Last Tuesday evening, I tweeted the following:
It was, fairly obviously, a joke. But the fallout was extraordinary.
The gag split people politically. Many of those on the right thought the idea hilarious and a good way to scrutinise an activist who MPs were busy fawning over; my critics on the left suggested I should leave Greta alone because of her age. Both sides then proceeded to fight interminably in my mentions for a week. Twitter could barely cope and — to use its argot — I muted the thread and deleted the app before it destroyed my phone.
Some of those who attacked me then set about reporting me to Twitter with a view to getting me banned. But while they failed in doing so, this attempt at silencing those who didn’t follow the consensus was revealing. That a political movement requires a child who cannot be scrutinised to lead it speaks volumes.
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