Schrodinger’s Britain
Welcome to the Twilight Zone, our new series looking at the wonderful world of conspiracy, the far-right world of populist paranoia. Read previous HERE. If you want to contribute to the Twilight Zone series, contact us.
Neil Oliver used to be the poster-boy for Better Together. He rose to prominence as the emotional long-haired British nationalist off-of-the-telly publishing weird long soliloquys on the wonders of the Union. The GB News figure and Coast presenter was elevated to the advisory council of the These Islands think-tank with a flurry of publicity in November 2020, but was later removed from the advisory council list in 2021 as things began to unravel.
Now, on the seemingly unregulated GB News channel Oliver authoritatively delivers crackpot conspiracy lies straight to camera (you can read something about Ofcom’s investigations into GB News breaking impartiality laws here, but they’re basically a busted flush – they are useless).
“I don’t know what @Ofcom are doing, fingers in ears. How is it allowed that a serving politician goes on a news channel which calls itself the great British news channel, and talks about their own policies and promote themselves?” @MarinaPurkiss pic.twitter.com/qPkTQvYtFc
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) August 13, 2023
A few different things seem to be at play at the same time with the Neil Oliver phenomenon. Yes it’s funny to think that one of the Better Together brands most trusted celebrities has lost the plot. Yes there may be genuine concern for his mental health (though it might be seen as patronising to ‘medicalise’ someones views). Yes he does represent the worst of the conspiracism of the Twilight Zone.
It’s not clear what has altered for him. Certainly the experience of lockdown has left him unhinged and disorientated. Is this amplified by the rise to fame, a midlife crisis, or the genuine beliefs of a slightly isolated individual? Certainly he has been swept away by the covid conspiracies which swirl-along taking in anti-semitism, the secret world government, Big Pharma and, er, cycling lanes. This weekend he told his 356k followers “I didn’t take the experimental gene therapy. I took Ivermectin” and “CCTV surveillance at tills in Sainsburys supermarket in Stirling. Never shopping there again.”
It’s dizzying to keep up with Oliver’s views as we career off the map of rational thought. One of his latest is that the disaster in Maui was “intentionally depopulated” to create property opportunities for Oprah Winfrey and Jeff Bezos. Yes, that’s right. With at least 1,000 people reported missing and 93 dead following massive fires in Kaanapali in West Maui, this is just disgusting.
Now in a bewildering and wide-ranging ‘tour de force’ Oliver covers ‘child mutilation’ the emergence of the ‘castrate’, Oliver Anthony’s protest song, something he calls ‘Schrodinger’s Britain’ and the problems with Net Zero. He and his audience are so inside their own sub-culture that many of the references may pass you by. Much of it hints at what he really wants to say – god only knows…
If you tolerate this, then your children will be next. What they have done to our children over the past few years is absolutely disgusting – on so many levels.
This a tour de force commentary by Neil Oliver / @thecoastguy. I urge you to watch and listen.pic.twitter.com/xrQxaJPWpD
— James Melville (@JamesMelville) August 12, 2023
Now you might say ‘just ignore this’. Do not give this attention it doesn’t deserve. But the fever-dream of the Paranoid Right has an impact on the rest of us. The nightmares of the conspiracy cults helps shape public discourse as they develop in the petri-dish of unregulated media channels and spill-out from the darker regions of the net. This is always presented as being ‘post-ideological’ but its always of the right and the far-right, and now fuses the memes of the Alt-Right with anti-semitism and climate denial.
it takes a certain type a muppet tae go oan the telly & the longer ye bid oan the telly the mair ae a muppet wan becums
*bide
Has he ever tried honest work.
one time but he didn’t enjoy it
You might want to get someone (not me) to review the game Not For Broadcast (various platforms) for Bella. From the official description:
“The National Nightly News is live and you’re the brains behind the scenes. Beep the swears, keep the cameras on the celebs and keep the audience hooked in this darkly comedic game of televised chaos.”
Be aware it has ‘adult’ content and an advisory warning. I haven’t got that far into it yet, playing on the recommended mid-difficulty level (there is a story mode which takes the pressure off). It’s satirical, political (with fictitious UK parties and politicians) and rude. I can’t yet recommend it, but there are echoes of Neil Oliver and GB News and the culture-space is very much a Bella concern.
He’s a wee oddity eh.?
@Wullie, well, apart from Neil Oliver, I haven’t seen anyone burst into tears of excitement over a fossilised cave-jobby, to take a random example of his behaviour. Maybe someone who seems to believe in a lot of conspiracies will tend to be right about some of them. There are, of course, real conspiracies, such as the Volkswagen emissions scandal, and laws to punish them. But I don’t know if that kind features in Neil Oliver’s concerns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal
I didn’t quite burst into tears, but I once got awfie excited over a cache of hazelnut shells that were uncovered during an archaeological dig I was on in my backyard around the turn of the millennium. It inspired me with a powerful sense of solidarity with the mesolithic tool-makers who had set up their factory there, munched on the hazelnuts, and processed the shells for fuel in small charcoal pits. The shells were more poignant than even the refuse of delicately worked (but flawed and discarded) microliths that littered the site and the relic of the wooden henge they had built beside their factory.
