By David Futrelle
Graham Linehan — the onetime comedy writer turned full-time anti-trans activist — has finally been booted from Twitter for good due to what site administrators call his “repeated violations of our rules against hateful conduct and platform manipulation.”
He will largely not be missed, particularly among those who were the targets of his harassment and smears; he was well-known for siccing his army of followers on trans activists and journalists, smearing them as “groomers” and “child abusers.” (He was also reportedly a regular user of sockpuppet accounts; that’s what Twitter calls “platform manipulation.”)
After his suspension, Linehan retreated to Mumsnet, the UK social networking site for, er, mums that has become a central hangout for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists and other transphobes. But more than a few Mumsnet users decided they weren’t having it, responding to his posts with withering criticism. Here’s a sampling:
Ice cold!
NOTE: I removed the section on comments made under Linehan’s name on the right-wing-dominated “free speech” platform Parler because it appears that account was run by someone pretending to be him. (I originally reported the comments as coming from him “or someone pretending to be him.”)
H/T — Thanks to @Now_Adrianne and @mimmymum, from whom I borrowed the screenshots above.
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It truly is great that Graham is banned. The torrents of abuse the he directs at trans* people and allies are unparalleled by any other account, and Twitter will be much safer without him. TERFs have been dealt a major blow. And seeing his fellow TERFs turn on him, even if it’s for the wrong reasons, is just the icing on the cake. Keep in mind his original Mumsnet post went up at 3:16 in the morning his time zone.
The Parler account is not him BTW, Graham says so on Glindr (his spinoff platform) and it has a purple badge, meaning it’s a parody account. Parler is almost funny in how poorly designed it is, it requires social security numbers to create accounts yet has little in the way of security and its creator is offering to bribe liberal pundits to create accounts to make it look less fascist (they actually think leftists will want to be with conservatives).
One serious question though: Was Graham Linehan ever actually funny as a comedian? I’ve never seen his work other than a few clips of The IT Crowd and Father Ted and none of it struck me as all that funny in the first place.
Whatever happened to that twitter clone that was even more explicitly for neo-nazis? Gab, or something? I’m suprised the banned dickheads aren’t retreating there. Are the makers of Parler trying to get that demographic slice of “bigots who aren’t quite comfortable with openly identifying as white supremacists” or something?
@Catalpa
They seem to be trying. At any rate, they have way more high profile members, as a number of conservative US politicians have joined. As mentioned above, the CEO really wants the illusion it’s not just for Nazis. I bet all he gets instead is conservative parody accounts pretending to be leftists, which generally are laughably bad approximations. Though I wouldn’t be too surprised if some Dirtbag leftists get on.
I found both shows, particularly Father Ted, to be extremely funny. I almost laughed myself sick at a couple of things. I owned the series on DVD, and rewatched it with my uncle a couple of years ago. My entire family liked his stuff.
I was utterly shocked when I discovered his raging TERFdom. I couldn’t wrap my head around him being the same guy who created such wonderful, biting, absurd comedy. Now he can just go straight to hell as far as I’m concerned. Seriously, fuck that guy.
What a nice way to wind up a shitty Pride month. Terfs begone.
Off-topic: I’m imagining circus aerialist Alan J. Silva, a recent contestant on America’s Got Talent, swinging through a Gotham skyscraper window to kick the Incel Height Requirement in the jaw:
Never seen The IT Crowd, but would agree with @Doubter that Father Ted (or at least quite a lot of it; not all but a lot) is very funny (the show had some outstanding actors, perfectly cast for their roles, who did a brilliant job). I never followed Linehan himself or anything outside the show, and I’m another one gobsmacked a while back when I first heard about the terfism. Initially nonplussed, and disgusted when he turned out to be such an arse in RL :-\
Good riddance to Graham Linehan, it took too long! I loved IT Crowd (Except the episode with the transphobia in full force) but people need to be held to account.
What a way to squander an incredibly successful career with hate, and hopefully J K Rowling is kicked off Twitter too for her transphobia. They are accomplishing nothing for the sake of hatred and it’s dragged down so many innocent people who are just trying to live their lives.
@ Catalpa
Gab is sadly still active, but I think far-right groups want to spread on the mainstream platforms to normalise their bigotry, and of course most people wouldn’t even know Gab exists or find a reason to go there. If they get their accounts closed, their reach drastically reduces (Like with Milo Yiannopolous).
I haven’t seen what he posted to mumsnet. But I saw a tweet which described it like so:
which made me smile.
