Andrew Doyle and the Freedom to Block
Author of The New Puritans and Free Speech, Andrew Doyle is also a presenter on GB News' newspaper review show Headliners. Since its inception Headliners has been batting back criticisms that it is somehow a right-wing comedy show, since a number of GBN presenters are, or have been, Conservative politicians (there are also Labour politicians available).
On Christmas Day 2023 Andrew was hosting Headliners, along with contrarian New Yorker Lewis Schaffer, and 'thinking man's gammon' Paul Cox, from Portsmouth. The rationalist part of Doyle generally outweighs the absurdist (even though he was producer of recent John Cleese vehicle, The - rather interesting - Dinosaur Hour). This rationalist side can also get impatient with Schaffer's perpetual contrarianism; Schaffer has made this his personal trope on the UK comedy circuit for much of the century so far.
This Christmas however, Andrew appeared to lose his temper halfway through the hour-long show, threw his papers and let first Paul, then Lewis sit in the host's chair for subsequent sections of the show, while sitting in the panel and grumpily commenting on the next day's stories himself. The fact that Doyle literally shoved Schaffer out of the host's chair just before the credits ran exposed the setup for those who might have hitherto been confused - and it was great telly.
Doyle however is a top level, dry-as-an-academic-bone presence in cultural life, and those tuning in to top up their post-Christmas Dinner appetite for red meat news would no doubt have been perplexed. Surely absurdist situationism has no place on GB News? Newspapers Metro, Mail Online and The Daily Express certainly were baffled - or pretended to be so - trotting out the usual, inaccurate 'far right' accusations against the channel.
On Twitter/X, the response was reliably demented, with many laptop critics lampooning Doyle's well-known Free Speech Absolutist stance. He has commented often on the fact that his large following is constantly engaging in bad-faith, pile-on criticisms and slag-offs, their originators not interested in debating the (admittedly Oxford-educated) writer, thus reserving the Right to Block.
Where does a social media user's right to free speech interfere with someone they are trying to intellectually attack - pretty much because they are very 'woke' themselves - and Doyle is one of those most responsible for exposing the term's authoritarian machinery? Apart from being a writer, producer and anti-woke stand-up, Andrew is also a gay Catholic with close Irish heritage – i.e. a progressive propagandist's intersectional conundrum/nightmare. How on earth can this man not be a-woke to the persecutions? Won't anyone PLEASE think about the gays?
Following the Metro/Express stories – which may or may not have been the intention behind the situationist gag – Doyle did try to engage in civilised debate, but was forced to give up, as many are, by what I term humblesnark rhetoric. This is bad faith criticism that doesn't want to learn, listen or really discuss, has its camps already established, and are delighted about having high-profile cultural figures being accessible to prod/harass.
So beyond the did they/didn't they argue televisual goodies, a real cultural touchstone in X culture is the 'block' function – of which Elon Musk did consider getting rid. If we are all our own sub-publishers on social media, with Musk and Zuckerberg as (mostly) benevolent legal backers, then surely that free expression doesn't stretch to gaslighting the proprietors of the platforms on which we're writing into having to engage in our own subjective insanity?
Are the culture wars better than old fashioned swords and bullets wars? Arguably yes, but in this century of InfoWars, clicking 'like' while a hundred Romes burn, the humblesnark spear in the side of social libertarians can result in cancellation, debanking, and misrepresentation.
When all the chickens are plucked, however, one can do with one's own social media account whatever one damn well likes.
Compelling Speech — The Stammering Enigma available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Compelling-Speech-Stammering-Sean-Parker/dp/B0BW2QM7NY/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=