I remembered a time I was on a beach in Scotland and a flock of terns singled me out. They circled above me for a while, and then began to dive bomb, pecking at my head. This early, tentative disapproval felt like the terns circling.
An opinion was beginning to form, and feed off itself, that I had written an attack on social justice, a defence of white privilege. In coming out against online shaming I was silencing marginalised voices — because online shaming is the only recourse of the marginalised, whereas the world automatically allows people like Justine to succeed.
What happened to Justine struck me as just another terrible thing happening in the world. What did that mean? It was always an extract from a book. Did he think I ran home and quickly wrote a book? But anything I said in that moment, I realised, would just be more evidence for the prosecution, and so I went back to being silent.
I liked it when people went for me in ridiculous ways, because when I recounted those comments to other people they made me look good. I wrote about Justine not because I identified with her, although I did, but because I identified with the people who tore her apart. I consider myself a social justice person. It was my people, abusing our power. As is often the case with shamings, the range of insults levelled against Justine, a woman, had been far broader than those levelled against me, a man.
A train crashed in Philadelphia. Passenger cars were ripped apart. Eight people died and more were hospitalised. Can I please get my violin back from the 2nd car of the train? In the early days, Twitter was a place of curiosity and empathy. Good luck! What a sickening skank. Like Justine, she was being shamed because she was perceived to have misused her privilege.
And of course the misuse of privilege is a much better thing to get people for than the things we used to get people for, like having children out of wedlock.
It was becoming a devalued term, and was making us lose our capacity for empathy and for distinguishing between serious and unserious transgressions. I visited a TV studio in New York to film a video about the book.
There was a doctor on before me, filming her own video. She got out her pad and wrote me a prescription for 60 Xanax. After that I was no longer anxious. Kelly instantly made matters worse when he angrily defended himself after a reporter tried to get him to explain what he meant with that foul ball attempt at humor.
That, of course, was the wrong thing to do. Then, he should have demanded that Notre Dame administrators lock him in stockade under the nose of Touchdown Jesus while allowing members of his own team to tar and feather him in front of the student body. Clearly, that — and only that — would have been the appropriate response. Hence, a barrage of faux outrage at Kelly ensued Monday. From those who took the joke too seriously.
To those who wanted to wag their finger at a perceived level of impropriety. To those who are claiming that Kelly is out of touch and that joke should now be considered dated and anachronistic. Brian Kelly was attempting to quote the late John McKay People let see where this goes tomorrow.
Just saw this. If he'd gotten the laugh he wanted, he never would have mentioned McKay. And yes, in very poor taste. Don't try to be John McKay, Bri. There were even some who thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to bring up the death of Declan Sullivan — a student videographer who was killed during practice when the hydraulic lift he was using collapsed due to high winds — as an appropriate point of reference. Frankly, I find an attempt at making that connection far more offensive than anything Kelly said Sunday.
All Brian Kelly did was botch his TV audition. This Brian Kelly thing is just peak stuff. Everything is culture war. It's all so boring. Fair enough. Let this one go. Is it because of the kind of guy Kelly is? Because of the school he coaches? How did Leeds United not realise what would happen when they targeted a woman? Suzanne Wrack. Read more. Topics Football Leeds United news.
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