If much of social media has become a tiresome mix of narcissism and self-promotion – just look at Facebook and tell me I am wrong – the main outrider is X, the platform formerly known as twitter. By and large, I really enjoyed twitter for its lively debate and good humour, but that all changed when real life James Bond villain Elon Musk bought it and turned into a vehicle of his pivot towards fascism. It did not take long for me to leave X, nor have I had cause to regret my decision. I still use other platforms, like threads and Bluesky, although by no means with the levels of near obsession I employed on twitter, and sometimes I am reminded of what a sewer X has become. Yesterday was one of those sometimes.
The former footballer Stan Collymore has had a chequered and storied past, but in the main I enjoy his musings on various subjects, particularly racism. This is one of his latest posts and it’s desperately concerning. It includes sickening racism:
Collymore: ‘Wish there was a larger football community here. Arts are all well represented but football ( probably because it’s tribal) isn’t. Latest complaint about being called a nig-nog and suggesting my late Mum engaged in beastiality because my Father was black.’
The poster, whose account is under the name Breathnóir, said this: ‘Lol, you desperate nignog‘.
I could have referred to a variation of the N word, which I would usually include when writing about this subject, but for one day only I have decided to go with the grim reality of what is going on in the minds of some people.
‘Breathnóir’ is unlikely to be this person’s real name. But it is likely that someone real wrote it. I do not pretend to be an expert in grammar, but I am intrigued by the use of a comma after ‘Lol’. It seems to me that only someone who was reasonably literate would use a comma. It’s a short sentence, but I wonder if this was written by someone who is not entirely stupid. But, here’s the thing: in all likelihood the comment represents how the person behind it really feels. I find it unlikely that they did it purely for a wind-up. If you are anti-racism, saying something extremely racist would not make any sense at all. I was even more concerned about the reaction of X when Collymore complained.
‘No rules broken’, said X, almost certainly by way of an AI system, presumably created by people who, like X’s owner, feel that way in real life.No rules broken? Then, what kind of rules does X operate under, rules that would appeal to members of the Ku Klux Clan and the like? Well, yes. There is no other explanation.
I can’t confirm Collymore’s assumption that the ‘football community’ on Bluesky isn’t very big because I rarely, if ever, post or read anything about football on social media so the algorithms might not search the sport out for me. I don’t know. But what I do know is that Bluesky is less tolerant of racism and that’s one reason I use it, albeit far more sparingly than I used to be active on these platforms.
If you are still using X, you are condoning and even accepting fascism. The same applies if you drive one of Musk’s TESLA cars. To use X and to drive a TESLA is to accept that Stan Collymore can be racially abused in the most disgusting way imaginable, with no comeback. You call it free speech, I call it fascism. If it’s really free speech, isn’t it free speech in order to be a racist?
The world inhabited by ‘Breathnóir’ really did exist. In 1974, the top-rated show on British television was Love Thy Neighbour. Watched by 21 million people at its peak, the story revolved around a black couple moving next door to a white couple and the racial tensions it exposed, specifically with the white male, who used all sorts of racial insults to his black neighbour. In other words, the language which shocks us today was very much the norm 52 years ago. There was no ‘PC brigade’ at work, driving racism off the TV. The change was gradual and evolutionary. People’s views, or rather most people’s views, changed. In 1974, 21 million people laughed at Breathnóir’s language.
X is clinging to the past, as are many of its users, largely unregulated and free to say as many disgusting things as they like. With Musk’s money comes immense power so there is little we can do other than to stop using companies owned by him. There’s only one of him and billions of us. He might not appear to give a toss, but narcissists demand attention. As Tesco always says, every little helps. Amen to that.
