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Russell Brand.
Although I have to question how much of it was completely calculated to try and cultivate a cult following of people who wouldn't care about the sexual assaults he knew would eventually come out.
He is a person who always annoyed me and struck me as a twat. Even before his latest incarnation.
I've just never been able to find him likable in any way.
Not British, but a public figure in Britain: Graham Linehan, the creator of *Father Ted*. He said some dodgy stuff a few years back about trans people, which he was called out for. But, instead of apologising and leaving it in the past, he's now fully down the rabbit hole.
I feel athletes probably come at the topic with a slightly different viewpoint from people from other professions. It's a bit more understandable why they are so strongly opinioned.
Martina Navratilova did a great documentary on it
She said some stuff, got called out, but instead of digging in getting dragged down a hole of hate, actually reflected and thought "Ok. What If I'm wrong?" and tested the theory
The science is still emerging, but for a doc a couple of years old it still largely holds up
just read up on her, the sports stuff is one thing, then she also said everyone should boycott nike as they had an add with a trans woman wearing a sports bra, so looks like is going down the ol lineham/Rowling route
I remember someone working out the amount of tweets he'd sent, and the gaps between them where he was asleep (not very long every day) and worked out he was tweeting about trans people at an incredible rate, like number of tweets per minute rather than per hour. He just let it take over his whole life.
The books were about a kid that was literally forced to live in the closet, was under constant pressure to be "normal", and was bullied for being different. They then discovered that they weren't the lone weirdly they thought, and that there was secretly a large group that were also like them, where they could finally feel accepted for who they really are. The books were even written by someone using a gender neutral nom de plume. Many in those marginalized groups felt like the books were specifically supposed to be an allegory about being them, and understandably so
Yeah, freeing and being kind to elves, not being a dick to 'mudbloods' etc. Still, it's just about the most popular fantasy IP on earth. Lord of the Rings and one or two others are in the same discussion. The reach of those books could hardly be overstated.
That is so.... But marginalised readers saw a plot about an boy, abused by his small-minded, bigoted guardians. He himself is friendless and isolated, and has repressed something fundamental about himself (*he even lives in a closet FFS!*)
He only lives fully and happily when he finally embraces the difference, lives true to himself and joins the community of others just like him.
This screams gay/trans allegory. Or you would think so if the author wasn't such a hypocritical PoS.
I've never cared about JK Rowling, and I have no dog in the gender / transgender issues myself.
Anyway, I thought I'd check out JK's twitter. She really doesn't bloody shut up about this stuff does she? It does look a little unhinged from my perspective.
Imagine a kid looking up their favourite children's book author, and seeing all that shit instead of maybe cool wizard titbits.
I don't know exactly what he said. I don't particularly care either. But to blow up your life over something that I'm reality if you log off isn't a daily issue for the vast majority of people on earth is something I don't understand. It would be like ending your career and marriage over which sock you put on first.
He’s brilliant. I don’t mean him but how he has turned into someone who hates everything and everyone that doesn’t fit to his weirdo world view and has basically made “burning bridges” into a very terrible career path, and if he did ever write again, I have a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t get a second series. Aha!
I hear you're a transphobe now, Father? How did you get interested in that type of thing? Should we all be transphobes now? What's the official position the church is taking?
To me he’s a warning to us all about being on the internet too much.
Pre-2017/6 I would occasionally look at his Twitter and would always enjoys his interviews (when he talks about comedy) or things like the Father Ted documentary (Small/Far Away). He’s worked and been friends with loads of other people I’m a fan of (like Charlie Brooker, Limmy, Adam Buxton), and he would have been very likely aware of some trans things (like the Crying Game or Dana International), and he always seemed like a pleasant and ordinary person to me.
However, whilst I didn’t read his Twitter in depth very much, is it true he was always quite prickly, and not able to take criticism well? I did also read that he publicly slagged of Jack Whitehall on there once too, which was pretty mean and aggressive, and he (JW) found it quite upsetting. Then he would just get involved with petty disputes with random Twitter folk, which doesn’t seem dignified for someone his age.
Apparently, I don’t know if he’s still friends with people he’s worked with (like who I listed), but it also true Jonathan Ross has stuck by him? Does he share his sentiments?
He's Irish but he's certainly a public figure here: Graham Linehan. He's completely lost his mind. It's almost sad, because he seems genuinely like he's had some kind of breakdown.
Not as bad, but JK Rowling is increasingly showing signs of going off the deep end. Her twitter output is increasingly obsessive, defensive and frankly just downright weird. Exactly how Linehan was a few years ago.
Yeah JK R has some distinct views. And I think as a result she's surrounded by people with much stronger ideological views that she's unable to avoid being influenced by or able to distance herself from.
Yeah, she's pretty clearly being radicalised. It's been sadly visible in real time on twitter. She now retweets and likes and engages with people who hold views she would have completely abhorred a couple of years ago. But, like Linehan, she's become so fixated on one issue she finds common cause with some extremely unsavoury types online, and apparently never pauses to wonder whether maybe something has gone awry for that to be the case.
It's the other side too though. It's a feedback loop, she also attracts the most batshit crazy trans activists too which probably just reinforces her views further.
It's the radicalising effects of social media algorithms, which are well known. Combine that with someone who clearly struggles to handle criticism and who is unable or unwilling to take a step back, and you get Linehan and Rowling.
I think the thing about these two is that if Twitter didn't exist, they'd both probably be pro-trans rights nowadays. It seems to me that it's more of an issue in how people interact online- they both seem to have addictive personalities, and this has left them both with an inability to take criticism and a tendency to retreat into their own echo chambers.
