Thoughts on Calvin Robinson?

[meatbasedbreakfast]

Long time lurker, stepping out the darkness to ask this.

Was asked today by a friend who knows I'm GC what my thoughts are on Calvin Robinson. Apparently he's becoming a face of GC views?!

I was shocked. He is anti abortion (in all cases), doesn't think same sex marriage should be legal, and isn't a feminist in any sense of the word.

I'm genuinely concerned that our movement is being picked up by people like him, who couldn't care less about women. When he says biological sex is real, he couldn't give a damn about how that leads to discrimination/violence. It made my blood boil and I want to know what other people think.

Why are feminists asked to take responsibility for the views of some random man just because he agrees with not letting biological males into prisons with vulnerable women?

TRAs are rarely held to account for transwomen who are sex offenders. Why is that?

Just because feminists are women and sometimes mothers doesn’t make us responsible for/ required to mother others.

So he has some firm values and ideas about appropriate boundaries?

We don't have to agree on all of his positions, but limits are not a bad thing in and of themselves. In fact boundaries and limits are pre-requisistes for any healthy and functioning organism.

As I see it we are facing a situation in which some people want no boundaries, no borders, and no limits - especially when it comes to individual freedoms and people's supposed right to do, and go, wherever they like, while others recognise that sometimes that is entirely appropriate to say " no" or " enough" or " you can't come in".

There are positions that can be taken between 'free for all' and 'rolling back gay rights'.

I would love that

It was a single issue party that ran on the strategy of specifically targeting the votes of Labour Leavers.

labourlist.org/2019/11/brexit-party-stands-down-in-tory-held-seats-to-focus-on-labour-leavers/

So no, neither Brexit itself nor the Brexit Party were a left wing v right wing issue.

They stood down in Tory seats because they didn't want to split the right-wing vote that they knew they'd attract.

We're talking about a party led by Nigel Farage, with candidates like Richard Tice, Annuziata Rees-Mog and Anne Widdecombe.

I don't know much about him but I have seen him a couple of times on news programmes. The utter prick bit rings true based on what I saw. He also seemed deeply unpleasant. Is he CofE do you know?

They stood 283 candidates! It was a single issue party! And yes, some high profile candidates are obvious right wingers but they stood down against Johnson because the Tory manifesto in 2019 was ‘get Brexit done’ and the Labour manifesto was ‘second referendum within 6 months’.

I can’t believe that in 2023 there is still someone out there refusing to believe that Brexit wasn’t an exclusively right wing phenomenon 🤦‍♀️

We're not talking about Brexit, we're talking about The Brexit Party. Founded by Nigel Farage and stuffed with right-wing people.

And as this is about Calvin Robinson, are you trying to imply that he isn't right wing because some left wing people supported Brexit? You know it's not just Brexit he spouts off about, right?

I doubt he's even that religious - I think he just figured he was due to age out of the 'right wing guy...but he's young and black!' niche market and getting ordained (albeit in some crackpot church based out of a shed in Harlesden) would be a way to get a new USP to keep him getting invited onto TV for another few years.

I don't doubt he also thinks the sky is blue and water is wet.

Ha ha this thread is a fantastic example of the Mumsnet hive mind.

Calvin Robinson is the perfect Terf Leader @meatbasedbreakfast

He should be signed up immediately.

He trained at Cambridge didn't he? Or was it Oxford? Hardly some crackpot.

Why is it so hard to accept that a black man might be religious and conservative and not make him out to be a grifter or a crank? I just can't see how it isn't racism, unless I suppose you just can't accept anyone who differs from you in any way.

I don't share CR's worldview but he seems like the kind of person who'd be happy to have a conversation about his ideas and respect you even if you didn't agree.

It really makes the left look massively intolerant when they can't articulate any argument about their ideas and instantly resort to ad hominem. It's intolerance and bigotry. At least CR is willing to talk about ideas and beliefs and doesn't just slur his opponents. For that reason, he will always have more reach and influence than those who simply call names and shout abuse.

Why is it so hard to accept that a black man might be religious and conservative and not make him out to be a grifter or a crank?

It's not the being black, religious or conservative that makes him a grifter, it's the grifting. Not sure why you don't understand this.

The fact is that it's easier for people like Calvin Robertson, Micheal Holmes, Matt Walsh, etc to stand up against gender ideology. They are already on the other side of the fence on the majority of these social issues. They can speak out and have their whole community, their friends and their family nod along and support them. For people like the majority of us, who are pro-choice, who campaigned for, or at least supported, equal rights for same sex attracted people, who are feminist, it's harder because we will, at least initially if not indefinitely, lose more.

So it's easy for right-wing conservatives to dominate the discussion. It's why people like JK Rowling are soooooo hated. She is so clearly not right-wing, conservative, anti-feminist or homophobic. Now that she and a number of others like her have been so very fucking brave and spoken out, the attempt is to say, look who you are like, to try and tarnish them. Non-conservative GC people are terrifying and they will eventually trigger a critical mass as they more who speak out, the more who are inspired to.

🤣

yeah, me too

some people need to spend less time on the internet

and this is a confirmed MN addict talking

Is there a word to describe the attitude of a person who regards his or her opinions as so obviously correct--and so profoundly enlightened-that only hate or bigotry can explain others' holding different beliefs...?

Everyone on here who is just throwing reductive insulting descriptions towards CR because he takes a differing view to you just show yourselves up.

"I don't even think he's religious"
🤣🤣🤣

Yes statements like this definitely make him look like the crackpot...

Because I haven't seen any grifting? Calling someone a grifter doesn't make them a grifter.

Because I haven't seen any grifting? Calling someone a grifter doesn't make them a grifter.

I note you haven't addressed the ivermectin stuff.

I see he is also a video games journalist. I wonder what his opinion is on ethics in video games journalism. Actually, I'm fairly sure I can guess.

They stood down in Tory seats because they didn't want to split the right-wing vote that they knew they'd attract.

The Tories were the only party prepared to go ahead with Brexit without a second referendum. We know that people who had voted Labour for their entire lives voted Tory for the first time because of that. It wasn't the right-wing vote they didn't want to split was it? It was voters from the left.

Are you telling me he was actually selling ivermectin? Making money out of ivermectin sales? If so, can you link to evidence of that please?

Or are you, as I suspect, simply saying that he expressed the opinion that ivermectin could be a valid treatment for covid? If the latter, then I don't see how that's grifting.

I don't believe he is any more the "face of" GC views thank KJK is, tbh.
He is a conservative christian and more of his views are in opposition to my own beliefs, but on this single issue we are alligned. I tihnk it's the same with me and KJK (although i don't have much idea of what she thinks outside of some of the things i read here about women being Adult Human Females. I know she says she's not a feminist, so i would guess if i looked further we may not agree on lots of topics)

You have to decide if you are going to only campaign/talk/believe in a single issue, or if you want to campaign/talk/believe in more than one issue. And then you join up with people who's beliefs allign more with yours than they differ.

But CR? meh. Great when he sticks up for women on this, or any other issue, when he doesn't? not so great.

Same here.

Gay rights are not being rolled back, though. What I personally see happening is a backlash that is coming in large part from too close an asociation and identification with 'Queer' - and all that comes under its umbrella.

Queer Theory is predicated on the transgression of boundaries.

He isn’t ordained by the Church of England. He is a deacon in the Free Church of England.