Saturday, 9 June 2018

Less Tommy Robinson, More Akala.

Less Tommy Robinson, More Akala

Recently, the perpetually unpleasant Tommy Robinson was sent to jail for, well, breaking the law. Since then, lots of people have been taking to social media and the streets to protest him being jailed for, again, breaking the law. In case you were wondering what these enlightened individuals who are gallantly fighting for his cause look like, it's mostly something like this,



Yep, a mass horde of out-of-shape, balding white blokes never seems to be a good thing does it?

I've read/seen a little bit about Tommy Robinson in the past. One thing that stands out was this documentary I watched where (among other things) he threw stones at police officers and seemed to shit himself every time a Muslim bloke went near him. However, I haven't noticed him as much in the media spotlight recently so when he popped up in the news again I had a Google to see what it was all about and what he had been up to. The main thing I learnt from what I watched/read was that when you listen to Tommy Robinson,you learn very little. 

The best video I watched was this one where he is dealt with perfectly by my favourite living musician, Akala. Rather than entertaining the ignorance of Robinson or making fun of him, Akala simply baffles him with knowledge. Baffled perfectly describes the look on Tommy's face at the end of the video after being forced to be quiet for a second and listen to some knowledge. For instance, after listening to videos of Tommy Robinson I never learnt anything new. Conversely, in this brief video Akala teaches me about the case of Christopher Alder, someone he correctly refers to (in my case) as being, "someone you've probably never heard of." 

When I listen to Akala, whether it is his songs, interviews, talks etc, I am always learning something knew. This is why I am always recommending him as somebody you should listen to. It's good that we all have different opinions and very little should be accepted without question. Interesting people we listen to/watch can often be angry about injustice but make sure they are making you think and not just hate.