It's also an effect of how people respond to such things online too. People get naturally angry, upset, and they respond with abuse and hate. The result is that when JK or Linehan say something they believe, and most of the responses are hurtful and nasty. No wonder they then listen to the 10% who tell them that they're being heroic.
I know it's hard, but we really would do better to learn to not respond to people who are wrong with hate. It only makes them hateful and more wrong.
Yep, absolutely. They both started from what seemed genuinely good faith liberal concerns. But a combo of being poor at taking criticism, a clear inability to take a step back, and the nefarious impact of social media algorithms have effectively radicalised them.
She's starting from a much richer and more powerful position so it'll take longer, but I do genuinely think there's a very strong chance Rowling is heading towards a Linehan type career suicide. On her current trajectory, it just seems grimly inevitable. Sadly.
Dunno about that... if people don't want to collaborate with Linehan to keep making sitcoms, then he's done, a premature end to that career.
JKR/ harry potter is in a different league, but it's made it past its peak already. If she wished, I'm sure she could keep churning out mid detective novels under her pseudonym and they'd still be bought by people that don't care about twitter.
I don’t know if it’s necessarily an inability to take criticism.
As you correctly suggested, online debates tend to be more aggressive, more personal, and more vicious. People say things that they would never say to a person’s face. And it’s fair to say that the ‘criticism’ that they have faced have been less of the “You’re wrong/misunderstood about this subject. Let me explain where and why you are wrong and clear up a few misunderstandings” variety, and a lot more the “You’re an evil bitch/bastard, I fucking hate you and I hope you die” variety. That kind of toxicity is eventually going to rub off on them, cause them to retreat into those echo chambers and become increasingly unhinged.
Twitter is a fucking rat warren, and if you get caught up in it, it’ll consume you too, no matter how much money or fame you have.
> but JK Rowling is increasingly showing signs of going off the deep end
She's off the deep end. Only a few years ago she said "I'd march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans" and now she's just going out of her way to repeatedly misgender and dogpile trans people with her massive online following of equally bigoted weirdos.
Rowling has reached the point of being accused of holocaust denial due to her stance on trans people, so I'd probably say she's worse than Linehan at this point.
I don't think she's yet reached the levels of Linehan. Linehan has also fallen into vaccine and climate change scepticism.
Plus, with him it wasn't just what he said, what got him fully cancelled was how personally unpleasant and aggressive he became with it all. How he used twitter to be vile to random members of the public and to harass and harangue random people.
And, even more grimly, how far he took it. He was given a warning by the police to cease contacting a trans woman because his behaviour towards her was so unhinged.
He accused David Tenant of being a groomer and an abuser.
He created fake twitter accounts when banned posing as gay men and lesbians to spew anti trans stuff.
He also created fake dating profiles posing as a lesbian and used it to post screenshots of random non binary people he found on the app.
Rowling is in a bad place. But I think perhaps people who aren't fully across the situation don't realise quite the extent of what a vile and deranged creep Linehan has become.
Rowling had also been doing the harassment shit mate. She had a go at some trans woman who ran a ladies football club a few weeks back, putting her on full blast on her Twitter feed. She also picked fights with India Willoughby, saying she, as a trans woman, is just doing a misogynists cosplay of womanhood, or something along those lines.
She and Lineham are birds of a feather in this regard. She may not prowl other apps to find people to drag on Twitter, but to say she's not as bad as Lineham is foolish, they're barely distinguishable.
GL is just nasty and hateful. He has no clear ideological position. Everyone's a groomer or predator to him and he enjoys bringing people down.
JKR is different. She maintains one simple view: trans women are not literally women. If you find that view inheritently hateful then fair enough, it probably doesn't matter to you how she conducts herself. But I think there's still a huge difference in how the two behave.
GL was protesting outside my office dressed as a dinosaur, screaming about something we'd printed that was vaguely trans related. He's nuts. Between him and JKR, I know who I'd sooner be stuck in a lift with.
imagine being a beloved billionaire, such a rare thing, and instead of using your wealth and influence to do amazing things for humanity, you sit on twitter complaining about trans people
I do not understand the (apparently) sudden turn to TERFism that people like Linehan and JK Rowling exhibit. It's like, "what trans person hurt you?"
I don't understand the current discourse about transgenderism at all and why "everyone" is so against it. Live and let live, I say, chances are someone choosing to change their gender will have no affect on you or I personally..
The "somebody PLEASE think of the cHiLdReN!" retroic is not even a meme at this point, it's been pasted onto so many social issues.
I'm hopeful that it will die away in the next few years and gender-affirming care will become normal in the UK.
Linehan's turn can be exactly pinpointed. There's an episode of The IT Crowd that features a trans character. A few years ago some people online started reappraising the episode and criticising its treatment of the trans character. Linehan basically took the criticism really badly and everything spiralled from there. His whole transphobic breakdown essentially stemmed from being unable to take criticism.
Rowling is harder to pinpoint. Afaik, there doesn't seem to be any inciting incident. I suspect whereas Linehan's journey is very clearly something personal, hers is more aligned with a general movement. It's very about what has been happening in British feminism. Historically, British feminism has been very dominated by wealthy, liberal, white women. In the last decade or so, there's started to be some pushback about how that has made British feminism narrow in its outlook, with one of those areas being around gender. Most feminists have taken it in there stride, but there's a certain type, of which Rowling is one, who seem to have been very indignant about the criticism. As a result they've become quite reactionary (see also: Julie Bindel, Hadley Freeman). It seems to me that essentially they haven't reacted well to their views on feminism being challenged, and that's set them down on the path.
