When it comes to social media - Instagram and TikTok - I remain a comedy account and not a commentary account. It’s taken me a while to put this boundary in as firmly as I have. Over the last few years, I have learned that speaking out on contentious, political issues helps no one. As I say in this mini-pod, if I truly believed my voice would move the needle on anything then I would very happily speak up and bollocks to the consequences - the hate, the trolling, the anger, the backlash. But my voice doesn’t move the needle and over the last few months, when I’ve been sent messages saying that my silence over Israel/Palestine is deafening and many other horrible, horrible things, I’ve become more convinced than ever that the only thing that comes out of me speaking up about things is for followers to decide whether they agree with me or not which, for some people, is an invitation to either praise or argue. None of this is helpful.
All that being said, when I started this Substack, I wanted to create a safe community amongst the paid subscribers that made space for us to have difficult conversations. I want to be able to share my thoughts about things without fear of being cancelled, harassed or hated if people disagree, or if (as is very likely) I f*ck up in some way.
So today, I’m testing this theory by discussing my feelings over the past few months on the Israel/Palestine conflict. If you pay to be here, I can only assume that you get it, you understand the grey areas, the vital nature of debate without judgement, of disagreement without anger. And, if that’s not you but you’ve paid to be here just to get angry then more fool you.
So a little context: why now? Well, Mariam Margolyes is the reason why. She spoke about this in a way that I resonated deeply with. This was the post. I’ve recorded it in full to publish here.
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