So my heart has just fucking sank? I am very much in a state of denial. I do feel a bit like Iāve had the wool pulled over my eyes, whatever that means.
Today I sat down and watched the latest GeoWizard video with my parents. Very nice video, very beautiful and honestly like a breath of fresh air. Perhaps even air from the Alps.
Later in my usual ADHD brain topic jumping I wondered if Tom Scott had ever interacted with GeoWizard. It seems like a fair enough connection and theyāre both called Tom. I felt like perhaps Tom Scott mightāve mentioned a straight line mission in one of his newsletters, so I searched āGeoWizardā in my inbox. Only two emails came up.
Both of which are from The Fenceās Substack, āOff The Fenceā which I wasnāt expecting at all. The first one, in chronological order, highlighted what I expected Tom Scottās hypothetical newsletter wouldāve highlighted, the various Straight Line Missions Davies is known for.
Cool, a newsletter Iām subscribed to but never read also finds Brummie YouTube adventurer cool. Cool. Right? So then whatās the second email about.
I had never heard of the term Milkshake Duck and when I clicked on that Wikipedia hyperlink I couldnāt make sense of it.
GeoWizard? Distasteful history? Offensive behaviour? I mean maybe, the guy trespasses for a living and yeah heās a bit rough around the edges. But Off The Fence know that, and his unwillingness to pay for ferry fares is why they liked him. What did he actually do??
Thatās all I needed to see. Well actually it wasnāt. Because it got so much worse. He doubled down on a Patreon post which someone conveniently shared on Reddit.
It really is just abhorrent and what frustrates me the most is that this is genuinely just the average British person LOL. So why should I be surprised? Of course the middle aged white man has fallen for the same old story. A Britain in crisis because of brown people. You have to be fucking joking.
Please read the Reddit post with his statement and replies. Itās harrowing. Straight up parroting Reform lines about āmass immigrationā which I thought someone like him would be able to clock as a ābunch of bollocksā (thatās how Iād imagine heād say it) and thatās all I can do, imagine. I have to imagine this guy refuting Farage goop because itās not the reality Iām living in.
Another bizarre line is how heās scared of Christmas disappearing? What the fuck? He challenges a respectful commenter whereād they draw the line with immigration āone million a year? 2 million a year? 5 million? Think about it.ā Well Mr. Davies Iāve thought about it and itās not even fucking worth indulging in this fantasy. Itās like he took one look at the breaking point billboard and thought yeah thatās legit and Iāll base my politics of that. Fucking abysmal.
The point where I wanted to scream was this from Off The Fence.
When I first read this I did scoff a bit. Youāre telling me this song Iāve sung countless times, in the shower, washing the dishes, on my way home, while cleaning my room is practically a white supremacist theme song? I thought it was an absolute reach from Off The Fence but once I read the Patreon post thereās no other way I can see it. Was I naive? Absolutely. But come on I thought it was just indie jargon. Or funnily enough about a climate crisis. Or just a metaphor for general overwhelm. But nah of course itās being worried about a Christmas hating neighbour closing down your pubs. Okay even that is glossing over what it really is. Blatant xenophobia and barely disguised racism. Fuck.
āWhere are we supposed to go when people take our homes and itās all gone?ā you seriously think thatās whatās happening to you? Little English boy do you wanna have a think about what colonisation looks like? What genocide looks like? Fuck you man.
As someone in the Reddit comments pointed out, it was shocking, until it wasnāt.
āThis news shocked me at first, but you know, thinking about it, I had a bit of a hunch.
Many of Tom's videos - especially the newer 'Ā£10 adventure' things - have a sort of psuedo-nostalgic longing in them. He often speaks about this idea of friendliness to strangers, community, this whole idea of relying on generosity and good will. Without saying so in explicit terms, it sounds just like those who talk of an old England, the sort of England only seen on Dad's Army. Where everyone knows your name, where there's one friendly copper in the village, where everyone's white...ā
This whole ordeal felt a bit like Peacemaker season 2. It was all there, or rather it wasnāt there and I chose to live in Tomās world for a bit.
The pseudo-nostalgic bit also rings true for Pleasant Pudding. Itās built on that. For that longing of picket fences and brick houses ā oh wait.
Okay not quite picket lol.
At the end of all this, the reason why I say Iām in a state of denial isnāt just because of how shocking this was to me, someone whoās 4 months behind on this. Itās also because it seems to really only be this immigration point heās a stickler for, and because we know Reformās immigration myth (that was parroted by the Tories and is still pushed by Labour) is indeed a myth. I think thereās every chance he can see things the way that lovely Patreon commenter put it. That being said that commenter did put it that way and he retorted with ābut what about British values.ā Yuck. The last thing I want to do though is label him a raging racist flag shagger only for him to be pushed into another even worse echo chamber.
That being said, I canāt support Tom Davies a.k.a GeoWizard anymore. Not at least until he gets his act together. Even then, I donāt think I can listen to Pleasant Pudding ever again. Thank fuck I didnāt order the vinyl, I would probably have to burn it. Sorry.
This whole thing just has a huge ādonāt let them in unless theyāre good on cornersā vibe. Thanks Sans Beanstalk for that one.
Itās so baffling because the 750k figure he cites was like 3 fucking years ago. Which is not when things went off the rails for Britain! And what caused immigration to spike? Oh yeah it was the new immigration system put in place after BREXIT. To encourage NON-EU IMMIGRATION. And was put forth by hmm⦠one NIGEL FARAGE. 1 + 1 = Amtrak dude what are we doing. Oh yeah, weāre blaming the effects of austerity and Brexit on immigrants!
I will admit, the last few paragraphs of this have been less me lamenting about this Milkshake Duck and more me venting about the horror show that is UK politics. So Iāll stop falling for the rage bait and list some songs to listen to instead of the ones by Tom Davies. Btw Iām a child of a refugee and I live on stolen and unceded land. However I donāt think thatās a requirement to see vile behaviour for what it is. Hopefully it just explains this emotional reaction Iām having to something as trivial and predictable as āYouTuber badā.
Home Sweet Home - Wretch 32, Kano
This is Great Britain - Hyphen
Obulamu - Young Cardamom, HAB
Blue Lights - Jorja Smith
I HATE BORIS - Nadia Javed