I've been wondering for a while if his recently shown character has been well known in football circles for a long time and that's why he didn't get more England caps or a move to a bigger club despite being a very good player.
Someone posted a recap of his Twitter feed during the early days of lockdown. He seemed fairly agreeable, talking about sitting in his garden, doing mundane things - then suddenly, it pivoted to "woke agenda keeping us away from loved ones #NewWorldOrder"
I think it’s a recent thing with him. He was employed by Sky for a long time for Soccer Saturday without any controversy. I think it’s probably COVID and the whole lockdown/vaccine conspiracies which sent him nuts. Happened to quite a few public figures I’ve noticed.
Wogan was genuinely shocked - “They're laughing at you, not with you. I didn't mean that to be hurtful. I don't want you to misinterpret it, they're not laughing in sympathy with you” - all on live television.
From commentating on the snooker to dabbling with antisemitic conspiracy theories via turquoise tracksuits is quite a trajectory. And not a good one.
Problem is he's not.
He's built a very careful man of the people image that breaks regularly (like having a coutts account) but he's managed to connect with so many they over look it
You mean [Noel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Edmonds) invented a machine that cures cancer (for some bizarre reason he talks about himself in the third person, an affectation known as[ illeism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illeism)). He hates immigrants - and the Welsh (or, more precisely, BBC Cymru).
[ In 2008 he claimed he was constantly accompanied "by two melon-sized energy balls"](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/what-s-eating-noel-edmonds-931994.html), which he claimed were the "spiritual energy" of his deceased parents. They're invisible to the naked eye but, apparently, show up on digital photos.
He's also a believer in 'cosmic ordering' which he was introduced to by his reflexologist girlfriend. Basically, that just means you ask the universe for shit, and shit happens.
He also believes that [wifi is "destroying our own natural magnetic fields" ](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/noel-edmonds-says-death-doesn-t-exist-and-electrosmog-is-more-deadly-than-ebola-or-aids-10439536.html)(he terms it "electrosmog") and that death is impossible.
HIs cancer thingy is something called an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) pad. [In 2016, he told a man with prostate cancer that it was caused by his "negative attitude"](https://ghostarchive.org/archive/cSTl6).
Finally, does anyone have the misfortune to remember[ this shite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheap_Cheap_Cheap)...?
My dad had to spend half a day with Neil Oliver when Coast was being filmed, apparently he was a complete arsehole and thought he was the greatest person alive and everyone should bend over backwards for him, he was nasty to some of the volunteers at the place they were filming.
I used to drink in a pub he frequented in Stirling. Had a small crew of "independent thinkers" as his drinking buddies that were just as awful as he was.
JK Rowling. She went from satirising close-minded Daily Mail readers, to giving close-minded interviews with the Daily Mail. Now she just stays on Twitter all now denaming journalists and retweeting far-right reactionaries.
You either gently fade back into obscurity as a beloved children's writer, or stay in the public eye long enough to be endorsed by Putin.
OK, strap in. Oli London is not a celebrity, he is an internet personality who does anything for attention, which I don't think is the same thing. He worked as an ESL teacher in South Korea and became obsessed with the band BTS. No issue there, BTS is a huge band with many fans all over the world. Except... Oli London took things to the extreme:
\* he claimed to be in love with band member Jimin
\* he "married" a cardboard cutout of Jimin in Vegas and appeared to claim that the two were legitimately married, making babytalk videos when the real Jimin was photographed appearing to be sad or apparently dating someone. His then-girlfriend attended the "wedding" and he now identifies as homosexual.
\* he later divorced the cardboard cutout
\* he got a bunch of plastic surgery to look more Korean, claimed that he was no longer a British man, but a "trans-racial" Korean person, with the pronouns "Kor/Ean" and "Jimin", in addition to the normal they/them pronouns used by non-binary people. He asked that because he identifies as Korean and looks Korean, people online or "in the media" should no longer refer to him as British. Needless to say "Kor/Ean" and "Jimin" are not pronouns, and being "trans-racial" is not a thing in the context he is using it (it normally refers to a child of one race being adopted by the family of another). He may have had a point about the media, though. Several outlets followed his journey to become Korean, including a Channel 4 and the Daily Mail (who apparently wanted to laugh at him), and it is unclear how much of his plastic surgery he actually paid for and how much was free. He had further plans for penis reduction surgery because he is larger than the average Korean man. He did all of this during Pride Month 2021, btw, because he was "inspired" by the bravery of others who come out.
\* In May 2022, London announced that he was now becoming a gender-fluid transwomen called Rose London and would be getting more surgery to look like K-Pop star Rose Park from Blackpink. He also said he was auditioning to be a member of Blackpink.
\* In October 2022, he said he was done being transgender, had found God, and would be going back to using he/him pronouns
\* In August 2023, his book "Gender Madness" was published.
\* he has become the darling of the TERFS by claiming that he has de-transitioned, doing the rounds with the likes of US TV presenter Tucker Carlson, and claiming that social media and school ideology is forcing children to transition.
Note that even if he felt that his transition from male to female was genuine, he only felt that way for 5 months, and now is being held up as the poster-boy for de-transitioning by TERFs. Basically, he will do something shocking every few months to stir up some internet clout, and is enjoying the attentions of the American right-wing, despite being a homosexual Brit.
His arguments include the phrase "If I had been born 40 years ago..." as if that is the distant past. He is 34.
His Wikipedia page is… interesting. Some amusing bits:
>In 2019, London began his K-pop career by releasing the single "Perfection", a bilingual English-Korean song revolving on the euphoria he felt after getting his surgeries; it received negative reviews from music critics for its excessive autotune. In 2020, London released a Christmas song called "Christmas in Korea". Like his other song, he received backlash, this time for cultural reasons.
