There’s a fascinating comment on the previous thread which wonders aloud whether Wings is being deliberately used as a breeding ground for crazy QAnon-style conspiracy theories as a way to “demoralise and turn the independence movement”, in order to prevent us from being an effective grassroots force in the face of Westminster obstructionism. The commenter charts a darkening of the mood in the Wings BTL section, particularly since the start of the year, with mutterings about “globalists capturing small countries first” and with the SNP being increasingly equated with “evil, a disgrace, deviant, disgusting, nonce”. As you know, I’m also deeply concerned that a few senior people in my own party (Alba) have been using language like “Scottish Nonce Party” and suggesting a vote for the SNP is equivalent to a vote for Jimmy Savile, and I think we desperately need to distance ourselves from this dreadful stuff before it gets totally out of hand.
It’s also pointed out in the comment that some Wings BTL posters have been making “nod, nod, wink, wink” suggestions about Scottish politicians, and that Stuart Campbell himself has encouraged this by “dropping names in at various points of his weaving rants tenuously linking awful/sick people with elected officials”. Well, I can tell you from personal experience that it sometimes goes way, way beyond “nod, nod, wink, wink”. There’s one Wings follower calling himself “PeeJay” who is constantly trying to leave comments on this blog, and many of them contain baseless allegations of sexual crimes made against named politicians and public figures. I don’t think I’ve been able to publish any of PeeJay’s comments for more than two years, because they’re invariably so extreme in nature. Almost all of them contain one or more of the following features –
1) Baseless allegations of a sexual nature against named politicians or public figures.
2) Extreme homophobic language, often directed against named politicians or public figures.
3) Extreme racist language, often directed against named politicians or public figures.
4) Extreme misogynistic language, often directed against named politicians or public figures.
5) Calls for named individuals to be subjected to extreme violence or murder.
6) Endorsements of stock far-right conspiracy theories.
7) Suggestions that Covid is just a cold and that not one person has ever died from it. (In reality, between 16 and 28 million people worldwide are estimated to have died of Covid so far – a death toll similar to the First World War.)
Below is a small selection of his attempted comments, just so you can see what I have to wade through in my inbox on a near-daily basis. But this really is just the tip of the iceberg. The first one is from just a few hours ago. It’s difficult to know how to present these, because the content is so extreme that I can’t publish them totally uncensored, but on the other hand there’s no point in publishing them at all unless you can gain a decent idea of what he’s saying. So I’ve blotted out letters in the ‘P’ word and the ‘C’ word, and I’ve also blotted out the name of the person he makes an extreme allegation against.
Obviously Stuart Campbell can’t be directly blamed for what his supporters write, but if I was spontaneously attracting people like this guy to my corner, I’d be concerned that I was going very seriously wrong somewhere.
The thoughtful comment left on the previous thread deserves, I think, to be read by as many people as possible, so here it is in full –
“Your post does sound conspiratorial but if you listen to the bbc podcast about the Qanon influence of the capital riots, it becomes arguable power brokers are feeding the culture war machine for their own ends. Gabriel Gatehouse goes right back to the beginnings of conspiracy theories with surprising protagonists apparently feeding the frenzy surreptitiously. It’s a good podcast as it doesn’t go at it from one side, there are faults on both left and right. Anyway, I digress.
What happens in America can morph into a UK phenomenon quickly in the internet age. We’ve gone from talking about pensions/currency to furries (a word I had and still did not need to know). The QAnon story has changed to “grooming” and an evil regime wanting access to kids. It’s insane but there are seemingly intelligent people being taken in by this. I think we’re seeing our own version now in Scotland. If you look at Wings BTL comments, there are loads making nod, nod, wink, wink suggestions about Scottish politicians. In fact, Stuart Campbell is doing it himself dropping names in at various points of his weaving rants tenuously linking awful/sick people with elected officials. There are legitimate issues with the Trans bill but I sense a tiny but increasingly louder minority are starting to equate the SNP as evil, a disgrace, deviant, disgusting, nonce. That “the Globalists” “capture” small countries first (New Zealand, Scotland, Finland) as part of their “ends”. I see this insane view percolating out at an alarming rate since the turn of the year. I can’t believe I’m saying this but am I alone in noting this?
It’s not that these people are significant in number versus the population but can have an influence on the grassroots. Let’s face it, we’re going to need a grassroots movement in the face of a wall to our agreed referendum hopes. I feel all of this is a way to demoralise and turn the movement.
I cannot believe I am saying this but I now believe Wings is being used to feed this chaos to attempt to stamp out unity in the independence movement for good. I hope we can get out of it but this type of culture war is a bottomless pit and such a waste of energy.”
