Tommy Robinson

He's a racist idiot, a skidmark on the human race.

He defied reporting restrictions about a trial that were put in place to prevent said trial collapsing, more than once. The last time, the judge warned him he would be locked up for contempt of court if he did it again. Videoing the accused as they went into court shouting 'muslim paedophiles!' and the like.

He did again. He admitted what he was doing in the video. He was locked up for contempt of court.

Of course, this means that his racist, braindead followers are trying to make to make it look like a freedom of speech case, and that the gov just locked him up to get him out of the way, which is frankly bollocks.

 

He's a racist idiot as @yaaarp says. Lots of people online are lying about what happened. Please make sure you find out the truth: https://thesecretbarrister.com/2018/05/25/what-has-happened-to-poor-tommy-robinson/ Don't make it seem to British people like you're one of what @yaaarp rightly calls Robinson's racist braindead followers.

For Americans, it might help to think of the stupidest person in America who you'd be embarrassed to be associated with. That's what Tommy Robinson (which isn't even his real name) is here.

 

Not seeking to defend Tommy Robinson, but he's not a racist. He was arrested for being in contempt of court (and rightly so).

He's critical of the doctrine of Islam (religion =/= race, Muslims =/= Islam). You can question whether this is legitimate criticism or whether he is genuinely hateful, which would be a fair discussion.

A lot of people seem to think he's an idiot. He's clearly not an academic, but I feel he's smarter than people give him credit for.

That said, he does have a large following of people who blindly follow him without any proper thought or reason (a small proportion - although not many, may be genuinely racist - we don't know). It's easy for his critics to paint him as a racist because then you don't have to engage in his argument; you can just dismiss him.

 

I've no problem with anyone criticising Islam. It's obvious from this guy's history that he's not just "critical of the doctrine of Islam". If you don't want to see it, that's up to you.

 

Never heard of him until today.

 

I think we can agree that there are a lot of reasons to dislike Tommy Robinson. A football hooligan who was convicted of bank fraud is clearly a charming fellow, but to suggest he is racist is to misrepresent his views and is intellectually dishonest.

He's an angry chap, sure. But I have yet to see a direct quote or clip where he explicitly discriminates against someone because of the colour of their skin. I've tried to find hard evidence and couldn't find any (admittedly I didn't try very hard). If you can provide me evidence, I'd be more than happy to change my opinion.

 

It's not worth my time, sorry—except to say I think he's admitted he used to be a member of the openly racist BNP. If you've looked hard and can't see what this guy is, then I can't help you anyway.

 

He joined the BNP in 2004 and left soon after once he'd learnt of the discriminatory practices taking place within the organisation (Andrew Neil 2013). A racist opposed to racial discrimination, apparently.

 

He then founded the equally racist EDL.

Of course, you could just look at his tweets:

 

Didn't he leave the EDL once it got too extreme? (An observation not a defence)

Thank you for providing those. I did try to find his twitter, but as I understand it he was banned recently.

I certainly think this would provide an interesting debate on how we define racism:
a) a yes/no scenario - i.e. someone is a racist or they are not
b) racism as a spectrum - ranging from "never" to "extremely" (let's say 1-10)

Interested in hearing thoughts on this and where would you place Tommy in either a/b scenario.

 

Oh god! My former Pastor is posting all this stuff on his Facebook in support of this man! Whenever I see his posts I feel like smashing my head against a wall! So much stupidity!!! So glad I left that bloody church!!!!!

The stupid thing is he's black but supports this man because he's against Islam!

 

Its a). You can't just be 'a bit racist' or 'only racist sometimes'. Its also b) - some racists are more racists than others, but thats irrelevant.

 

So he unracistly join these organisations everyone else knows are racist, then is shocked to find out what everyone else knows. So unlucky, Tommy is. It's so easy to unwittingly slip into joining these racist groups.

 

I'm merely stating facts objectively. I don't particularly like Tommy Robinson, so please don't edit my comments in your quotes to make it appear as if I'm defending him. That's a strawman.

Racism is disgusting and has no justification. If you want to question Tommy's motives then that's your opinion and you're entitled to it. Tommy has been arrested for headbutting Nazi sympathisers and he has friends amongst the Muslim community so I find it hard to believe he's the portrait of racism you seem to have painted.

 

Fair enough: the objective fact is that he was in these widely seen as racist organisations, then left them. You seem to accept and be satisfied by his explanation of why he joined and left them, I'm not. You're entitled to your opinion too.

 

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion.

Incidentally, would you like to buy a bridge? I'm representing a seller of one, prime London real estate. Its a great price.

 

Tell me more about this bridge?

 

He isn't a racist or anything like that. He tells the truth and stands up for what is right. And people don't like that. Sometimes he makes mistakes and can be pretty brash, but he is a human being and not a robot.

 

What is the truth?