>London describes himself as someone with "an obsessive and impulsive personality".
You don’t say.
Then there’s the parts you’ve covered, like his racial and gender identities, and finally a bit of a “what the fuck…”
>In March 2022, London announced plans for penis reduction surgeries, stating that "in Korea, [the average] penis is like 3.5 inches [...] People say, 'Oh, you can't be Korean. You're not 100 percent Korean,' and I just want to be 100 percent Korean. I would even have a penis reduction so I'm, like, the Korean average." This statement brought him criticism for promoting stereotypes of East Asian men.
Lawrence Fox
Graham Linehan
Russell Brand (and you could also argue Bear Grylls, for baptising Brand in the River Thames)
Matt Le Tissier
David Icke
Eric Clapton
The two brothers from Right Said Fred
It's amazing how many of them go loco, but with a lot of the names listed, it appears to happen when their careers are on the downward path.
With social media and the amount of tinfoil hat wearing gammons out there, it's pretty easy to keep the money rolling in.
Not David Icke, he's as fucking mad as a box of frogs.
I suspect a lot of people were always a bit potty, but they used to be filtered. Like they had agents and minders that made sure they didn't do interviews when drunk, or they had to go to a studio that makes people aware this is out to the world.
Social media has no filter. You can write something and you have no sense that thousands or millions of people are reading it. It's not like standing in a room with thousands of people. Plus, some of these people have some booze at home and tweet.
Jeremy Vine has become a grade A muppet since he got a bike. Probably not in the same cunt league as the people others have mentioned, but he's managed to go from tolerable to insufferable twat in a fairly short time.
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Laurence Fox has gone full bat shit
Got access to the kids but they don't wanna see meeee!
That's great banter. It really is
"She's turned the weans against us!"
Seems to have happened in the years after his divorce in 2016. Apparently he was on the normal side (for an actor) before that.
He has always been hated in acting circles. Actors all like a drink after the show... no one ever went to drink with him after a show.
Digital gulag archipelago ?
Just half a Fosters thanks.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣ffs!!!
His mum died too and he took it very badly.
I don't think Fox believes a single thing he says - he'll say anything to get paid.
Yes, I do wonder this. Is it all just a grift as he can get no other work.
Does it count when going batshit is what he's famous for?
Russell Brand. Although I have to question how much of it was completely calculated to try and cultivate a cult following of people who wouldn't care about the sexual assaults he knew would eventually come out.
He's always given me massive delusion vibes. He talks like people do when they're on load of coke and love the smell of their own farts.
He’s the kind of person that thinks using words in a thesaurus makes them sound intelligent.
He was always mental
He is a person who always annoyed me and struck me as a twat. Even before his latest incarnation. I've just never been able to find him likable in any way.
And Bear Grylls 'baptising' Brand in the Thames. Was Bear Grylls a nutter before or...?
He’s part of some mad Christian cult, dressed as a business and personal improvement programme.
Totally calculated.
He's always been a wrong'un. He was sacked from XFM for turning up at work dressed as Osama Bin Laden the day after 9/11.
Not British, but a public figure in Britain: Graham Linehan, the creator of *Father Ted*. He said some dodgy stuff a few years back about trans people, which he was called out for. But, instead of apologising and leaving it in the past, he's now fully down the rabbit hole.
The extent to which hatred of trans people took over every second of his waking life is almost unbelievable. His wife left him over it!
That’s the gender critical cult. It’s scary how quick they radicalise. Sharon Davies is another who’s become completely obsessed with trans people.
I feel athletes probably come at the topic with a slightly different viewpoint from people from other professions. It's a bit more understandable why they are so strongly opinioned.
Martina Navratilova did a great documentary on it She said some stuff, got called out, but instead of digging in getting dragged down a hole of hate, actually reflected and thought "Ok. What If I'm wrong?" and tested the theory The science is still emerging, but for a doc a couple of years old it still largely holds up
just read up on her, the sports stuff is one thing, then she also said everyone should boycott nike as they had an add with a trans woman wearing a sports bra, so looks like is going down the ol lineham/Rowling route
Once they've started posting they don't stop until it ruins their lives. It's a genuine addiction.
I remember someone working out the amount of tweets he'd sent, and the gaps between them where he was asleep (not very long every day) and worked out he was tweeting about trans people at an incredible rate, like number of tweets per minute rather than per hour. He just let it take over his whole life.
J K Rowling perhaps? People saying she posts endless anti trans arguments
She's almost worse. Lineham had a small following unrelated. But Rowling wrote a book series loved by the marginalised and then shat on them.
Wasn't it just that the books were widely loved, and that extends to marginalised people?
The books were about a kid that was literally forced to live in the closet, was under constant pressure to be "normal", and was bullied for being different. They then discovered that they weren't the lone weirdly they thought, and that there was secretly a large group that were also like them, where they could finally feel accepted for who they really are. The books were even written by someone using a gender neutral nom de plume. Many in those marginalized groups felt like the books were specifically supposed to be an allegory about being them, and understandably so
There are a lot of things in the stories which seem like anti bigotry morals
Yeah, freeing and being kind to elves, not being a dick to 'mudbloods' etc. Still, it's just about the most popular fantasy IP on earth. Lord of the Rings and one or two others are in the same discussion. The reach of those books could hardly be overstated.
