As it goes with the internet, “anything you do, and say, can, and will be used against you” in the court of social media opinion. This is of course only if the wolves which fill the ranks of online lynch mobs, smell blood. This rule applies to everyone regardless of status.
Although desperate, anti-Trump Leftists have Brett Kavanaugh now back in the top spot on hashtag algorithms, one of the latest social media meltdowns concerns Beatles drummer, Ringo Starr’s support for Brexit.
The meltdown was triggered by a Stephen Smith interview Starr did for the BBC back in 2017.
Ringo Starr’s alleged great crime against humanity?
He said, had he been in Britain at the time of the Brexit referendum, he would’ve voted for it and that the government needs to make Brexit happen:
The people voted and they have to get on with it, but suddenly, it’s like, we don’t like that vote. And I’m like, what do you mean you don’t like that vote? You had the vote. This is what won. Let’s get on with it. I would have voted for Brexit. I would have voted to get out…
Starr, who now lives in America also said:
Brexit was a great move. To be in control of your own country is a good move.
RT News headlined the melodramatic hashtag meltdown as, “Ringo Get’s Cancelled: Ex-Beatle Starr savaged online for calling Brexit a ‘great move’ in 2017.
The Guardian didn’t seem to have anything new to add. However, Harriett Gibsone’s article from 2017 which mentioned Starr’s interview did add that Paul McCartney hadn’t voted because of a US tour at the time, but had said “even if I had been able to, I was so confused. You were hearing what seemed to be good arguments on both sides.”
If I was a complete cynic I’d immediately link the timing of the social media meltdown with news of Ringo Starr’s soon to be released new album called ‘What’s My Name’. I’d start to wonder if his genuine views on Brexit, in 2017, were brilliantly used as a catapult for free publicity.
If true, it shows how docile and empty-minded people easily offended have become; easy enough for publicists to manipulate so as to generate (stir?) interest under the “any publicity is good publicity” banner, via the 24-hour outrage cycle, driven largely by the Leftist propaganda machine we call Twitter.
The internet meltdown, which included hate from Remainers (anti-Brexit voters) and a fierce defence from Brexiteers, provided free online publicity for the new album. For Starr, the temporary irrational heat generated over his Brexit comments in 2017 is a win. The Beatles drummer and Narrator of Thomas the Tank Engine gets the last laugh.
From a marketing point of view, it’s pure genius. Whether intended or not, Ringo Starr’s support for Brexit won the internet this week and hardly anyone noticed why.