Difference between revisions of "Kevin Wilberts"
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'''Kevin Wilberts''' is a libertarian philosopher with links to the [[Institute for Progress and Development]]. He is in demand as a keynote speaker at right-wing conferences and as a television pundit, particularly on the BBC's Question Time. He is most famous for his popular philosophy book, ''Ten Platitudes to Live Your Life By'' and he has a strong following in the Incel community. | '''Kevin Wilberts''' is a libertarian philosopher with links to the [[Institute for Progress and Development]]. He is in demand as a keynote speaker at right-wing conferences and as a television pundit, particularly on the BBC's Question Time. He is most famous for his popular philosophy book, ''Ten Platitudes to Live Your Life By'' and he has a strong following in the Incel community. | ||
| − | Wilberts is noted for his delight in expressing contrarian opinions, however absurd they sometimes appear. He delivers these in a clipped accent that he says derives from his | + | Wilberts is noted for his delight in expressing contrarian opinions, however absurd they sometimes appear. He delivers these in a clipped accent that he says derives from his youth growing up in the country that he consistently refers to as "Rhodesia". He insists that in doing so he is merely taking an "originalist" view of country naming and that any suggestion that he is a white supremacist tends to be met with threats of legal action. In actual fact, he was born and raised in Basildon, England and has never actually visited any part of Africa. |
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| + | Wilberts trained as a teacher specialising in secondary-level mathematics. At this time, he was a fully paid-up member of the Socialist Workers' Party. However, following an incident involving the use of an unspecified slur in relation to one of his pupils when drunk, he was suspended from teaching pending an investigation. Instead of submitting himself to the school's disciplinary process, however, he wrote what became the first of a series of articles defending himself against what he described as an all-out assault on his freedom of speech. He quickly became a cause célèbre, and his transformation into right-wing pundit had begun. When the nature of the slur he had used eventually came out, many of his supporters were horrified, but by now it didn't really matter. | ||
(To be continued...) | (To be continued...) | ||
Revision as of 10:02, 17 June 2022
Kevin Wilberts is a libertarian philosopher with links to the Institute for Progress and Development. He is in demand as a keynote speaker at right-wing conferences and as a television pundit, particularly on the BBC's Question Time. He is most famous for his popular philosophy book, Ten Platitudes to Live Your Life By and he has a strong following in the Incel community.
Wilberts is noted for his delight in expressing contrarian opinions, however absurd they sometimes appear. He delivers these in a clipped accent that he says derives from his youth growing up in the country that he consistently refers to as "Rhodesia". He insists that in doing so he is merely taking an "originalist" view of country naming and that any suggestion that he is a white supremacist tends to be met with threats of legal action. In actual fact, he was born and raised in Basildon, England and has never actually visited any part of Africa.
Wilberts trained as a teacher specialising in secondary-level mathematics. At this time, he was a fully paid-up member of the Socialist Workers' Party. However, following an incident involving the use of an unspecified slur in relation to one of his pupils when drunk, he was suspended from teaching pending an investigation. Instead of submitting himself to the school's disciplinary process, however, he wrote what became the first of a series of articles defending himself against what he described as an all-out assault on his freedom of speech. He quickly became a cause célèbre, and his transformation into right-wing pundit had begun. When the nature of the slur he had used eventually came out, many of his supporters were horrified, but by now it didn't really matter.
(To be continued...)