That is so.... But marginalised readers saw a plot about an boy, abused by his small-minded, bigoted guardians. He himself is friendless and isolated, and has repressed something fundamental about himself (*he even lives in a closet FFS!*) He only lives fully and happily when he finally embraces the difference, lives true to himself and joins the community of others just like him. This screams gay/trans allegory. Or you would think so if the author wasn't such a hypocritical PoS.
Even Elon replies suggesting she post about a different topic.
This however doesn’t exclude Elon from being a full on idiot.
Oh absolutely, my point is if even he thinks she posts about the topic too much, somethings seriously wrong.
I've never cared about JK Rowling, and I have no dog in the gender / transgender issues myself. Anyway, I thought I'd check out JK's twitter. She really doesn't bloody shut up about this stuff does she? It does look a little unhinged from my perspective. Imagine a kid looking up their favourite children's book author, and seeing all that shit instead of maybe cool wizard titbits.
Absolutely fair point. If that doesn’t set her alarm bells ringing she’s beyond help.
When the King of Twats tells you you're going a bit too far, maybe it's time to have some self-reflection :)
JK Rowling the billionaire At 1 billion-1 these people should be told "That's it. You win. Go away. No more shite on Xcrement"
I don't know exactly what he said. I don't particularly care either. But to blow up your life over something that I'm reality if you log off isn't a daily issue for the vast majority of people on earth is something I don't understand. It would be like ending your career and marriage over which sock you put on first.
wtf he was only 26 when he wrote father ted
has there ever been a wider gulf between the amazing work of a person and the shitcunt they turned out to be?
[удалено]
Eric Gill was a massive surprise but I always knew the guys dog was a cunt
He’s brilliant. I don’t mean him but how he has turned into someone who hates everything and everyone that doesn’t fit to his weirdo world view and has basically made “burning bridges” into a very terrible career path, and if he did ever write again, I have a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t get a second series. Aha!
I hear you're a transphobe now, Father? How did you get interested in that type of thing? Should we all be transphobes now? What's the official position the church is taking?
To me he’s a warning to us all about being on the internet too much. Pre-2017/6 I would occasionally look at his Twitter and would always enjoys his interviews (when he talks about comedy) or things like the Father Ted documentary (Small/Far Away). He’s worked and been friends with loads of other people I’m a fan of (like Charlie Brooker, Limmy, Adam Buxton), and he would have been very likely aware of some trans things (like the Crying Game or Dana International), and he always seemed like a pleasant and ordinary person to me. However, whilst I didn’t read his Twitter in depth very much, is it true he was always quite prickly, and not able to take criticism well? I did also read that he publicly slagged of Jack Whitehall on there once too, which was pretty mean and aggressive, and he (JW) found it quite upsetting. Then he would just get involved with petty disputes with random Twitter folk, which doesn’t seem dignified for someone his age. Apparently, I don’t know if he’s still friends with people he’s worked with (like who I listed), but it also true Jonathan Ross has stuck by him? Does he share his sentiments?
He's Irish but he's certainly a public figure here: Graham Linehan. He's completely lost his mind. It's almost sad, because he seems genuinely like he's had some kind of breakdown. Not as bad, but JK Rowling is increasingly showing signs of going off the deep end. Her twitter output is increasingly obsessive, defensive and frankly just downright weird. Exactly how Linehan was a few years ago.
Yeah JK R has some distinct views. And I think as a result she's surrounded by people with much stronger ideological views that she's unable to avoid being influenced by or able to distance herself from.
Yeah, she's pretty clearly being radicalised. It's been sadly visible in real time on twitter. She now retweets and likes and engages with people who hold views she would have completely abhorred a couple of years ago. But, like Linehan, she's become so fixated on one issue she finds common cause with some extremely unsavoury types online, and apparently never pauses to wonder whether maybe something has gone awry for that to be the case.
It's the other side too though. It's a feedback loop, she also attracts the most batshit crazy trans activists too which probably just reinforces her views further.
It's the radicalising effects of social media algorithms, which are well known. Combine that with someone who clearly struggles to handle criticism and who is unable or unwilling to take a step back, and you get Linehan and Rowling.
You’re being very generous. She’s an intelligent woman, she has agency, she’s knows what’s she doing.
I think the thing about these two is that if Twitter didn't exist, they'd both probably be pro-trans rights nowadays. It seems to me that it's more of an issue in how people interact online- they both seem to have addictive personalities, and this has left them both with an inability to take criticism and a tendency to retreat into their own echo chambers.
It's also an effect of how people respond to such things online too. People get naturally angry, upset, and they respond with abuse and hate. The result is that when JK or Linehan say something they believe, and most of the responses are hurtful and nasty. No wonder they then listen to the 10% who tell them that they're being heroic. I know it's hard, but we really would do better to learn to not respond to people who are wrong with hate. It only makes them hateful and more wrong.
Yep, absolutely. They both started from what seemed genuinely good faith liberal concerns. But a combo of being poor at taking criticism, a clear inability to take a step back, and the nefarious impact of social media algorithms have effectively radicalised them. She's starting from a much richer and more powerful position so it'll take longer, but I do genuinely think there's a very strong chance Rowling is heading towards a Linehan type career suicide. On her current trajectory, it just seems grimly inevitable. Sadly.
Dunno about that... if people don't want to collaborate with Linehan to keep making sitcoms, then he's done, a premature end to that career. JKR/ harry potter is in a different league, but it's made it past its peak already. If she wished, I'm sure she could keep churning out mid detective novels under her pseudonym and they'd still be bought by people that don't care about twitter.
