The thing about free speech is, anyone can say whatever they want. It is a brilliant thing, a perk of modern democracies. That’s right kids, it has long since been a thing; not just a revelatory or rebellious concept invented by Elon Musk. It gives us the ability to call out injustice and abuses of power. Sadly, this works both ways as it has become a vehicle for peddling hatred and outright lies. Again, not invented by Elon Musk but one could argue his being an enabler and/or accessory to those who push the most bilious and blatantly corrupt “views” online.
What it means is that anyone can say something that they believe without fear of persecution. It does not mean, however, that everyone who reads or hears this opinion must automatically agree with it. In football terms, everyone will have a preference. Some fans will prefer listening to a certain commentator or pundit depending on their individual taste or possible club links and subjectively, all tv and radio personalities will offer something different.
I have my own preferred individuals to listen to and watch. I’m not about to name them, nor shame those who I don’t fancy. If I’m watching Match of the Day, the post-match evaluations can vary depending on which so-called experts are on that week. As such, sometimes I will watch those bits and sometimes I will fast forward to the next match highlights. What I won’t do, is steam onto social media to tell the world what a useless piece of you know what Danny Murphy is… for example. Apart from anything, nobody would care if I did. Least of all the target of my abuse, I suspect.
Some people seem to have decided this is their preferred hobby on any given day, to take to social media to run down anybody who they don’t agree with or find remotely annoying. There is a bit in one of Ricky Gervais’ standup shows when he says that this sort of thing is like seeing an advert for guitar lessons on a public notice board and then screaming to anyone who can hear you that you “don’t fucking want guitar lessons!” It isn’t for you so move on. Do what you need to do to get on with your life. Mute the tv, fast forward that section or go and make a brew.
As I say, everyone has an opinion on something, and each person is entitled to it. I am not personally, massively enthralled in crossover opinions, like when Gary Lineker or Marcus Rashford get drawn in on politics, for example. I have generally agreed with them, for the record. Most are fairly sensible in their approach and justified in their commentary. Well, Matt Le Tissier is a bit out there but each to their own.
The self-appointed King of the Keyboard Warriors seems to currently be Joey Barton. In my opinion, he has always been a bully on and off the field. I feel relatively confident that this view is shared by many others from referees to former players to that bloke who he allegedly assaulted and faced criminal charges for as a result.
Recently he seems to have decided to take aim at women. Mary Earps has received much of his derision for having the audacity to be the best performing goalkeeper at the World Cup when the Lionesses came runner up to Spain and for Manchester United and as a result be voted as BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Not satisfied with that, Barton has since gone on some sort of personal mission to deride a plethora of female pundits.
Like many similar online hate-mongers in the public eye, I’m looking at you Donald Trump, Laurence Fox, Katie Hopkins et al, Joey Barton tries to rally the troops, as it were. He and the other detractors mentioned seem to hold the belief that the majority of the planet’s population are of the same beliefs as them but are too afraid to say. So, they stand on their digital soapbox spewing this bilious hatred and trying to lead like-minded individuals along with them like the Pied Piper and his rats. One such attempt from Barton was when he tried to use a colourised video depicting school children in Blackburn from 1905 to make a back handed jibe at diversity and inclusion, presumably because the people in the video were white.
Several people came out in contradiction to his comments, pointing out the proud history of immigration around that time, particularly in the Northwest of England and indeed during the war efforts. Not least by Blackburn Rovers‘ X (Twitter) account themselves who simply requested that Mr Barton leave their proud town out of his public commentary. The response from Rovers received 46,000 likes, more than double that of Joey’s original post. Quite impressive when you consider Rovers have approximately 300k followers compared to Joey Barton’s 2.8 million. I think the kids call that getting ratioed or something…
It is the following though that can be the most dangerous thing. Maybe his 2.8 million consist entirely of like-minded individuals. Maybe they are a mix of genuine followers, fans of clubs he has played for and bot accounts that cling onto the buzzwords of hate and division in order to increase their prevalence and force casual social media users into becoming indoctirnated by their views. It works for many a fascist government, after all.
Things seem to have quietened down recently. There are far more important things going on in the world, of course, like wars and natural disasters and real suffering; not just poor Joey and his fury at the audacity of women to have a voice or to play football or for television companies to dare give them an opportunity to be involved. But he still puts in his little jibes whenever a female football personality shows her face or wins an award or performs a job which she is paid to do. A bit like a bad penny, he keeps turning up.
Perhaps he is trying to follow the lead of previously despised celebrities like Matt Hancock and Nigel Farage to get into the jungle for a pay day and a chance to spout his drivel live on primetime television for a change. He’s certainly not getting chance when there’s a football match on. Imagine his blood temperature when Jill Scott became Queen of the Jungle… Let’s look on the bright side though, if he does get on, there is a solid chance that he will be forced to eat an animal’s vagina – how wonderfully ironic.
I suppose the world needs these pantomime villains and we all have the option of blocking these people from our social media feeds and of course reporting anything we find to go beyond freedom of speech and crossing over into online abuse. But I hope Joey finds it within his capability to stop and think, potentially get the help he needs – I’m thinking anger management and perhaps a PR consultant – and come to the widely-held conclusion that everyone’s live would be much better if he just shut the hell up.
Heart of Football 
Leave a comment