I just checked Mumsnet and it seems that the response to him is much more positive than negative, in addition some of the responses to him listed here were from first time posters/troll accounts. They have been deleted. There are other threads that seem very supportive of him. It is good news that he has been banned from twitter but I am afraid that Mumsnet appears to be on his side. Which is unsurprising given how anti trans the rest of the site appears to be.
Good. Nice to see a shitbag getting the hook.
Father Ted were funny, admittedly. Still watch it from time to time – I firmly subscribe to the “It’s the tale, not who tells it” school of thought.
Never could get into the It Crowd as the cloud of smug were pretty impenetrable for me.
(Nick change because I’ve been thinking too much on the past during this episode of depression. Shadowplay were a big part of my life, but it is the past.)
Thanks to all who answered my question.
@Tyko
This last week has been pretty good in terms of TERFs getting their comeuppance. JK Rowling lost 150,000 Twitter followers and some writers left her writing agency, she was condemned by dozens of actors she had worked with, Debbie Hayton got dropped for the position she wanted, Graham got banned, and Baroness Emma Nicholson lost her honorary title from the Booker Prize Foundation. Granted, it would be better if they hadn’t been shitty in the first place, but it’s good that they are getting what they deserve.
@Temascos
Milo Yiannopoulos is a great case study for why deplatforming works. He used to be probably the best known alt right figurehead of all, now he’s just a guy begging for money and getting trolled on Telegram. Conservatives like to claim deplatforming doesn’t work, but that’s only because they’re scared of it happening to them.
There’s lots of reasons to be happy about this, but thank the Lord he won’t be able to make that godawful “I’ve just come out as non-binary” joke to 600,000 followers again. The cringe of it all!
Anyway, this is just in time for the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. That spares us Graham’s take on it, but I’m sure we’ll hear plenty of other shitty TERF takes. For those unaware, TERFs like to whitewash and ciswash the whole thing, they try to rewrite trans* women Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera as gay men (and often are quite homophobic in this as well) and downplay the role of Johnson and Stormé Delarverie (both women of color). Their relationship with Stormé is particularly odd; some have tried to claim Delarverie as a mascot of some sort but have tried to change numerous personal details like that Stormé used he/him pronouns*, or was trans* inclusive and friends with many trans* patrons of Stonewall.
*At the time of the riots, Stormé was a male impersonator (this term was preferred over drag king) and preferred he/him pronouns, but later in life used she/her pronouns. TERFs generally hate he/him lesbians.
So uh this is super OT but I think everyone should hear about it.
CW: racism, colonialism, rape, sex trafficking, child trafficking, child sex abuse, Christian supremacist bullshit, and literally using people as livestock. Seriously. It’s that bad.
https://twitter.com/originalspin/status/1276222916229656576
another OT:
My friend, my honorary brother who I’ve known for about 20 years now, who was in a car crash on his way home from work earlier this month, was pronounced last night.
We thought he was getting better. He was responding to family and was getting transferred to a rehab facility for the rest of his recovery.
My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today.
@VP, I am so very sorry. I hope you have loving support around you, to help you bear this terrible loss.
I’m so sorry for your loss, VP.
@VP
So sorry about your friend. May he rest in peace.
@Cyborgette
Holy shit. This sound a lot like Jeffrey Epstein’s plan for a “baby ranch,” but with even more racism and hints of dominionism. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are even more layers to this, each one worse than the last. When Republicans accused Democrats of running pedophile rings, they were projecting hard.
So sorry VP.
May your brother walk across the bridge with pride.
Maricopa county. Isn’t that where Arpaio used to be sheriff?
@Surplus
It sure is. I bet if Arpaio were still sheriff he would have helped cover it up, assuming he isn’t already connected currently.
@VP
So sorry to hear that. It always rough losing the people we love.
@VP
Oh no, I’m sorry. My condolences. 🙁
@Naglfar
Yeah. Same as with the original Nazis, they accuse others of what they themselves plan and/or are doing.
This thing is hitting me extremely hard TBH, and I’m kind of not okay. I want heads to roll over this, in the most literal sense.
O/T, but related to transphobia online:
JK has doubled down again by publishing a Twitter thread (Link tw transphobia) attacking a government official who condemned her transphobia. It is predictably full of TERF dogwhistles and arguments. I’m curious if now that Graham is gone whether JK Rowling will take over as Twitter’s Leader of TERFs, I certainly hope not as she has far more followers and is a much better known figure.
@Cyborgette
Some things never change. Whenever I see a right winger accuse the left of something, I automatically assume that in the near future it will turn out that the right was doing it all along.