Zack Polanski and the guillotine

[Everanewbie]

AIBU to be sceptical that much will be done about Zack Polanski's tweet of an image of man wearing a t-shirt depicting a guillotine and the words "making plans for Nigel"?

Now I am not in favour of prosecuting people for words, and I don't want ZP sent to prison. But I would like to see this level of hate stop.

And I am finding the left to be extremely hypocritical with the violent rhetoric while simultaneously celebrating the arrest of Lucy Connelly and Graham Linehan?

Same here.

Polanski was either very lax and didn't check what he was accepting or saw it and didn't care. Either way it is bad. I am not sure what he could be charged with though as he didn't publish the original post.

Umm.. yes? I think that if Blair was murdered, Iraq would be negatively talked about a fair amount. I think that if Corbyn was murdered, there’d also be a fair amount of criticism over a variety of issues.

But if you’re determined to see “should be shot” as just a casual phrase with no real harm to it, then I don’t think you’re in a position to lecture about double standards.

You are comparing bananas with kiwi fruits.

Lucy Connolly herself created the tweet. Polanski didn't create the post nor did he create the offending t-shirt.

Do you think all the people who retweeted LC's tweet should go to prison? Because that is the correct comparison to draw.

If he accepted being tagged the post was shown to all his Instagram followers just as if he thoughtlessly retweeted something. I’m sure he knows how Instagram works.

Imagine if Nigel had been tagged in some divisive post. The lefties would be creaming themselves with glee and calling for his sacking.
We all know that is exactly waht would happen

Agreed. But nobody was prosecuted for retweeting LC's tweet. So I doubt there is a case for prosecuting ZP.

Farage has in my opinion posted plenty of incitement and not been held to account.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/31/farage-accused-of-inciting-southport-violence-by-former-counter-terror-chief

I agree, but maybe the originator should be.

I don't actually need to imagine it - because I can remember it, after both Tony Benn and Michael Foot's deaths, right wing commentators were enormously, aggressively critical, to the point of ridiculing both men.

There is nastiness across the political spectrum - to pretend right wing politicians are uniquely victims of it, is completely baseless.

But he isn’t wearing the shirt, he didn’t take the photo, he didn’t upload it and when the one photo in 20 was pointed out he deleted and apologised. You honestly think that’s worse than using the expression ‘she wants shooting’ because it’s a ‘figure of speech’ (not one that I would ever use, interestingly)?

Own your biases here.

I have absolutely no interest in ZP but this is a ludicrous complaint. And it won’t result in any police interest whatsoever (correctly).

Exactly! Labour are always held to different standards.

Boris likened Muslim women to letter boxes and got away with it completely.

Ditch the friend, there is no excuse for finding things like that funny

I am also left leaning but never find murder funny.

“Should be shot” is a common British idiom that has never been taken as literal. Guillotine is a reference to the French Revolution and execution of anyone against the cause. The picture couldn’t have been more explicit or literal. They are nowhere near the same.

Isn’t it just a guy wearing a band t shirt with the name of a song from the 1970s?

A song that's been spinning round my head all day.

This!

Nigel Farrage and his friends have done more to stretch what is “acceptable” in general conversation than anyone else in this country.

They are disgraceful and liars. As others have explained, the T shirt image was in amongst 20 images. He was very wrong not to have someone or himself checking every single inch of each image, so he should apologise profusely. But I’m sure he’s not that moronic to call for Farrage to be murdered.

Do you think this level of disingenuousness is helpful in any way?

What's the guillotine reference?

I think it's a big over reaction, especially from someone so fond of free speech, but that's a bit of a stretch.

One thing's for sure, the "threat" has been far more widely circulated now than it would have been without the complaint.

Now I wonder if it's possible anyone saw that coming...

If we’re going to take the view that retweeting an offensive post should result in a prison sentence, then you have to apply that to everyon who shares it. Even those who share it in so called outrage.

Because even if you’re sharing a post to express your disgust, you’re still spreading hate speech. Once it leaves your timeline to others you lose control over who likes it, who shares it, who agrees with it, and therefore if you’re going to consider sharing in agreement as a punishable offence, you have to apply that to all shares. You’re responsible for spreading the message regardless of your intentions.

“Decapitate terfs” “90% of pigs in the U.K. are gassed, but terfs are still alive” “off with their heads” (with a picture of JK Rowling and Queen Camilla) “kill JK Rowling” “if you see a terf, punch em in the fucking face”.

All things said by attendees or speakers or on placards at “trans rights” rallies about women they disagree with, at least once with politicians present. They managed to have plausible deniability too.

I think reporting it is a reaction based on 1) recent prosecutions based on hate speech and incitement, and 2) the recent apparently politically motivated murder of a fellow party member.

reporting it serves 2 purposes for reform. I don’t necessarily agree either the rationale but can see why. 1. Highlight the apparent “2 tier” treatment that they believe is being enacted at 2. Maybe it’s genuine concern after seeing daily death threats and the murder of a colleague.

But the cynic in me thinks Farage knows exactly what he’s doing here, and that all this is going to be his perfect excuse to pull out of the Clacton by election therefore sliding his way out of responsibility.

And herein lies the issue. They all - of all colours - apologise profusely and say they didn't mean it when they're caught out*. So when ZP says this, you don't know whether to believe him or not.

*Or they were joking
*or they didn't realise
*or it was taken out of context
*or they were much younger
*or it wasn't them, guv

Maybe so. Was a bit silly for Polanski to give him that opportunity then, wasn’t it?