It’s a sad reflection of the world that we live in that exchanges like the below, which amount to two people slinging abuse at each other, are entirely unremarkable and happen every day on almost every social media network.
What’s unusual in this case is that one of the protagonists is an elected TD:
We should start by admitting that on one level, Gannon has a legitimate complaint. It is objectively untrue to say that if he were to be re-elected, it would be “an election fix” – the Social Democrats, for good or ill, are in the mid-single-digits in most polls. Gannon will struggle to hold his seat if the expected Sinn Fein surge materialises, but there’s nothing in the public data that makes his winning a particularly unlikely outcome.
It is also true and obvious, I would think, that Gary Gannon was not arguing with a potential voter here. The tone of the exchange on both sides does tend to make it clear that if Gannon were to suddenly and convincingly reveal himself as the second coming of Jesus Christ, he might still struggle to win any vote from his interlocutor, the campaigner Gavin Pepper.
But that, I’m afraid, is where the defence of Gannon must end.
Deputy Gannon is one of those members of the Oireachtas who recently voted to enact, in this country, legislation governing “hate speech”. One might think that a very basic requirement of a legislator who wishes to restrict everybody else’s right to speak in order to further the cause of decency might at the very least lead by example and speak with some decency themselves. Calling somebody a “slimeball”, a “weirdo”, a “creep”, and a “toad” for the crime, in this case, of questioning your policies might not meet the technical definition of hate speech, but most people would surely agree that it constitutes speech loaded with hate.
Aside from any questions about whether such conduct is in breach of the hate speech law (which has yet to take force) there’s also a question about whether it breaches the Social Democrats own policies about conduct on social media. To find out, I reached out to a senior spokesperson for the party to ask. At the time of publication, I have yet to receive a reply. It would be a strange social media policy for any party, however, that permitted this kind of carry on.
The whole exchange began, if you are wondering, with Gannon’s predictably hostile take on those who were featured in RTE’s predictably one-sided Prime Time special about recent protests in Ireland over sex education and vaccines. The replies to his tweet were not, on the whole, in agreement.
In reality, just a few dozen thugs with an iPhone & hatred for themselves more than anything else.
I knock at doors throughout central Dublin a couple of times a week & it is a rarity 2 find anyone who remotely shares their views of the world.
Ireland is full of decent people https://t.co/P8q76jgDSE
— Gary Gannon TD (@GaryGannonTD) June 6, 2023
One of the dynamics at play here is, I think, the recent shift in social media since Elon Musk’s takeover of twitter. In the good old pre-Musk days, somebody like Gannon simply didn’t encounter much opposition online. Those with views that align with Gavin Pepper were generally banned, or if not banned, then shoved so far down the algorithm that it was likely you’d never see them. The recent changes which have removed most (though not all) censorship have probably added to the sense of a political class under siege: Even twitter, that forum where once they could talk themselves into believing that they were in a majority, is now a place where they are confronted with opposition daily.
That sense of siege more than anything, I think, explains Gannon losing his cool. Because the truth, I am fairly sure, is that he is no longer as certain as he once was that he is, in fact, in the majority. As the elected representative for Dublin Central, including East Wall, I simply do not believe for a second that he has never encountered views like those held by Mr. Pepper on the topic of immigration, for example.
There’s a degree, in other words, to which our political class is becoming aware that it is losing – if it has not already lost – control of the national narrative. And with that comes fear, and a degree of anger.
Whatever the reason, though, this really isn’t on. Our elected politicians might not be models for competence, or professionalism. But one might hope, at the very least, that they might be role models for courtesy and common grace when engaging with others.
Would you want your child to grow up and conduct himself like Gary Gannon here? I doubt it.