The Ghosting of Laurence Fox

"Laurence Fox" by Sean Bw Parker 

'There is a strange and quite new tactic employed by these 4WF types however. It almost seems premeditated in a media-training type of way, and it goes: call out (snitch); feign outrage (media messaging); claim victimhood (or have it claimed for you); ghost (ignore); move on to find new target'

In September 2023, actor, presenter and leader of The Reclaim Party Laurence Fox was first suspended and then sacked from his own show on GB News. A week previously, Fox had been invited onto fellow presenter Dan Wootton's show in the 9:30pm slot, and had arranged to discuss Ava-Santina Evans.

Evans, a Politics Joe reporter, had previously guested on the BBC's Politics Live program alongside Geoff 'Britain's only Tory comedian' Norcott, and appeared to belittle Norcott's heartfelt concern at suicide being the leading cause of death amongst men under fifty years of age. Clips of their exchange had been widely viewed on X and other platforms, which the self-described 'very emotional' Fox had seen.

After having had a couple of glasses of wine (according to a post-mortem interview on the Triggernometry podcast) Fox finished a mini-rant on the state of fourth wave feminism (henceforth 4WF) with the comment 'Who'd shag that?' The comment was the sort that might happen around a million pub tables across the country; not so much on primetime terrestrial TV. As Fox semi-apologetically pointed out afterwards, the line between Zoom chat, podcasting, YouTube short and Ofcom-monitored commercial news show had become blurred – particularly for media figures increasingly used to ping-ponging between all formats - and numerous broadcasts were far more 'banterish' than this exchange.

It was an unnecessary and rude comment, but no less so that Evans' own public posting 'I'm not gonna shag you, mate' on various online men's accounts. It was at least equalled by fellow Thespian Dame Joan Bakewell calling Fox a 'dick' on live TV, and two 4WFs avoiding the sack on BBC1's Have I Got News For You by asking each other if they'd shag him (in fairness the host said she probably would. Ava Evans, being not the unpresentable sort herself, may indeed also have received the attentions of the proudly heteronormative Fox in his more single days).

Why were the programmes on which Fox was commented about, in similar language, not disciplined as was he? Is the only defence that he said it first, so they were only responding? Pretty cynical, bad-faith stuff if that is the case. Fox often uses the phrase in his social messaging, 'They are exactly what they accuse you of', pointing out the hypocrisy of the woke progressive movement (of which he likely considers 4WF a part). These double standards came only months after Fox reported that a BBC staffer had told him they wouldn't speak to him even if he won in the Uxbridge and Ruislip by-election.

It all goes back to when Fox went off-narrative to call out what he saw as an audience member's racism on BBC1's Question Time in 2020, and refused to apologise for his 'immutable characteristics' - that of being a white, British heteronorm male. He immediately lost his representation without a word, and since then this again self-acknowledged 'privileged' actor has been the bete-noir of the mainstream media and what he sees as the excesses of woke.

Difficult journeys find friends, however, and the Reverend Calvin Robinson was also sacked simply for standing by Fox after the latter's blanket condemnation in the media. Whether the reader likes the public facades of Fox and Robinson or not, this was a rare display of loyalty in the media, in a manner to which loyalty-barometer Jordan Peterson would (and did) approve.

There is a strange and quite new tactic employed by these 4WF types, however. It almost seems premeditated in a media-training type of way, and it goes: call out (snitch); feign outrage (media messaging); claim victimhood (or have it claimed for you); ghost (ignore); move on to find new target. Whether it's the individual claiming victimhood for themselves or on behalf of others, whether it's Ava-Santina Evans, Evan Rachel Wood, Amber Heard, Charlotte Proudman or Jess Taylor, the path to moral/cultural dominance is in craven avoidance rather than dealing with the allegation in a frank, honest and direct manner. It's what would have in the olden days been called dishonourable behaviour.

This media-savvy strategy has metastasized to screens, pre-recorded evidence and possibly no more digital examinations of evidence in sexual assault trials in the Courts. Fox, like Andrew Tate, Peterson, Matt Walsh and many other public figures - male and female - is concerned about the emasculation of males and the feminisation of culture. This has ramped up over the 2013-2023 period, as Title IX has been industrialised in US universities, and Operation Soteria has radically lowered the bar for rape and sexual assault allegations in the UK.

The bolshie, gotcha attitude of physically attractive 4WF's in media culture is being used as a role model template for how this new breed of heavy-partying, super-successful victims should comport themselves in the public eye - and in keeping those algorigthmic ££s rolling in. Political feminists have spent years plugging holes in leaky stories for lawsuits, professional tribunals and RASSO trials, and have made sure there is no argument possible for holding young women accountable for their actions in law, down to 'subjective knowing'.

Laurence Fox's lack of subjective knowing that his blokey chat with (gay) Dan Wootton would lead to a much longed for, if increasingly familiar, MSM demonisation doesn't count however. Wrong set of chromosomes.

 Sean Bw Parke