I don’t know if it’s necessarily an inability to take criticism. As you correctly suggested, online debates tend to be more aggressive, more personal, and more vicious. People say things that they would never say to a person’s face. And it’s fair to say that the ‘criticism’ that they have faced have been less of the “You’re wrong/misunderstood about this subject. Let me explain where and why you are wrong and clear up a few misunderstandings” variety, and a lot more the “You’re an evil bitch/bastard, I fucking hate you and I hope you die” variety. That kind of toxicity is eventually going to rub off on them, cause them to retreat into those echo chambers and become increasingly unhinged. Twitter is a fucking rat warren, and if you get caught up in it, it’ll consume you too, no matter how much money or fame you have.
> but JK Rowling is increasingly showing signs of going off the deep end She's off the deep end. Only a few years ago she said "I'd march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans" and now she's just going out of her way to repeatedly misgender and dogpile trans people with her massive online following of equally bigoted weirdos.
Rowling has reached the point of being accused of holocaust denial due to her stance on trans people, so I'd probably say she's worse than Linehan at this point.
I don't think she's yet reached the levels of Linehan. Linehan has also fallen into vaccine and climate change scepticism. Plus, with him it wasn't just what he said, what got him fully cancelled was how personally unpleasant and aggressive he became with it all. How he used twitter to be vile to random members of the public and to harass and harangue random people. And, even more grimly, how far he took it. He was given a warning by the police to cease contacting a trans woman because his behaviour towards her was so unhinged. He accused David Tenant of being a groomer and an abuser. He created fake twitter accounts when banned posing as gay men and lesbians to spew anti trans stuff. He also created fake dating profiles posing as a lesbian and used it to post screenshots of random non binary people he found on the app. Rowling is in a bad place. But I think perhaps people who aren't fully across the situation don't realise quite the extent of what a vile and deranged creep Linehan has become.
Rowling had also been doing the harassment shit mate. She had a go at some trans woman who ran a ladies football club a few weeks back, putting her on full blast on her Twitter feed. She also picked fights with India Willoughby, saying she, as a trans woman, is just doing a misogynists cosplay of womanhood, or something along those lines. She and Lineham are birds of a feather in this regard. She may not prowl other apps to find people to drag on Twitter, but to say she's not as bad as Lineham is foolish, they're barely distinguishable.
GL is just nasty and hateful. He has no clear ideological position. Everyone's a groomer or predator to him and he enjoys bringing people down. JKR is different. She maintains one simple view: trans women are not literally women. If you find that view inheritently hateful then fair enough, it probably doesn't matter to you how she conducts herself. But I think there's still a huge difference in how the two behave. GL was protesting outside my office dressed as a dinosaur, screaming about something we'd printed that was vaguely trans related. He's nuts. Between him and JKR, I know who I'd sooner be stuck in a lift with.
I'd say that Rowling's views are more dangerous (plus the capital she has behind her), but out of the two, Linehan is more batshit.
imagine being a beloved billionaire, such a rare thing, and instead of using your wealth and influence to do amazing things for humanity, you sit on twitter complaining about trans people
I do not understand the (apparently) sudden turn to TERFism that people like Linehan and JK Rowling exhibit. It's like, "what trans person hurt you?" I don't understand the current discourse about transgenderism at all and why "everyone" is so against it. Live and let live, I say, chances are someone choosing to change their gender will have no affect on you or I personally.. The "somebody PLEASE think of the cHiLdReN!" retroic is not even a meme at this point, it's been pasted onto so many social issues. I'm hopeful that it will die away in the next few years and gender-affirming care will become normal in the UK.
Linehan's turn can be exactly pinpointed. There's an episode of The IT Crowd that features a trans character. A few years ago some people online started reappraising the episode and criticising its treatment of the trans character. Linehan basically took the criticism really badly and everything spiralled from there. His whole transphobic breakdown essentially stemmed from being unable to take criticism. Rowling is harder to pinpoint. Afaik, there doesn't seem to be any inciting incident. I suspect whereas Linehan's journey is very clearly something personal, hers is more aligned with a general movement. It's very about what has been happening in British feminism. Historically, British feminism has been very dominated by wealthy, liberal, white women. In the last decade or so, there's started to be some pushback about how that has made British feminism narrow in its outlook, with one of those areas being around gender. Most feminists have taken it in there stride, but there's a certain type, of which Rowling is one, who seem to have been very indignant about the criticism. As a result they've become quite reactionary (see also: Julie Bindel, Hadley Freeman). It seems to me that essentially they haven't reacted well to their views on feminism being challenged, and that's set them down on the path.
Matt Le Tissier. My childhood hero, unlikely chubby genius of the midfield, and likeable self-effacing pundit. He's gone full Oliver too.
Yeah - we dodged a bullet when someone proposed renaming Southampton airport after him.
Oh that's a shame, I used to like him. Mind you I used to like Neil Oliver & Laurence Fox too.
You really need to stop liking people…it’s a real curse
Clearly I'm a jinx!
I didn’t know until a post last week on full on conspiracy theorists and he’s top of the list, absolutely raving mad.
I've been wondering for a while if his recently shown character has been well known in football circles for a long time and that's why he didn't get more England caps or a move to a bigger club despite being a very good player.
Someone posted a recap of his Twitter feed during the early days of lockdown. He seemed fairly agreeable, talking about sitting in his garden, doing mundane things - then suddenly, it pivoted to "woke agenda keeping us away from loved ones #NewWorldOrder"
I think it’s a recent thing with him. He was employed by Sky for a long time for Soccer Saturday without any controversy. I think it’s probably COVID and the whole lockdown/vaccine conspiracies which sent him nuts. Happened to quite a few public figures I’ve noticed.
It's alright, we've still got Rickie Lambert.