Neil Oliver has said that it’s this live human connection, this Buberian ‘Ich-und-Du’ encounter, which some of us experience when we uncover and engage the detritus of others who have long since disappeared into oblivion, their bones and books and tools and theories and paintings and photographs and, yes, their fossilised jobbies too, that galvinised his work when he worked as an archaeologist and historian.
His subsequent work as a broadcaster, however, is and has always been naff, worse than Attenborough’s even. Vulgar, populist, and for that reason despicable. ‘Telly athoot tears fur simple fowk’, as MacDiarmid might have said.
Most odd (Mr Oliver that is). It was quite easy to see the impact of Covid – by comparing deaths in 2019 with deaths in 2020. However, this reality is glossed over & instead belief is put forward: “I believe” – which is the basis for the “interesting” stream of consciousness in the video in the Twitter link.
In the case of transexuals, the only thing we know for sure is that they have been around for…… probably for ever. The only thing which is uncertain is their distribution in populations. Oliver implies that transexuals are influenced (forced) by culture (or indeed education). Maybe. But what we know for sure is transexual cases existed in the early 19th century – when culture was most definitely not a forcing element. It all smacks of bandwaggonism, stir something up, get more viewers and get paid more. P.T.Barnum would recognise what Oliver is doing at 200 paces.
surprised he’s not bumping his gums at the Edinburgh talk shop
Only two words to describe Neil Oliver and that’s “. BA HEID”.
thir is a fair skelp ae a bitter thegithir gandalf aboot him, mibbe him & jk rowling should do a double act, harry potter & the bucket of shite
My own theory is that Neil Oliver’s apparent descent into idiocy is due to blood deprivation to the brain caused by his penchant for wearing loose scarves/cravats around his neck . Over the years these have tightened imperceptibly and reduced blood flow to his brain resulting in the mindless and incoherent creature we see before us .
Sadly , as he inhabits the GB News studio where he is surrounded by similar mindless creatures , his condition goes unremarked and untreated .
Well, sorry to sound a discordant note, but this is just a hatchet job on Neil Oliver. It’s deeply unimpressive and unworthy of you Mike. You just fling abuse at him and offer no real reason why he should be seen in such a way.
I disagreed very strongly with Oliver’s Unionism, but it is facile to label him ‘far right’, or simply mad, just because you or others say so. Oh come on, you will reply, of course he’s nuts, and dangerous too. His ideas are too outrageous Why? Because they just are? But I disagree. I watched the video you linked to and I find myself – on the whole – agreeing with Neil on this. Tis is not a man who has lost his mind.
‘Conspiracy theorist’ is just the modern term for any view that does not accord with the official one. It’s the term now used for anyone who in the past might have been called a ‘red under the bed’, or a ‘dissident’, or a ‘heretic’. It’s a way of ‘othering’ people. The spiral of silence is a well-known behavioural psychology technique used by governments and the powerful to fearmonger, divide and silence people. Who are the so-called ‘paranoid right’ ? Terms like ‘right’ and left’ have no real meaning anymore.
I have myself been called a ‘conspiracy theorist’ and experienced a lot of abuse because of my deep scepticism from the outset about the Covid ‘vaccines’, 5G, and other matters. My scepticism of the BBC’s ‘balance’ in 2014 was dismissed as ‘conspiracy theory’. However, it is now pretty clear that my scepticism was justified. I am not mad, or an idiot, or a member of a a conspiracy ‘cult’, nor do I haunt the ‘darker regions’ of the net. Over the last few years, I have just observed, researched different views, and made up my own mind, based on evidence I either accept or reject. Based on my career as an academic. And I have put evidence to the government and various other official bodies for comment. None of them can refute or even engage with it at all. The only response is to deny responsibility for answering the question, or referral to so-called ‘fact checking websites’ that just assert an official line as ‘fact’ without any basis at all – because ‘we own the science’. Real science doesn’t work like that. Freedom of Information requests produce nonsensical results, mostly evasive. But mostly it is just silence. So they resort to attacking people. Why do their dirty work for them?
I’m really sorry to have to say this, but this article is just cancel culture. If you want to oppose someone’s views, let’s have a proper debate, and produce some evidence to support each view. So let’s have an evidence based debate about the complete lack of ethics in public life and the belief the powerful always have that they can do as they please, and no-one may question anything.
It’s important that we continually question orthodoxy, whether that’s scientific orthodoxy around climate change, vaccines, etc., the metaphysical orthodoxies that inform our moral and other practical judgements, or the political orthodoxies of ‘left’, ‘right’, or ‘centre’ that prescribe how we should govern our public affairs. No claim that others make on one’s belief should be left unchallenged.
