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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Piers Morgan

185 replies

HavenKimmel · 16/03/2021 18:35

I'm on a group whatsapp chat with some friends. Mixed group, mostly white, one Asian, one black girl, 3 gay. I'm female, white, straight. Group is just mates talking nonesense, sharing memes etc.

White male posts a petition to reinstate Piers Morgan at GMB. Follows it up with 'I love Piers Morgan, he speaks for lots of people.'

I found this in poor taste and said so, cue a big kerfuffle, mostly denying that there was anything untoward about it. Black girl leaves the group. When contacted to ask why she left, she says she 'has a lot on and the group was a distraction' which they accept.

For context, he has form for stirring the pot, the party line is to condone, that's just x, we all know what he's like.

Was I being unreasonable to take issue?

OP posts:
SnarkyBag · 16/03/2021 18:38

He sounds like a knob. Reduce his audience and leave the group. Set up a group with the girl who left and maybe invite the others but not him

Iamthewombat · 16/03/2021 18:47

I’m sure that you can cope with your mates having different views to yours, can’t you?

So what if he does like Piers Morgan? My best mate loves Gary Barlow but I get over it for the sake of our friendship!

unchienandalusia · 16/03/2021 18:49

Jeez do you only want friendship in an echo chamber op? Disagreement, debate, freedom of speech are all important. Locking down an argument does neither side any favours.

AnnaMagnani · 16/03/2021 18:54

There's a difference between an echo chamber and allowing one bloke to sound off all the time, 'just because that's Dave'.

Sometimes you have to call Dave out and let him know other people have opinions too.

TheShudderingDentist · 16/03/2021 18:59

@Iamthewombat

I’m sure that you can cope with your mates having different views to yours, can’t you?

So what if he does like Piers Morgan? My best mate loves Gary Barlow but I get over it for the sake of our friendship!

Not really the same thing is it? It’s what Piers Morgan represents.
Mls1984btc · 16/03/2021 19:05

I disagree with some of his views but I will never advocate sacking him just because he got a different views. That’s what free speech is all about. At the end of the day he is just a presenter, who relied on the viewing figures to maintain his position on day time television. If you do not like him do not watch him and he will soon flitter away.
Maybe I am of a different generation, but I do not understand this cancel culture. Isn’t it boring when you only surround yourself with people that agree with everything you say?

AnnaMagnani · 16/03/2021 19:08

I watched Piers on the day in question. He should have gone for sexual harrassment of a colleague before he even started discussing Megan Markle.

And he hasn't been sacked, he walked - he'll have a nice new well paid job lined up somewhere else, GB News perhaps? I shouldn't worry about the effects of cancel culture on him.

littlepattilou · 16/03/2021 19:13

@TheShudderingDentist

Gary Barlow is no better than Piers Morgan. He's a tax dodging Tory who is bezzies with David Cameron. Yet he still got an OBE.

Go figure.

FWIW, I don't dislike Piers, and he speaks a lot of sense, but he can be OTT sometimes, and is like a dog with a bone. His obsession with Meghan was bordering in disturbing. He can be funny, and sometimes speaks a lot of sense, but he can also be very annoying. As the OP's friend said 'he says what a lot of people are thinking...' I have to admit, I can't be arsed with Good Morning Britain now he's not on there...

@HavenKimmel

YABU. To fall out with someone because you can't stand their opinions, and their political views, is very childish and narrow minded IMO. As a pp said, some people just want to live in an echo chamber, surrounded by people who agree with everything they say!' I find this particularly from the liberal-left. They can't BEAR it when people don't agree with their 'woke' views, and throw their toys out of their pram!

traveller11 · 16/03/2021 19:14

He does speak for lots of people though. Your friend was just stating his thoughts.

I'm also a white, straight woman and I enjoy watching Piers and agree with a lot of his opinions.

Fair enough to have a debate over your opinons of Piers but to actually take issue with someone differing your thoughts is BU

NovemberR · 16/03/2021 19:16

I couldn't be mates with anyone who announced I love Piers Morgan. He speaks for lots of people.

Purely because my immediate thought would be OMG you are thick as pig shit.

I'd be cringing at spending any time with someone who was an admirer of Piers Morgan.

Shopliftersoftheworldunite · 16/03/2021 19:22

Piers Morgan is a creepy weirdo tosser who should never have worked again after several things he has done throughout his career (phone hacking scandal, knowingly publishing falsified photographs). There is a touch of the sociopath about him and I don’t know why he is touted as ‘someone who speaks sense’. He is untenable.