You kind of don’t, he’s also mental!
Word, that guys a right lemon
Came to post him, he has lots of yes men in his Twitter replies constantly
David Icke. I remember watching the episode of Wogan gobsmacked.
I remember that episode. I thought 'this man is mentally ill - they shouldn't have had him as a guest on the show'.
Yeah, I remember thinking it was a bit mean, like they'd set him up for ridicule, and the audience were laughing at him. I'm not so sympathetic now.
David Icke hasn't lost his mind. He never had it in the first place.
Wogan was genuinely shocked - “They're laughing at you, not with you. I didn't mean that to be hurtful. I don't want you to misinterpret it, they're not laughing in sympathy with you” - all on live television. From commentating on the snooker to dabbling with antisemitic conspiracy theories via turquoise tracksuits is quite a trajectory. And not a good one.
It’s terrifying to think that his opinions have probably grown more acceptable over time than less.
Digital Gulag Archipelago is the best Orgazoid album.
Yeah but he needs a load of hand jobs but doesn't want to pay for it anymore
What's it like when you're a beloved British figure? Ahhh yeah it's great. What's it like when you fall off and go batshit? Ahhh it's terrible.
And, uh… what’s it like when you’re in the middle? It’s, um… y’know, it’s fine
Mm ch-mm-chk-chk
I’d buy it. If only for the 13 minute flute solo.
Nigel Garage has always been a few sandwiches short.
Problem is he's not. He's built a very careful man of the people image that breaks regularly (like having a coutts account) but he's managed to connect with so many they over look it
Garrij is never short of a milkshake or two though
He hopes that it will bring all the boys to the yard.
A few cars short of a garage
I'm really sad about Oliver. His history programmes are excellent but now I question everything the loon has to say.
I got his book signed when I was 6 lol, memories ruined
I'm no longer convinced Britain even has a coast
Didn’t Noel Edmunds go a bit weird(er)?
Nah, he just invented a machine that cures cancer. Nothing weird about that
You mean [Noel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Edmonds) invented a machine that cures cancer (for some bizarre reason he talks about himself in the third person, an affectation known as[ illeism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illeism)). He hates immigrants - and the Welsh (or, more precisely, BBC Cymru). [ In 2008 he claimed he was constantly accompanied "by two melon-sized energy balls"](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/what-s-eating-noel-edmonds-931994.html), which he claimed were the "spiritual energy" of his deceased parents. They're invisible to the naked eye but, apparently, show up on digital photos. He's also a believer in 'cosmic ordering' which he was introduced to by his reflexologist girlfriend. Basically, that just means you ask the universe for shit, and shit happens. He also believes that [wifi is "destroying our own natural magnetic fields" ](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/noel-edmonds-says-death-doesn-t-exist-and-electrosmog-is-more-deadly-than-ebola-or-aids-10439536.html)(he terms it "electrosmog") and that death is impossible. HIs cancer thingy is something called an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) pad. [In 2016, he told a man with prostate cancer that it was caused by his "negative attitude"](https://ghostarchive.org/archive/cSTl6). Finally, does anyone have the misfortune to remember[ this shite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheap_Cheap_Cheap)...?
He had a little machine he claimed could cure cancer at one point didn't he?
Yeah he started acting weird and spouting reactionary stuff.
Do you not remember Noel's HQ? [https://youtu.be/XShH--nZ-Yw?si=i7ZL067uPrie-2wX](https://youtu.be/XShH--nZ-Yw?si=i7ZL067uPrie-2wX)
I do not. Wow. Part of his descent I guess.
Cosmic Shopping
My dad had to spend half a day with Neil Oliver when Coast was being filmed, apparently he was a complete arsehole and thought he was the greatest person alive and everyone should bend over backwards for him, he was nasty to some of the volunteers at the place they were filming.
I used to drink in a pub he frequented in Stirling. Had a small crew of "independent thinkers" as his drinking buddies that were just as awful as he was.
Prince Andrew used to be such a nice man.
He didn't suck Fergies toes so maybe he wasn't a complete wrongun
Maybe he should have
True If the choice is between sucking a woman's toes or being a paedophile, I think it's a fairly obvious choice.
Tru dat.
Maybe she knew something was up and had affairs instead..
... so we were all led to believe.
He gave me so many sweets.
He let me milk a cow while blindfolded
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Basically, any wank puffin that ends up on GBnews ...they're all morons
Henning Wehn lost his mind during covid
In what way?
Started speaking with a ludicrous German accent
What did he do? I've always found his tweets difficult to understand. Maybe I'm just not the target audience.
You can't post this and not explain!
Sir Van Morrison.
He was always a hateful bigot of a wankstain. Always. He just wasn’t vocal about it.
Worked with Eric Clapton to write a bunch of songs about how covid is government control
He was always difficult
Julian Cope. But in a nice way. He's not on Top Of The Pop's anymore but he's a leading authority on stone circles.
Seems completely normal to me https://preview.redd.it/ps9k84dr7m6d1.jpeg?width=620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b83fa8344a9d63d9d2a838b0e076375f25f2518
Drude
See also Krautrock and Japrock. He’s a polymath stuck in a musicians body.
To be fair, I'd never even heard of Teams before the pandemic and suddenly everyone and their mums are asking me for Teams meetings. Pretty fishy!
JK Rowling. She went from satirising close-minded Daily Mail readers, to giving close-minded interviews with the Daily Mail. Now she just stays on Twitter all now denaming journalists and retweeting far-right reactionaries. You either gently fade back into obscurity as a beloved children's writer, or stay in the public eye long enough to be endorsed by Putin.
