Stephen Fry, Free Speech and Mental Health

The Stephen Fry thing is really interesting.

I usually love what he says, but what he said about abuse survivors is (obviously) fucking disgusting.

Free Speech Fetishists

It highlights what one journo called 'free speech fetishists'; i.e. free speech at any cost - a cost usually paid by other people. It's often utilised by people who would claim that they are the oppressed underdog - think Greer using her platform as a feminist to bash trans people, and thinking she's being 'edgy' when actually, she's just being an arsehole. 

She could - quite rightly - claim that she experiences oppression as a woman, and as an older woman to boot. What she doesn't seem to get is that trans people have it objectively worse than non trans people. She is kicking down, viciously, and that's one of the things that makes her (and Fry) wrong in this scenario. 

They are both using a privileged platform, built on social justice and equality, to mimic the very behaviour they claim to find loathsome.

Seeing Criticism as Censorship

These are the people who also claim they are being 'oppressed' or 'censored' if anyone reacts against them. 

Stephen Fry has left Twitter several times due to criticism; I do have some small sympathy for him, because I noted that a lot of the comments were pure trolling, or focused on his sexuality.

Greer was due to speak at Cardiff University and students there decided to protest, because they disagreed with her transphobic beliefs.

It and similar incidents sparked a wave of whinging editorials about the over-sensitivity of our youth and their inability to hear anything that conflicted with their namby pamby liberal views. This completely ignored the fact that the students had heard what Greer had to say, and they thought it was appalling.

When the Cardiff University students protested against Greer speaking at their university, they weren't stifling free speech; they were exercising it.  

 Similarly, Brunel University invited Katie Hopkins to speak at a panel debate about immigration. Katie Hopkins is a person who called immigrants cockroaches, and suggested that refugee children should be murdered by our army for the crime of fleeing their country in terror.

Students of the university attended the talk, then walked out en masse when she was due to speak. Those students weren't childish, coddled fools who couldn't bear to hear the hard truths uttered by a visionary. 

They were decent, intelligent human beings who exercised their right to protest because they believed that a tabloid journalist who advocated for the murder of infants had no place on a fucking debate panel. 

(That link is no-followed, because FUCK Katie Hopkins).

Mental Health

Stephen Fry's comments are super hypocritical given his mental health advocacy and personal struggles.

However I am also incredibly grateful that any time I've been in a very bad place, the thoughtless, horrible comments that spilled out, that I didn't even believe at the time, weren't recorded *forever* and splashed across the media.

For most people, a breakdown or episode might cost you a relationship, a friendship, a job. They won't be a matter of public record. They will be around, and public, forever. I hate Piers Morgan's views, articles and attitudes. But his patronising screed about being worried about Fry is sadly spot on.

I have already seen these comments used as an excuse to falsely brand Fry a paedophile, largely because he is also gay (a ridiculous and bizarrely persistent prejudice among the ignorant).

The guy seems to be ill, and as a general public, we are - once again, laughing at this person and making them a figure of fun, because celebrities aren't people, after all.

People who (hopefully) wouldn't trip a person with a broken leg, or make fun of someone with cancer, will cheerfully laugh at Sinead O Connor's struggle with bipolar. They'll mock Amy Winehouse's depression and substance abuse. They'll think it's utterly hilarious when Britney Spears has a breakdown, or Randy Quaid descends into paranoia. They shared videos of Sheen's 'Tiger Blood' phase, and some degenerates even sent abuse to the bereaved daughter of Robin Williams after his suicide. 

Fry's comments were appalling, utterly vile and symptomatic of his privilege and hypocrisy. They're also likely symptomatic of a manic episode, and likely to cause suicidal depression at a later date. I believe journalists, loved ones and publicists have a joint responsibility to look after people with mental health problems. It's a fine line to walk without infantilising people, but allowing them to humiliate themselves in a public sphere is not the only alternative. 

It's intensely telling that this has happened a couple of months after the BAFTA incident, and is a double warning that he should take some time and recover.