Ollie Robinson cancel culture what do you believe?

[NEVERQUIT3331]

The latest news is about Ollie Robinson about a cricket player who when he was 18 years old was found tweeting sexist and racist things.

England dropped him and made him apologise. And there is no idea if he will ever return.

We can all agree that people need to be hold accountable for their actions. Some people definitely should be cancelled e.g. Katie Hopkins, Anjem Chowdhury as they will never change (or they aren't willing to.)

But if someone did something say 5 years ago or more and they do not hold these views anymore surely they deserve some sort of chance?

Definitely education is needed which can stop people having ignorant people (not everyone though but many people)

Plus with cancel culture there is a double standard if you say we should cancel then a lot of people should be cancelled e.g. Chris Brown, Camila Cabello (racist messages in the past etc..)

@Nutrafin
You’re right apologies!

Matthew d’Ancona On radio 4 this morning gave an interesting insight into why the PM. Has decided to weigh in on these issues. He’s done a podcast on tortoise news about how BJ has managed to create outrage over a “little” mistake.

It should not be ignored but he should be allowed to apologise, a short suspension and some diversity training would be more appropriate
For about the tenth time in this thread: he has been temporarily suspended from playing for England, pending the outcome of the ECB's investigation.

Unless more comes out, I think his worst case scenario is a brief suspension.

I think it's a good teaching point for teens, showing them that what you put out on the internet is always going to be there & it can have a negative affect later on in your life

It seems quite telling that most of the people upset by this don't seem to have a handle on the basic facts.

@thecatfromjapan

And it's so cynical.

You do the window-dressing of cancelling a few people, rather than addressing deeply embedded and structural inequalities.

It's just cynical, contemporary capitalism. 🤷‍♀️

It's not progress. It's plastic progress.

Bang on

I'm trying to remember culture ten years back. I seem to remember we were enduring oh-so-hilarious "bantz". This is exactly the kind of thing a lot of the idiots were saying them.

I would hope the investigation examines how he has behaved since, if he still holds those views. And if indeed he really held them then or was he just joining as so many do.

I don't for a minute think what he said was in any way acceptable. I'm just very uncomfortable with someone being judged on something they said ten years ago unless there is evidence that those views and behaviour have continued.

And who has it in for him to time it so perfectly?

Binglebong

I would hope the investigation examines how he has behaved since, if he still holds those views

How will this investigation be carried out? Every text, email and recorded message of the last 10 years examined?

At 18 he's an adult

And yet... give us a thread from a mum who just can't handle her DS/DD aged 18 and wants them to find their own place. You can't move for the screams of 'but s/he's still a child', brains don't stop maturing until 25, how dare you even think about throwing out your child.

@Nutrafin

It seems quite telling that most of the people upset by this don't seem to have a handle on the basic facts.

I'm glad you said it so I didn't have to... He was a twat. He behaved like a twat, and did twattish things. For whatever reason, no one picked him up on it at the time. It has come to light now, nine years later. He has apologised for it. He has rightly been suspended by the ECB as they investigate what went on. I actually think that some positives can come from this - if post-investigation he comes out and says 'look guys, you might think it's a joke to say stuff like this when you're young, but it really is never ok, and there's no excuse for it. Don't be a twat.'

@sadeyedladyofthelowlandsea

I see - he gets his job back if he does what you prescribe and does what you say?

Nothing like those staged/forced interviews of prisoners saying they are happy and being well cared for..........

@Nutrafin exactly. It’s extremely telling. In what job would someone not be investigated and suspended after saying racist things?

If we are not careful we will get to a point where all public figures, whether in sports, arts, sport, politics are either a) saints or moralists b) very dull or c) psychopaths or people who otherwise don't give a shit. This will be because every unwise utterance will be gone over.

We see this in politics already a) Obama b) Biden c) Trump and Johnson.

There aren't enough genuine saints, moralists make people's lives miserable regardless of whether their motives are religious or some other kind of morality. Boring people are boring, and people in category c) do a lot of damage, as do their supporters.

No one who uses Twitter can ever know when it will be their turn to have the heat turned on them.

I don't know what additional stuff has been dug up on Robinson, but I doubt that the average cricket fan cares about it that much

So what are you advocating for? Zero consequences for anyone making racist or misogynistic statements?

Is that for everyone, or just sports stars?

@Nutrafin

So what are you advocating for? Zero consequences for anyone making racist or misogynistic statements?

Is that for everyone, or just sports stars?

Are you advocating that there should always be a consequence for any tweet of any age that causes offence on any particular basis at any particular time?

Because if so people will just get morality fatigue and start saying what they like. Perhaps we're there already.

