Robert Webb

[EGAnderson]

Has he deleted his tweet about Mermaids? No longer seems to be on his timeline - is it just me?

Yes, he’s deleted it - mentioned towards the end of the ‘Another Voice’ thread.

Disappointing.

Oh, that is disappointing

Oh Robert, I though you had more backbone than that.

What a huge disappointment!

Very disappointed!

Thats disappointing.

They'll never let him forget it though.

They won’t forgive him (unless he publically falls at their knees and recants - there we go again with the TRA/religious militant congruence), but they may stop saying he wants children to kill themselves and sending horrendous messages to him and probably bringing his own children into it. I’m disappointed and surprised if he didn’t see it going this bad before posting, but I can understand it. I don’t dare use my own name on Twitter (need a job and also have a child). It’s made me admire even more the men and more importantly the women who keep taking this flak publically year in year out though.

He's a lefty man who is admirably gender critical, but let's not pretend he isn't also a man who is somewhat used to seeing himself as a right-on kind of guy. It's going to be quite a bracing experience for a man like that to be properly in the sights of militant TRAs.

Someone like Julie Bindel is a seasoned campaigner of many years standing who is well used to brickbats and threats, and even she gets royally fucked off with being a target so much. If you're used to being the funny guy hero, I should think the realities of TRA viciousness are going to take their toll.

I mean yes, he's an idiot if he thinks a little bit of judicious tweet deletion will save him from their ire, but it will probably soothe down some of the initial heat, and that may be all he wants right now.

That said, I think he might have been somewhat intoxicated and pot valiant when he posted that tweet, and it may be as simple as regretting posting intemperately.

I do think it's a horrible shock to people who are used to everyone loving everything they say to suddenly meet the ire of the lobby. Must be sobering. Then their publicist and manager call...

It's not even like it'll make a difference. They're an unforgiving bunch.
People who have exited the movement talk about a climate of constant censorship and shaming, and watching each other for even the slightest infraction and sign of wrong think, and that's even their supposed friends and allies. Now Webb has declared himself apostate there's really very little he can do apart from maybe publicly flogging himself and wearing a hair shirt.

He has children.

I wonder if there's a possibility that he has been confronted with threat to his children.

I don't think that sort of speculation is necessary.

My guess is that he has been told that it could end his career.

It must have been something pretty extreme as he put over a year of consideration into writing that tweet and he clearly did it expecting to get a lot of flak for it. And yet within a few days something made him panic and try to pull out. Its pretty sinister really

Well even our MPs are scared shitless so on one level I don’t blame him. I do hope he hasn’t had any threats, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had.

And yes, must be a shock to be on the receiving end. My respect for those in the public eye on this like Linda, Posie, Stephanie Davies arai et al is immense. Strong women.

It's a pity he did, but I'm not surprised. I have a gc account on Twitter and don't want to put my real name to it because of the abuse and threats from TRAs and I'm no one interesting.
As we've seen with other high profile gc accounts, the harassment from TRAs is relentless. Details of gc people's families and children have also been released online.
I have no idea why Webb deleted the tweet but the amount of nastiness I've seen aimed at him over the last few days would be difficult for anyone to take.
I'm hoping he'll surface again, hopefully with a longer piece somewhere about why he said it, but I'll certainly understand why he'll need to take some time out from it.

Hope he does write a piece on this. Twitter isn't the place for nuance and he could link some of the arguments in his book to his views on the way the TRAs target gnc children. A longer piece can allow him to make it very clear that he is not transphobic.

Transcultists will never believe or forgive him but they are a lost cause. The rest of the public would appreciate him speaking out like this. Most can already see through this crap but are often not sure how to articulate their concerns without worrying that they may sound transphobic.

What did his Tweet say?

As pp have said, it makes you bow down in awe of the out GC women who spend their lives standing in the firing line to protect ALL women and girls, not just those who are men.

Tweeting about mermaids is an invitation to the West Yorkshire police though so I can’t blame him for deleting whatever he wrote,

Not seen the tweet though, what did it say?

I'm not sure speculating about threats is a very good idea and this whole thread seems unfair to be honest.

Posie Parker has more power than MPs and celebrities.

It does seem unfair and not wise really to judge others when most posters aren’t out themselves and want to keep allies onside. Felt the same about the jk Rowling threads

Look at me with all my powerful connections, parliamentary power and public votes, look at me with all my money and fans I am scared of loss so can be controlled by the most oppressed ever, yet ordinary women are less scared than me.

The fear is loss of money and status, they are frauds like the Wizard of Oz.