countries who shamefully turned our heads & turned jewish refugees away. But this is a similarity which though genuinely intended is still using a comparison which dials up the febrile nature of Twitter & dilutes truth.

The truth is Lineker has huge star power. Having Alastair Campbell on every news channel (& a podcast with Lineker’s company) leading the media campaign means that febrile attitude is operating to near meltdown. Campbell is the spin king. Lineker is now a god & the BBC a monster

Because Campbell is so good at what he does & because he’s turned this into a fight with the BBC around impartiality (a culture war in & of itself online) he has conflated another national treasure into the fight, Attenborough. An unbeatable team yes? Well no, as it’s not true

https://twitter.com/Jake_Kanter/status/1634221218004885504

Twitter wasn’t going to hang around and wait for facts it had decided already this was “a little guy v the establishment” fight for the soul of integrity. The hashtags about Lineker were written & shared and the issue of asylum seekers was already forgotten.
The walk outs began.

It’s a very odd thing to see the highest paid man in broadcasting being championed as the underdog. My life & campaigning has shown me who the truly vulnerable & marginalised are. But this isn’t about facts anymore. This is now about weaponising public opinion to win.

Fairness doesn’t seem to matter. It wasn’t fair for Maitlis on #Newsnight , it wasn’t fair for Naga Munchetty either & it certainly wasn’t fair for Sue Barker another sports presenter dropped (“refreshed”) & asked to say it was her choice when it wasn’t independent.co.uk/arts-entertain…

But I doubt there’s much interest about a 66 year old woman the focus right now on a 62 year old much loved man. Impartiality we’re told is the name of the game. All BBC employees have to be very careful with their tweets, all except it would seem some. Rules have been fluid

But now today the culture war of BBC impartiality is very much front and centre. The same people demanding this is done in respect of Lineker are calling me a nazi for criticising him. I’m not criticising his views, I’m question him wielding his power.

I love the BBC. We all should. It’s not perfect we all know that but it’s in an existential fight of it’s own right now. I don’t know why Tim Davie decided to sanction Lineker but I do know that it’s biggest star needs to ask himself who he will be helping if he cancels it ?

PS because Twitter suffers from an extreme deficit of object permanence & I’m a 56 year old campaigner & writer (no work has less permanence online than mine) I campaign against ageism targeting women & learning disability rights. Usually called a “woke,lefty feminist snowflake”

I’m not a history professor but I’m not sure nazis tend to do that. But In sure Twitter will find a way to make that fit my “snowflake” frame. Women over 50 aren’t usually treated impartially…..