Douglas Murray Douglas Murray

The overuse and abuse of ‘fascism’

[Getty Images]

I would be very happy if I never had to hear the name Gary Lineker again. He was a vague presence in my childhood thanks to his playing the game of football and his advertising of a brand of delicious, obesity-inducing crisps. But after more than a week in which his name has dominated every news bulletin, I have serious Lineker-fatigue. I feel as one might had we just had a fortnight of discussion and talk of the collapse of major institutions due to a political view expressed by Russ Abbot.

To speak plainly, I do not care to hear the views of a retired footballer or crisp-seller on the matter of immigration. Nor do I wish to hear the views of such a person on the Nazi genocide of European Jewry. Anyone who thinks that trying to secure a border is the same as what happened to Jews in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s must have the IQ of a potato chip. Among much else it suggests they believe that in the 1930s and 1940s Jews were desperate to break into Nazi Germany.

I do not care to hear the views of a retired footballer or crisp-seller on the matter of immigration

It is possible that Lineker isn’t the stupidest man in Britain. He may not even be the dimmest presenter at the BBC. But in an era where fame trumps knowledge, he is a signal example of how every debate in our society gets slowed down by people who are painfully cognitively deficient.

It’s not only a problem in Britain. Every western democracy is being debased by a type of celebrity-politico class which imagines that shouting dumb stuff out loud gives heroic purpose to their lives. America is especially full of it. For instance, the Capitol attack of 6 January 2021 is still being litigated in the United States.

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