Sometimes, the humor truly writes itself.
Between various posts over the years, I’ve made no secret of my musical tastes. One of the contemporary musicians I enjoy and have promoted is a folk/punk singer/songwriter out of the UK named Frank Turner.
During the first lockdown, he posted weekly online concerts every Thursday. They were fundraisers. Initially, he raised funds for threatened music venues which otherwise might have to close their doors. Every Thursday would have a specific named venue, and he encouraged viewers to contribute to an account (if they could afford to do so) in the amount they’d normally pay for concert tickets, and if they went to the fridge for a beer during the set to kick another dollar or two the way they’d tip a bartender. All of the proceeds from the concert went to the named venue. Through this, he helped keep a dozen or so places open. Following the venue concerts, he played one which donated the money to an organization for UK roadies, and then one for his band and their merchandising people to end the initial lockdowns.
He revived the weekly concerts during the second lockdown, this time for some of the foreign venues he regularly attended. Everything was back to normal… until this Thursday.
Turner is a B list rock star. He was prominent enough to be a featured player at the UK Olympics and can pack the larger houses, but he doesn’t play stadiums. He’s huge… for an independent. Some songs are steeped in world history – he’s an admitted history nerd – while others follow the usual singer/songwriter path of personal relationships. He’s a classical liberal who shares the traditional American conservative distrust of government oversight specifically because he’s studied world history. It resulted in songs like “Sons of Liberty” with lyrics like this:
Watt Tyler led the people in 1381
To meet the king at Smithfield and issue this demand:
That Winchester’s should be the only law across the land
The law of old King Alfred’s time, of free and honest men.
Because the people then they understood what we have since forgot:
That a government will only work for its own benefit
And I’d rather stand up naked against the elements alone
Than give the hollow men the right to enter in my home
This, and his punk affiliation, earned him some following among the hammerskins in the UK who believe in standing up for rights… as long as it’s only the rights of white Britons and not those of others.
They’ve become steadily more displeased with him as he’s released albums like Be More Kind which spoke of the need to get along with each other, and the pro-woman album No Man’s Land whose single, “The Lioness” celebrated Huda Sha’arawi, the Egyptian feminist’s efforts for women’s equality in Islamic nations. On Thursday after he made a comment about what a relief it was to have Trump gone, the UK QAnoners had enough… and they decided to attack.
Failure ensued. From here, I’ll leave it to Twitter:
One of his followers got a screenshot of part of it:
The failure didn’t end there. He thought one of the oh-so terrible insults was hilarious enough to make it his new profile comment, leaving it as a testimony of the stupidity of QAnon, ensuring that his fan base has a reminder of their pettiness and hopefully hindering their recruitment efforts just a tiny bit more:
Frank Turner@frankturner “Irredeemable shitlib indie folk singer”
And it also inspired Frank to set up yet one more charity stream, this one to a group that is the direct focus of ire by the UK QAnoners while keeping with the singer’s promotion of personal accountability over government action.
For those unfamiliar with UK geography, Leeds is in Yorkshire.
QAnon: idiots no matter what country they’re in.