I’m not sure what to make of his comments about the Tweet fiasco back when he expressed some opinions and shared some articles on Twitter over Brexit – but I don’t remember that “most” of the commenters criticized him for just being an actor who shouldn’t have shared a political opinion.
There have been times when he used his Twitter as billboard – Cybersmile comes to mind and some tweets about appropriate behavior on Twitter. As for me, while I don’t always agree with his opinions, his status as an actor shouldn’t prevent him from expressing political opinions if he wants to. He just needs to be ready for the onslaught.
Armitage Agonistes 
Yes. As so often, his statements in this article reflected a very (cough) individual view of what was going on. I do get the problem that if one person says something negative, it has more impact than positive comments, but I saved all the reactions to those posts. I could go back and look. My impression at the time was that comments were running at about 85% positive / agreement with him. When you consider that half the UK voted Leave, he was probably doing way better than a lot of Remain supporters.
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I recall that most of the comments were not negative – but very, very few actually wanted him to shut up because he was an actor. There was that one to which he responded – which was in the minority. But I’ve seen plenty of tweets about other actors or actors in general, that express the same sentiment, i.e. shut up about politics.
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yes, good point. The “shut up” comments were limited to 1-3 tweeps.
I think it’s legitimate to decide that one doesn’t want to follow actors whose politics one doesn’t like, or even to decide that one doesn’t want explicit political statements in one’s entertainment and to express that. I don’t think it’s legitimate to tell another adult not to express a political opinion because of their profession (I have been the object of this, too, formally and informally). But I don’t think that a single statement telling someone to shut up constitutes bullying, at least not on its own, and not even in the proportions we saw it on Twitter.
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Oh, for sure, I don’t believe for a minute that he was bullied, then or now, as some fans today ( maybe just one) claimed.
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And here we go: first fan Tweet that Armitage was “bullied into silence.”
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I do agree that he has every right to his opinion, and can voice that. But I personally believe that some fans can be swayed by the opinions of people they admire (not all, just some) I don’t always agree with him, and don’t have to just because I’m a fan of his. But I do think some fans (although a minority) are swayed by celebrity opinions without being fully informed of the issue.
That’s just how I feel about it all.
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There is no question that some of Richard Armitage fan are swayed by his statements and opinions. We have seen this in smaller things as well as more important statements he’s made.
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This is quite the slanted article… They’ve used words RA doesn’t seem to have actually said to give it a certain spin. E.g. Speaks out about “abuse”; “forced” to reiterate. Looks like he actually said he doesn’t regret speaking out and that some people misinterpret an opinion as a billboard. Sounds more like just something that happened, rather than something he feels “abused” about.
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They seem to be running a feature on what celebrities think of Brexit.
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Ohhh. So they’re putting together a few quotes here and there, rather than any in-depth stuff.
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Putting together quotes, maybe to them, and then characterizing, or mischaracterizing the quotes – hence – abuse was their word, not his, and what he described wasn’t abuse, in my book.
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He never used the word abuse, and in one of the paragraphs, the writer says he “speaks out about his future on socia media,” – which was nothing more than ” I’ll tread more carefully” – which he sort of, but not entirely, has done. It’s kind of puffed up – the article. They got a lot less from him than one would assume from the lead.
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Yes, I think you’re right. They puffed up the little they got.
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The irony is that the person he responded to about being an actor came from a fellow actor and SAG member. She thought it quite funny.
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