Troll

A piece in the New Statesman by Sam Bowman which ostensibly aims to debunk the “eight biggest Covid-sceptic myths” presents us with a pot-pourri of Twitter-troll inspired overripe low hanging fruit. No serious lockdown critic has ever framed the argument in the way Bowman represents it. Bowman’s (and the New Statesman’s) response is to reduce the two sides of the argument to a collection of Tweet-sized memes, and then, like the child with two insects trapped in a jar, to have them face off against each other. To be sure, this tactic is also used by the less nuanced lockdown sceptics, who are just as convinced that their low-resolution arguments are sufficient. Meanwhile, in the real world, the adults are having a quite different conversation. READ MORE