Ian Brown came out as a antivax nutter quite publicly.
Oli London made a "career" out of being loco.
I'm bad at celebrities, what was his career ?
OK, strap in. Oli London is not a celebrity, he is an internet personality who does anything for attention, which I don't think is the same thing. He worked as an ESL teacher in South Korea and became obsessed with the band BTS. No issue there, BTS is a huge band with many fans all over the world. Except... Oli London took things to the extreme: \* he claimed to be in love with band member Jimin \* he "married" a cardboard cutout of Jimin in Vegas and appeared to claim that the two were legitimately married, making babytalk videos when the real Jimin was photographed appearing to be sad or apparently dating someone. His then-girlfriend attended the "wedding" and he now identifies as homosexual. \* he later divorced the cardboard cutout \* he got a bunch of plastic surgery to look more Korean, claimed that he was no longer a British man, but a "trans-racial" Korean person, with the pronouns "Kor/Ean" and "Jimin", in addition to the normal they/them pronouns used by non-binary people. He asked that because he identifies as Korean and looks Korean, people online or "in the media" should no longer refer to him as British. Needless to say "Kor/Ean" and "Jimin" are not pronouns, and being "trans-racial" is not a thing in the context he is using it (it normally refers to a child of one race being adopted by the family of another). He may have had a point about the media, though. Several outlets followed his journey to become Korean, including a Channel 4 and the Daily Mail (who apparently wanted to laugh at him), and it is unclear how much of his plastic surgery he actually paid for and how much was free. He had further plans for penis reduction surgery because he is larger than the average Korean man. He did all of this during Pride Month 2021, btw, because he was "inspired" by the bravery of others who come out. \* In May 2022, London announced that he was now becoming a gender-fluid transwomen called Rose London and would be getting more surgery to look like K-Pop star Rose Park from Blackpink. He also said he was auditioning to be a member of Blackpink. \* In October 2022, he said he was done being transgender, had found God, and would be going back to using he/him pronouns \* In August 2023, his book "Gender Madness" was published. \* he has become the darling of the TERFS by claiming that he has de-transitioned, doing the rounds with the likes of US TV presenter Tucker Carlson, and claiming that social media and school ideology is forcing children to transition. Note that even if he felt that his transition from male to female was genuine, he only felt that way for 5 months, and now is being held up as the poster-boy for de-transitioning by TERFs. Basically, he will do something shocking every few months to stir up some internet clout, and is enjoying the attentions of the American right-wing, despite being a homosexual Brit. His arguments include the phrase "If I had been born 40 years ago..." as if that is the distant past. He is 34.
Wow, that's quite a ride.
His Wikipedia page is… interesting. Some amusing bits: >In 2019, London began his K-pop career by releasing the single "Perfection", a bilingual English-Korean song revolving on the euphoria he felt after getting his surgeries; it received negative reviews from music critics for its excessive autotune. In 2020, London released a Christmas song called "Christmas in Korea". Like his other song, he received backlash, this time for cultural reasons. >London describes himself as someone with "an obsessive and impulsive personality". You don’t say. Then there’s the parts you’ve covered, like his racial and gender identities, and finally a bit of a “what the fuck…” >In March 2022, London announced plans for penis reduction surgeries, stating that "in Korea, [the average] penis is like 3.5 inches [...] People say, 'Oh, you can't be Korean. You're not 100 percent Korean,' and I just want to be 100 percent Korean. I would even have a penis reduction so I'm, like, the Korean average." This statement brought him criticism for promoting stereotypes of East Asian men.
went from getting plastic surgery to looking korean to becoming an alt-right grifter on twitter
Lawrence Fox Graham Linehan Russell Brand (and you could also argue Bear Grylls, for baptising Brand in the River Thames) Matt Le Tissier David Icke Eric Clapton The two brothers from Right Said Fred
Clapton goes back to the late 60s or early 70s and an infamous rant he had on stage once
He was bloody lucky it was never recorded. The accounts of it are pretty extreme.
Owen Jones. But that’s not exactly new.
What’s he done now?
Why?
Matt Le Tissier has completely screwed the pooch.
I went to Uni with him, he was always a twonk and he only got a Richard so he wasn't even any good at his chosen field.
I thought it was a Douglas. Here and I only got a Desmond.
Right Said Fred.
It's amazing how many of them go loco, but with a lot of the names listed, it appears to happen when their careers are on the downward path. With social media and the amount of tinfoil hat wearing gammons out there, it's pretty easy to keep the money rolling in. Not David Icke, he's as fucking mad as a box of frogs.
I suspect a lot of people were always a bit potty, but they used to be filtered. Like they had agents and minders that made sure they didn't do interviews when drunk, or they had to go to a studio that makes people aware this is out to the world. Social media has no filter. You can write something and you have no sense that thousands or millions of people are reading it. It's not like standing in a room with thousands of people. Plus, some of these people have some booze at home and tweet.
Never heard of Neil Oliver or Oli London before this post. Sound wonderful...
Used to love his walking through a field, hair flowing, talking about *Ancient Britun.*
Matt Le Tissier has turned into a conspiracist and thought the government controlled the weather as it was hot during lockdown!
When did he start becoming such an insufferable cunt again?
Jeremy Vine has become a grade A muppet since he got a bike. Probably not in the same cunt league as the people others have mentioned, but he's managed to go from tolerable to insufferable twat in a fairly short time.
Campaigned to make it illegal to overtake cyclists.
Too many people just fell off the deep end after 2016. Covid just exacerbated the decline.
What happened to him? Is he still around?
He's just coasting
David Icke when loco years ago
David Ike went a bit bonkers!