Beyond Parody; Independent fooled by Toby Young’s spoof Covid-19 ‘dating site’
In the drive to divide the population into the knowing and the stupid (surely deplorables and non-deplorables – ed), the Indy declares: “There’s now a dating site for ‘lockdown sceptic’.” Those lockdown sceptic idiots (aka the Swedish et al who might questioned why schools shut, exams were canceled and people were locked inside small flats with small children and no outside space) are thinking of mating.
There is a reason as to why the Indy is agog and finds some of the profiles on the new dating site “unbelievable”. That reason is because – get his – it’s a spoof. In the race to shout ‘Look at them idiots!’, the Indy has stepped into an elephant trap. It might even be “Beyond Parody”:
The Indy’s story is tosh:
If you’re interested in something niche – whether that’s flat earth conspiracy theories or Dungeons and Dragons – there’s probably a dating website out there for you.
That includes the “Covid-sceptical” – essentially people who think that all of this lockdown and fear about a deadly pandemic has gone on for too long, and who want to return back to normal life.
Can “niche” include people who want to portray others as agenda-driven idiots and in so doing present themselves as what they fear? The truth is that it’s just people larking about on a forum called Love in a Covid Climate. Created by Tory columnist Toby Young, the forum is open to anyone who wants to take the mick. Here are a few samples of message of Lonely of Lockdown the Indy thinks are serious:
But in place of any research, the Indy has a story:
The conclusion to the Indy’s article is choice:
Young has defended the creation of his website, telling the Guardian, ““I’ve created Love in a Covid Climate for people who are properly informed about the risk, realise how small it is and want to meet other scientifically literate people who haven’t succumbed to what Bernard-Henri Lévy calls ‘psychotic delirium’.”
So it looks like this dating site isn’t going anywhere.
It’s not a dating site. But it might be in lockdown.
Posted: 11th, August 2020 | In: News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
