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Wednesday 4 May 2016

Guido Fawked - Ableism Hate Speech

While the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog continue to call out others for using hate speech, the realisation is dawning that they are standing in a very draughty glasshouse, and nowhere is this more clearly illustrated than in the area of disability, and people with learning difficulties. The Fawkes mob, once again, say one thing when laying into the Labour Party, but another with anyone else.
Far more unpleasant than he looks

Indeed, when it came to Lord Freud’s alleged suggestion that disabled people might be worth less in terms of pay, and the Labour blowback, The Great Guido was there, showing an understanding of the issues, concern even. This was a sham. We can see this from repeated instances of hate speech of the kind that got Ricky Gervais into such hot water not so long ago. And it is Staines himself who is the culprit.
Moreover, it’s not just an accidental slip, as can be seen from the catalogue of unpleasantness easily extracted from The Great Guido’s Twitter feed. Typical was his response to the Guardian’s Jonathan Haynes over the latter’s complaint about offensive language: “Fuck off you retarded mong”. When another Tweeted objected to this less than savoury outburst, he replied “I really don't give a monkeys”.
Was this an isolated incident? Sadly, no it wasn’t, as Paul Perkins discovered when Staines ranted at him “I know who created it because he asked me to publicise it. You on the other hand are some mong on Twitter with an opinion”. Would Sir like to introduce another term of abuse into the debate? He certainly would: “Oxfam is a charity you retard. People donate their time. You are less progressive than a Victorian workhouse”.
That wasn’t well received either. Perhaps The Great Guido would care to think again about using such language? Er, no: “Fuck off you retarded censorious politically correct moron. Am going to call people retards whenever I want”. And just for good measure, he doubled down with “Didn't defend the workhouse you mong. I compared the workhouses to left-wing blogs”. And he wasn’t finished yet.
Did someone call the Fawkes blog “conservative”? Staines wasn’t having that: “Not Conservative you mong”. And just to show he wasn’t a conservative, he had a go at the Prime Minister too: “Dave's tourettes comment, really, what a mong”.
There was more: “Self described ranting mong on Twitter claims to have read and grasped economics paper. Bovvered”. After all, it’s not as if he cared about mental health issues, as another Twitter rant showed: “Why? Are you a loony, retard, window-licker or nutjob? Mental health is not off limits, if you don't like it go elsewhere”.

Perhaps The Great Guido will excuse himself by arguing that all this happened a while back and he has somehow become a reformed character. But none of his recent targets are allowed that defence. And we should be consistent at all times. Which dictates calling out this vile, bullying, abusive hypocrite for what he is. Another fine mess, once again.

4 comments:

Stephen said...

Never do Twitter after having had a few, maybe.

Celia said...

As a member of the nutjob community, I personally am in awe of Fawkes' exciting and controversial bravery in ignoring the unhappiness of marginalised people. Truly, this is what freedom of speech means.

Anonymous said...

"Perhaps The Great Guido will excuse himself by arguing that all this happened a while back and he has somehow become a reformed character."

Er, I don't think so.

There will be no change. Nazis don't, you know.

Anonymous said...

Guido is repulsive pondslime.

I see left-wing tweeters using ableist language against opponents all the time too though, maybe we should clean out our own stables at same time as pointing out bigotry of the right.