So Graham Norton’s Twitter account has disappeared. Norton, the popular UK talk show host was last seen offering some seemingly uncontroversial opinions on trans issues that somehow did not meet the approval of Harry Potter mega-author and trans antagonist J.K. Rowling.
It is suspected that Norton was driven off Twitter by a tsunami of abuse from anti-trans fanatics riled up by Rowling and other anti-trans tweeters.
So what exactly led to this fury against Norton?
A couple of days ago, in an interview with journalist and TV presenter Mariella Frostrup, Norton offered his thoughts about so-called “cancel culture.”
You read a lot of articles in papers by people complaining about ‘cancel culture. You think, in what world are you canceled? I’m reading your name in a newspaper, or you’re doing an interview about how terrible it is to be canceled.
Norton suggested that “cancel”; is “the wrong word,” for it. “I think the word should be ‘accountability.'”
Asked about what Frostrup called the widespread “anger, rage and attempts at censorship” directed at J.K. Rowling for her comments on trans people, Norton wondered aloud why we pay so much attention to celebrity opinions anyway. After noting that the uninformed opinions of famous folks — including himself — tend to be “artificially amplified,” he suggested that it might be better to talk to actual trans people and experts on matters relating to trans people.
If people want to shine a light on those issues, and I hope that they do, then talk to trans people. Talk to the parents of trans kids. Talk to doctors, talk to psychiatrists. Talk to someone who can illuminate this in some way. Can we wrestle up some fucking experts … rather than a man in a shiny pink suit?
Shocking, I know.
He continued, again suggesting that he, personally, was in no way an expert on the issues.
Graham Norton shouldn’t be in your headline. If you want to talk about something, talk about the thing. You don’t need to attach a Kardashian to a serious subject. The subject should be enough in itself.
Apparently the very idea of talking to trans people about trans issues was enough to make Rowling pig-biting mad. Or maybe it was the slightest whiff of a suggestion that she was the equivalent of a Kardashian on matters of public interest — though the Kardashians are arguably more relevant than Rowling on this issue because they have a much more personal stake in it.
After lefty musician Billy Bragg tweeted his agreement with Norton, Rowling spat out this barely-coherent tweet accusing both of supporting rape and death threats.
Neither Norton nor Bragg in any way defended death or rape threats, and neither offered their opinions on the proper definition of “woman” (or “man,” for that matter). But evidently Rowling was so distracted by their terrifying beards that she forgot how to make sense.
Tweets from Rowling, with 14 million followers, have a disturbing tendency to precede twitter pileons on her targets, with death threats flowing freely from the anti-trans forces. This is what seems to have happened in this case.
And so Norton is gone from Twitter. Great job, JK.
Follow me on Mastodon.
Send tips to dfutrelle at gmail dot com.
We Hunted the Mammoth relies on support from you, its readers, to survive. So please donate here if you can, or at David-Futrelle-1 on Venmo.
@Dalillama
People keep forgetting Marilyn Kaye and the Replica series, it’s like nobody remembers those anymore! Those books probably saved me from a lot of trauma TBH.
I am and always will stan Diane Duane’s “Young Wizards” books. They are better-written, better-plotted, on a MUCH larger stage (eventually, the galaxy) and ever so much more open-minded. Oh, and the kids watch TV, use cell phones and computers, etc. Give them to kids instead of HP.
Plus Diane has never sent a Twitter mob after anyone, nor fulminated about who should use what bathroom.
Thanks for the YA SF recommendations, everybody!
But yes, it’s “I have a right to free speech and you have to shut up,” part 67,329. And as Michael Gove said about Brexit, “People have had enough of experts.” Ignoring all the people who know what they’re talking about isn’t working out at all well, but it’s still extremely popular.
The welcome (to me) assumption of power by more and more women will, I reckon, allow us to just how readily they will abuse it—my bet is not quite as much as men have done, but not an order of magnitude less.
Of course, even more welcome would be the complete elimination of power by anyone over anyone else, but I’m not holding my breath, and maybe a precondition to that were elimination of classes of people who can and can not be powerless, so that everyone’s ox were subject to being gored.
One of my favorite things about Diane Duane is she exemplifies “know better, do better.” Get the Millenial Updates, mostly for her improved understanding of autism & how she handles that, but also general societal changes from the 1980s to early aughts (like bright kids being in AP/GT tracks instead of skipping grades). I love how yeah, younger wizards have more visible power, but as wizards mature and learn, they have other strengths. And their reference works get longer. And the wizards actively choose to wiz, they are not “chosen ones.” Great job of blending her SF background into “fantasy” adventures. Now I want to go reread them, but I’m trying to get caught up on WHTM first.