radiofree.asia

Gary Neville winds up racist middle aged white men with a takedown of middle-aged white men

Ex-footballer turned pundit and property developer Gary Neville has found himself in trouble with some angry middle-aged white men for… pointing out that angry middle-aged white men are stoking division in the UK.

Neville began by talking about the recent attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur. He expressed his admiration of the defiance of the Jewish community.

Then, he said something that obviously pissed off a bunch of racist knobheads:

I just kept thinking as I was driving home last night, we’re all being turned on each other, and the division that’s being created is absolutely disgusting, mainly created by angry, middle-aged white men who know exactly what they’re doing.

It calls to them

Inevitably, Neville’s words word a siren song for… angry, middle-aged white men who know exactly what they’re doing:

Angry middle-aged white men run Sky News now, do they?

And, in the same vein:

Seriously, this stuff was catnip for the exact kind of guy who thinks he’s ‘saying what everyone’s thinking’ whilst also believing (without a shred of irony) that he’s also becoming a minority in his own country. My God, were they seething.

Anyway, Neville carried on:

Funnily enough, on one of my development sites last week there was a Union Jack flag put up, and I took it down instantly. And some people might be watching this and thinking ‘well Gary, that weren’t patriotic’.

I played for my country 85 times, I love my country, I love England, but I’ve been building in this city for 15, 20 years, and there’s no-one put a Union Jack flag up in the last 15 to 20 years, so why’d you need to put one up now?

Quite clearly it’s sending a message to everybody that there is something you don’t like, the union jack flag being used in a negative fashion is not right. And I’m a proud supporter of England, of Great Britain, of our country, and would champion it anywhere in the world as being one of the greatest places to live. But I think we need to check ourselves and sort of start to think about bringing ourselves back to a neutral point.

Oh shit mate, you mentioned their beloved flags. Now you’re for it. Union flags and St. George’s crosses have been lining UK streets recently in what’s definitely a show of patriotism (absolutely no thinly veiled racism to see here, no sir).

Oops, you mentioned their flags

Now, obviously a lot of people – Neville included – don’t like seeing their flag used as a cheap intimidation tactic. Sorry, ‘show of patriotism which happens to coincide with the rise of the far right’. Anyway, amidst the furore, people chimed in with their support for Neville’s sentiment on Twitter:

His message even reached across the 35-mile divide to touch Liverpool supporters:

The football pundit moved on to calling out Brexit for its absolutely corrosive effect on national harmony:

Brexit has had a devastating impact on this country. And the messaging is getting dangerous, extremely dangerous. All these idiots that are out there spreading hate speech, in any form, and abuse in any form, we must stop promoting them, we must stop elevating our voices towards them.

Where’s the fucking lie though?

Not listening, too angry

A lot of commentators were absolutely determined to interpret Gary’s words as blaming white racists for the Yom Kippur attack. What, cynical white men (who know exactly what they’re doing) stoking division for political point scoring? Never!

Plenty of people recognised Neville’s message just fine though:

It’s almost like they’re determined not to listen:

You’re allowed to stay angry if you only ever hear things that make you furious:

Neville also faced down what’s got to be one of the shortest-lived calls for his sacking, and a ‘boycott’ against Sky Sports. Everyone’s favourite racist rag, the Daily Mail, ran with the headline:

Now Sky Sports faces BOYCOTT calls over £1.1m-a-year star Gary Neville’s ‘racist’ outburst against ‘angry middle-aged white men’ who are ‘creating division’ – as the lefty pundit reveals he tore down a Union Jack he saw on a building site

I’ve been trying to think of a way to phrase a takedown here, but honestly, Football365 demolished it more solidly than I ever could:

Good God, all that’s missing there is a ‘just hours’ before or after something completely unconnected happen/happens.

The headline alone is a piece of dreadful art.

Mentioning his wage is textbook stuff.

Calling it Gary Neville’s ‘racist’ outburst is certainly a choice, considering at no stage does he use any variation of the quoted word, nor is it contained at any other point within the article beyond the headline.

Saying ‘the lefty pundit reveals he tore down a Union Jack he saw on a building site’ is also one way of avoiding mentioning it was one of his building sites, not just a random one he ventured onto in a moment of anti-nationalist fury.

Pour the teeeaaaa. I know the Mail pumps this formulaic bullshit out at a rate of knots, but fuck me is it funny to see it laid out like that. How do you recover from that kind of inch-perfect read?

The wrong free speech

Sure enough, the folks on Twitter immediately called out the ‘free speech‘ crowd for its hypocrisy:

You’re not allowed to just say it:

Gary left off with a message of unity, urging the UK to:

get back to a country of love, of peace, of harmony, and become a team again.

Absolutely fucking outrageous, right?

Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Sky Sports Premier League

By The Canary

This post was originally published on Canary.