Neil Oliver is ‘mad’ (with all the disapprobation and negativity towards mental illness that this expression implies) because he deviates for the approved norm in his utterances and other behaviours.
Whether or not one agrees with what he says and does (and the claims he makes on our belief in his broadcasts and journalism should never go unchallenged), his abnormality is a good thing. It challenges the claims that orthodoxy (‘right thinking’) makes on our belief.
Just pillorying and calling him names is intellectually lazy and, as you say, ‘othering’.
I would suggest that Neil Oliver is hooked on self publicity and sees publicising controversial views as a way to maintain his profile and keep the pennies rolling in. He is being encouraged by GB News to act in such a way and we can therefore expect further more controversial opinions that fly in the face of not only the scientific concensus but reason. He is in short a rather overindulged, vain individual.
There are a few commentators on this site with similar character traits by look of their posts.
Oh come off it.
On what actual basis do you suggest that ‘Neil Oliver is hooked on self publicity and sees publicising controversial views as a way to maintain his profile and keep the pennies rolling in. He is being encouraged by GB News to act in such a way and we can therefore expect further more controversial opinions that fly in the face of not only the scientific concensus (sic) but reason. He is in short a rather overindulged, vain individual.’ I’m tempted to say, ‘speak for yourself’, but of course I wouldn’t be so rude.
On what basis do you say, ‘There are a few commentators on this site with similar character traits by look of their posts.’ OK, so who, who, what, and why?
On what basis do you say that his opinions ‘fly in the face of not only the scientific consensus but reason’? Actually, although I don’t agree by any means with all of it, I don’t find them all that controversial, and don’t think they do.
I hold no candle for Oliver but your assertions seem to me no more than prejudicial opinions, based on nothing substantial at all.
I’ll leave it there.
My observations are based on the following:
1.>40 years working in healthcare professions and with medicines
2.a lifelong observation of how contrarians operate – taking an opinion, initially sometimes genuine, and ending up in a position where they become personally invested in the opinion above any other consideration.
3.an observation that anyone can now find ‘evidence’ on internet to back up their opinion regardless of how rigorous this evidence is or whether it has been peer reviewed. eg in medicine it is easier to get a paper published in certain journals than others because the peer review process is not so rigorous.
4.my brief observation of GB News, brief for my sanity, where spouting personal opinions (prejudices) seems to be a higher priority than news in comparison to other News channels- though I am unsure of whether it meets criteria to be called a news channel.
5.a lifelong observation that the old maxim of empty vessels make most noise is probably pretty accurate – I include myself in this as well.
This site has descended into a spiral of bitterness and negativity. While I don’t necessarily disagree with anything written, I find the tone the articles have generally taken to so depressing and deflating, in stark contrast to what attracted me to this site in the first place. Granted, the political landscape might look rather bleak, but part of progressive thought and progressive politics is about trying to keep that positivity even in the darker times when it’s most challenging. To that end, Bella is failing and the forces of darkness have won for as long as that remains true.
It’s called reality …
Only as one perceives it. It’s correct that the world contains much negativity, but there’s also plenty of positivity as well. I’m not for one minute saying that the negative aspects of life should be ignored and indulge in any kind of toxic positivity, far from it. A balance needs to be struck however. To indulge in almost constant negativity, as this publication has in my opinion over the last year or so, is just a descent into cynicism and self indulgence. I fail to see what’s to be gained from this direction. If this is a supposed progressive pubication which aims at furthering the cause of independence and the level of debate and discussion surrounding it, then it is currently failing on all fronts.
I understand that this role may seem like a thankless task, and I appreciate how hard it may be to avoid getting bogged down in the emotional mire that comes with it. It’s times like these were it becomes more important though, there’s an opportunity for Bella to show a bit of leadership here. Continued wallowing in negativity and self pity will only contribute further to the situation, but pushing back, as hard as that may be, with a return to the kind of progressive optimism that made Bella stand out in the first place could help buck the trend.
This is too good a publication, and there’s too much talent contributing here for it to continue along its current trend.
Thanks – will reflect on what you say.
I’d be interested to know what parts of this or other articles are ‘wallowing in negativity and self-pity’?
To be honest, it’s not so much specific parts of articles that I could highlight as reference, it’s just the general tone. On reflection, I’d point to some of the articles in the wake of the Supreme Court decision to mark a shift in tone. Understandably given the ramifications of that decision, it prompted some very bleak analysis, however I don’t think the tone has ever really shifted back. I think the movement as a whole is maybe suffering from the same issue, but I think Bella can play a role in bringing about that positive change. I think we could all benefit from ploughing our energies into finding the best route forward instead of the energy sapping temptation of bemoaning the grim reality of the status quo. The latter on serves the interests of those who oppose our aims.