Imagine this: You’re one of the most popular people in the country. You’ve built up an audience of 1.7 million people on Instagram and carved out a career for yourself as a comedian. People love your down to earth humour, and your music and comedy sells out shows in a flash. Everything is going great, you’re universally popular.
Then (having been asked by fans to do so) you make a short TikTok addressing the one of the most-discussed issues facing Ireland: Immigration, and its effects on housing and services. You are attacked, castigated and cancelled, just like that.
That’s what’s happening to Garron Noone. Just a few days ago, the TikToker was praised for his “hilarious” St. Patrick’s Day video reacting to people mixing green glitter into pints of Guinness. Now there’s not a single trace of his social media accounts on the internet.
To understand the ridiculous controversy, we must rewind to the video in question. Some people have saved and reposted the clip, after Noone, presumably taken aback by the sheer vitriol of the angry, woke mob, deleted it.
In the video, the Mayo social media sensation says that he was “inundated” with messages to talk about Conor McGregor being in the White House.
“Now, my opinion on Conor McGregor is irrelevant. But I don’t think he’s a good person. I don’t think it’s particularly hard to find evidence of that. But it doesn’t surprise me in the least to see a lot of people agreeing with what he was saying. There absolutely is a immigration issue in Ireland,” Noone says in the segment of the clip that presumably sparked the pile-on.
The video is painstakingly centrist and moderate in tone, with Noone going on to emphasise that it “doesn’t mean that people feel we shouldn’t take the refugees that we’re able to take” or that “people shouldn’t be able to come here for better opportunities.”
But, he rightly points out: “The systems that we have in place are being taken advantage of, and that is plain to see. And the government continually does not allow people to express their concerns about that. Along with this, Ireland continues to become one of the richest countries in the world while most people’s quality of life is going down.”
“Our towns, and especially our cities are becoming much less safe. Now that’s not just because of immigration, there’s a lot of factors to that, but if you can’t see that that’s happening, then you have not left your house.”
“Communities all over Ireland are concerned. And their concerns are continuously not being heard. When you continuously suppress what people are feeling, you turn them towards more extreme beliefs, you increase their distrust in the government, and you push people towards racism and extremism.”
Noone, greatly underestimating the toxicity of the mob, predicted to some degree what was about to happen, adding: “No doubt, a lot of people in the comments are going to completely misconstrue what I’ve said here, but that’s the internet for you.”
As it happened, the mob was just warming up for Noone’s impending cancellation on Thursday. The usual kind of snide, soft-tone policing was alive and well in a tweet from one writer at the Irish Times, who tweeted: “Umm. Good luck with that, Garron Noone. I’d say that will go just fine.”
It’s not as though Noone made a tasteless joke or an ill-thought out comment. He had not said anything which could be deemed hateful by anyone sane. He simply said what many people are thinking. Noone, 30, is smart, witty, likeable, and has reached millions of people in Ireland and beyond with his funny videos. They give a lot of people a lift. Yet some of those ‘fans’ are trying to destroy him because, in their eyes, he’s stepped out of line — for simply giving his honest opinion when he was asked. What does that tell you about where we are as a country?
Things are so bad that some of his high-profile friends, including podcaster Alan Clarke, have taken to social media to post messages of support.
“Comment on this video with your favourite memory of Garron Noone. Your favourite video, your favourite message, your favourite quote,” Clarke, also a comedian, said.
It’s all a bit a mad and slightly over the top. But the Garron Noone fallout is a peek into a society where influencers and content creators really have far too much power over the public, and where we care a great deal too much about what they have to say.
The suffocating social media culture where we are drip-fed thoughts and views from people on the internet, who are held up as national treasures, has created an echo chamber and an enormous level of groupthink. A lot of these influencers go on to appear on RTÉ’s The Late Late – including Noone – they are given primetime slots and radio shows. The number of influencers has increased exponentially, and so has their reach and ability to affect the opinions, decisions, and actions of others. They, for the large part, live lives of adulation. Whether that is a good thing is questionable.
After all, you can rarely become one of these individuals unless you hold consensus opinions. You’re essentially chained to saying what people want to hear, which is why it’s a notoriously fake industry. Unless you are willing to agree that a biological man is a female, or that uncontrolled immigration is really just about following the “Be Kind” mantra, then you’re not going to qualify. You’re not going to get on RTÉ.
The reality is that many individuals who have become public figures in Ireland, including Noone, aren’t used to facing criticism. Garron Noone is hilarious and rightly is accustomed to hearing praise. Irish influencers are absolutely not used to being attacked or branded ‘racist’. There’s also the factor – mental health – the hatred of the woke mob can feel overwhelming.
They are not used to being told by strangers on the internet that they are hated. Nor are they used to dealing with the backlash that comes from speaking your mind, and ultimately, they care too much when people don’t like them. You don’t get rewarded for being authentic – you get rewarded for having the right opinions, and making jokes, as long as you’re not offending anyone. It’s all incredibly fickle.
The fact that Noone was asked to talk about the McGregor visit, and perhaps the merits of what McGregor had to say about the state of the country – and that he was willing to do it – does, however, indicate a vibe shift. That he is now receiving huge levels of support not just from fans, but from people angry that a mob can rachet up this level of disgusting bullying just because they disagree with Noone’s opinion, also indicates that public opinion is shifting somewhat.
But Garron Noone is loved precisely because he IS hilarious – and he should be able to both entertain us and have his own opinions. As it happens, the opinion he shared on immigration was what the vast majority of people in this country believe. Yet the mob came for him anyway. He should tell them to stick it where the sun don’t shine.
The Garron Noone controversy on a broader level is proof that we have emboldened intolerance and censorship of widely held opinions. Bullying is normalised in debate if you have the wrong opinion. You can go from being the funny, lovely national sweetheart to being tarred with the ‘far-right’ brush, all in the space of five minutes. Your career might never recover. Is it any wonder people are self-censoring?
The whole debacle, whether we like it or not, also shows how polarised and unhinged some of the debate on the right has become — because it’s very likely the case that Noone, more than anything else, was terrified of having himself defined by his views on immigration. He was likely appalled by the idea that he would suddenly be lobbed in with the dozens of anonymous right-wing, anti-immigration social media accounts who were lashing praise on him.
On one level, it shows that the political right has a big image problem. On another, it’s no wonder people post on anonymous accounts when this is the backlash you can expect for even the most tempered and reasonable of takes. It is no mystery, as Noone said himself, that people are being pushed towards increasingly extreme views, and why distrust in our Government is mounting.
Too many people in this country are afraid of being real because they know there will be a price to pay. You will be personally attacked and derided by the nefarious mob – yes, the one that always preaches about tolerance and kindness – which is why so many know it’s easier to keep their mouths shut. It’s why, as Noone said himself, people’s opinions are being suppressed. There are plenty of opportunities to be a mouthpiece for the Government and its State-funded broadcaster, RTE, but no common ground or room for the ordinary person to be honest.
We can’t accept those who lead the campaigns to silence, smear and cancel as the gatekeepers of public opinion. And people need to realise – on the left and on the right – that you do not have to agree with every single person on every single point. The worst thing Noone can do now is what those terrified of losing likes and fame usually do — that is, to bow down to the angry mob, and apologise. I hope he doesn’t. He has nothing to be sorry for.
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