Arguing in group WhatsApp chats is very annoying though. I’m not surprised your friend left.

littlepattilou · 16/03/2021 19:23

@NovemberR

I couldn't be mates with anyone who announced I love Piers Morgan. He speaks for lots of people.

Purely because my immediate thought would be OMG you are thick as pig shit.

I'd be cringing at spending any time with someone who was an admirer of Piers Morgan.

This is the sort of liberal-left 'woke' person I was referring to. 😂

Classic leftie response. 'Anyone who likes anything I don't like is thick, wrong, and right-wing gammon!''

Narrow minded and childish to the extreme!

HeartsAndClubs · 16/03/2021 19:23

I dislike Piers Morgan intensely But I think the reactions are starting to become a bit OTT now and yes, in somewhat bad taste IMMO.

The man is entitled to love piers Morgan, he may be a twat but he hasn’t actually committed a crime.

To that end, I saw a thread once where the OP placed Piers morgan in the same category as Jimmy Saville. Shock
He’s left GMB, he’ll be back somewhere else. And anyone who is that critical of someone purely because they have different taste to them is a bit of a twat. IMO. Obviously there are exceptions such as Hitler and Jimmy Saville, but PM isn’t in that category at all and people need to stop now.

littlepattilou · 16/03/2021 19:27

@HeartsAndClubs

I dislike Piers Morgan intensely But I think the reactions are starting to become a bit OTT now and yes, in somewhat bad taste IMMO.

The man is entitled to love piers Morgan, he may be a twat but he hasn’t actually committed a crime.

To that end, I saw a thread once where the OP placed Piers morgan in the same category as Jimmy Saville. Shock
He’s left GMB, he’ll be back somewhere else. And anyone who is that critical of someone purely because they have different taste to them is a bit of a twat. IMO. Obviously there are exceptions such as Hitler and Jimmy Saville, but PM isn’t in that category at all and people need to stop now.

This. There are so many batshit, OTT reactions towards him. And always from the same type of people.
NovemberR · 16/03/2021 19:33

@littlepattilou

I'm not liberal, left wing or woke, I'm afraid. I just find Piers Morgan thick and irritating and wouldn't want to spend my time with admirers of his. Particularly with people that were announcing it in a Whatsapp group deliberately knowing it would upset one at least of the girls.

WorraLiberty · 16/03/2021 19:34

That was a very long winded way of telling us you disagree with someone.

It's fine to take issue and disagree with others 🤷‍♀️

NovemberR · 16/03/2021 19:35

Perhaps I should have asked if you were right wing, racist and homophobic though?

As you seem to make assumptions about posters.

nitsandwormsdodger · 16/03/2021 19:36

Why would your black friend be offended by someone loving piers Morgan ? He is lots of things but not a racist ?
Your post comes across like you are offended on her behalf
She probably is busy and bored/ irritated by the group and capable of sticking up for herself if she wants/needs to

Toilenstripes · 16/03/2021 19:38

@SnarkyBag

He sounds like a knob. Reduce his audience and leave the group. Set up a group with the girl who left and maybe invite the others but not him
This x 100!
Mittens030869 · 16/03/2021 19:42

PM is intensely irritating, and weirdly obsessed with Meghan Markle. I never liked him on GM Britain. (But I really did enjoy his series on serial killers in the US.)

I wouldn’t be bothered if a friend told me they liked him. No accounting for taste.

VladmirsPoutine · 16/03/2021 19:44

I think it's good you took issue with it. And well done to your Black friend for leaving instead of making an issue about it - she must have read 'Why I'm no Longer Talking to White People About Race'. Frankly it just depletes your energy and most of the time people just want to debate without ever trying to understand what you're trying to say so it's best to just drop it.

Chicchicchicchiclana · 16/03/2021 19:45

I am a white, straight middle aged female and I might have left the group too. I find PM abhorrent.

Bluntness100 · 16/03/2021 19:46

This is going a bit far op. Why can’t he like piers? You’re entitled to not like him, he’s entitled to like him. You can’t control who your friends like.

And quite frankly how childish and petty, it’s not like any of you even know him. Did you all argue about Jeremy Kyle when it was on too?

WaggishDancer · 16/03/2021 19:48

YABU. Why can’t people, especially friends, discuss and disagree?

Bluntness100 · 16/03/2021 19:48

Could she have left the group because she could not stomach the stupidity of arguing about now being allowed to like piers Morgan of all people?