Good Lord.

Teenagers say and do stupid things for stupid reasons.

He's apologised. Let us all move on.

Can you all say that you are the same person you were a decade ago?

I can safely say that at no point in my life have I ever thought it was acceptable to use the n word.

So many posters saying ‘haven’t you ever made a mistake’ / ‘not everyone is a saint’ but we aren’t talking about a mistake here. We’re talking about an adult man openly using a racial slur that has not been an acceptable term in his lifetime, a term which has always been explicitly racist and properly condemned as such.

He wasn’t ‘accidentally’ racist. He was an adult who knew it was wrong, and chose to do it anyway. Why are so many of you so keen to suggest he shouldn’t face the consequences of that choice?

Maybe it would be easier to believe he no longer holds those views and is not as he says ‘racist or sexist’ if he had been the one to reflect on his own previous behaviour and call it out rather than only showing contrition when the tweets were discovered/brought to attention of the ECB/media/general public

Is the apology only given as he has been taken to task somewhat

Are you advocating that there should always be a consequence for any tweet of any age that causes offence on any particular basis at any particular time?

Because if so people will just get morality fatigue and start saying what they like. Perhaps we're there already.
I'm saying that I don't see anything remotely unreasonable in an organization choosing to investigate racist or sexist statements made publicly by one of their members, once its brought to their attention.

I'm amazed that anyone finds that controversial, but I guess decrying 'cancel culture' is the new big thing on the right.

And, again, the Conservative Party (who are currently leading the charge against cancel culture) have suspended several of their own members for making similarly racist statements. They only call it 'cancel culture' when doing so might be a vote winner.

Good Lord.

Teenagers say and do stupid things for stupid reasons.

He's apologised. Let us all move on.
Well, his conduct is being investigated by the ESB and I suspect that, if those tweets are the only examples of him making those kinds of statements, then he likely wont receive any significant punishment and the matter will be at an end.

Apparently that's not good enough for our PM or several posters, who seem to object to the matter being investigated at all, or have misunderstood the story and think Robinson has been 'cancelled' somehow.

@Nutrafin

So what are you advocating for? Zero consequences for anyone making racist or misogynistic statements?

Is that for everyone, or just sports stars?

Well surely there are jobs where people need to have a higher standard of ethics. Representing your country maybe. I'd rather Police Officers didn't use the N word or describe women as mingers. Although I'd rather the Prime Minister wasn't a racist misogynist too so we don't get what we want.

I do agree that witchhunts do very little to change attitudes for the better. The opposite is probably true.

Looked up the tweets if what I saw are the right ones they're not as bad as I thought. Maybe they aren't as I didn't see any words that are not used without *.

Social media is a disaster, really.

All your drunken antics, hormonal angst, naive opinions, whatever. There forever.

I feel really sorry for young people now. If my teenage years were photoed and on the net, doesn't bear thinking about.

A lot of people are arseholes when they're young. Ignorant. Lacking in life experience. Behaving to fit in with their groups.

Now of course it's all there.

Yes investigate apologise move on.

If he'd said I dunno. I think XXX should be killed, haha at Isis treatment of women. Dunno. I've joined X group and we're going to go and beat up some XXX people.

Yep gone.

These tweets don't sound like anything that extreme to me, if it's the right ones. I've seen 'comedians' on the telly say worse.

Not being able to escape anything you did or said when young is pretty shit.

Is there any real life evidence that he's racist or sexist? As in, actual actions, or in person abuse? Because that's what matters.

Imo.

I know this is going against what people seem to think but I have heard worse and been called worse.

It all seems a lot of fuss over something that people could have complained about 10 years ago and only started to complain because he was in the news

I am a bit at all the sports types saying how disgusted they are.

I can't believe that male sports types haven't heard anything like this before and way worse.

It's all very hypocritical.

Acid test is. Have any people come forward to say. He sexually assaulted me. He racially abused me.

It's just a young man talking shit and I've heard way way way worse.

@Nutrafin

And, again, the Conservative Party (who are currently leading the charge against cancel culture) have suspended several of their own members for making similarly racist statements. They only call it 'cancel culture' when doing so might be a vote winner.

I also expect that Robinson was made to apologise by the ECB, and that the ECB made him so this because of pressure from their sponsors. I'm surprised anyone involved can keep a straight face.

Particularly as it's left to the biggest hypocrites of all (identifed by you here( to point out that it's perfectly legitimate to deplore an unpleasant remark from years back and yet choose to do nothing about it.

This disproportionate tendency to condemn is making hypocrytes of people, and that only benefits the worst hypocrites.