Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Youth Defence: Does Following Imply Endorsement?

In part one we saw that 59% of Youth Defence's Twitter followers are based in the USA and Canada. 14% are in Ireland, 13% do not have a specified location.

Rather than extend these stats to a twenty page commentary I made my point, presented the source data and left it at that, but then @NeilMooney made a rather pertinent observation:

not to mention that they might be followed by some who disagree and like to challenge, ESPECIALLY in Ireland.

I follow many with whom I disagree. Sometimes the disagreements are amicable. Sometimes less so. With that in mind I went through Youth Defence's followers and tried to spot any obvious detractors. It wasn't as easy as I thought. Most people's descriptions in their Twitter account do not precisely set out their stance on abortion, or indeed their stance on Youth Defence. Still, I found a few likely suspects.

One suspects that the parody account @CardinalBrady is not an ardent supporter of their activities.
Sat on my own hand by accident. Now blessing myself with a floppy hand. Hoping nobody notices. This is awkward.
I'm also dubious of the good intentions of the parody account @DavQuim:
Children's so-called right to avoid discrimination being put ahead of faith schools' right to indoctrinate them.
And feel confident that @FintanOToolbox has not made any recent donations:
I find it odd that so many people seem shocked by Akins' rape comments, @YouthDefence have been spouting the same nonsense for months.

Beyond that how can one be sure? If someone's description says "Musician with other varied interests. Give out about the Church a lot. Views/Slanderous comments are my own and do not reflect the views of any1. Not even me." is it really safe to assume they don't like Youth Defence? It's not impossible to dislike the RC Church and like Youth Defence. Should I count someone who describes themselves as a "little bit left, queer and bearded", as unlikely to be a regular at rallies, or am I just making unsupported assumptions?

They certainly stand in contrast to some of the more exuberant American followers.
@ProLifeRosary's belief in magic beads is reminiscent of a story I was read as a child:
 X Factor and similar shows has left me disappointed in the ability of young adults to correctly rate their singing abilities. Thankfully Mary Abaied has bucked this trend, and now threatens to sing at us until abortion ends.

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