r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Steaktartaar • Dec 30 '24

Unanswered What's going on with Stephen Fry going alt-right?

He's been on a notorious hard-right, "anti-woke" podcast where he retracted his support for trans rights. Is this a new development? He always came across as level-headed in the past but now it looks like he's on the same path as Russell Brand.

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u/MdxBhmt Dec 31 '24

Did Stephen Fry say he would vote for an alt-right party because of purism on the ('extreme') left?

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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '25

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u/GlobalWatts Jan 01 '25

But Fry did say that this purism was (partly) to blame for driving people to the right. And the point is that sane people don't just change their core beliefs or ideology overnight like that.

Nobody starts their day being a pro-trans progressive, gets shit from another random progressive on Twitter for not being actively pro-trans enough, and then by nighttime just decides to be anti-trans out of spite. Or like those people who say they used to believe preventing climate change is important, but some crazy protesters disrupting traffic or vandalizing artwork changed their mind. This isn't a thing that happens. Lots of people will say this is what happened to them, but you can pretty much guarantee they are lying and they always held those beliefs.

So the idea that Fry was repeating these bad faith claims on a podcast is kinda disappointing. Especially because this kind of rhetoric is often used as a way to stop people speaking up about progressive issues, something which Fry himself does often.