The British, who you have no doubt heard of, are making international headlines for an innovative, new form of protest: milkshaking.
Earlier this week, populist dickhead and “politician” Nigel Farage became the third person to have a milkshake thrown at him by protesters, soaked in the milky beverage as he walked around the city of Newcastle. On Thursday, activists reportedly surrounded his Brexit Party campaign bus armed with milkshakes, trapping Farage onboard. He maintains he wasn’t owned, and actually was just really enjoying being on the bus taking important meetings. Sure.
Here is the moment a milkshake was thrown over Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage during a visit to Newcastle https://t.co/Iiv79umkWW pic.twitter.com/WirGbf9Vqr
— ITV News (@itvnews) May 20, 2019
Farage joins YouTuber Sargon of Akkad, who is attempting to run as a candidate for the far-right United Kingdom Independence Party under his real name Carl Benjamin, in being doused with milkshake. You may have seen Benjamin’s name in the headlines lately for: talking about raping a female Labour MP, using racial slurs against minorities in his YouTube videos, being a major player in the Gamergate drama of 2014 onwards, and claiming that the n-word is not offensive in the UK like it is in the United States. Actually, it is! Here’s what Benjamin looked like after he was milkshaked:
https://twitter.com/SamKeogh85/status/1127720576364236800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1127720576364236800&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FSamKeogh85%2Fstatus%2F1127720576364236800
Then there’s also Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) the far-right activist, who has historical convictions for assaulting an off-duty police office, fraud, and general shit behaviour. He’s also copped a milkshake to the gob, multiple times.
Another incident reported today is a video of a Breitbart reporter in Salford, who was also milkshaked. It’s a hell of sight.
https://twitter.com/McrMomentum/status/1131282234563059712
This is all the end result of a growing movement in the UK.
Last week, a McDonalds in Scotland was asked to stop making milkshakes while Farage and a group of supporters rallied nearby. “We will not be selling milkshakes or ice cream tonight,” read the sign on an Edinburgh shopfront. “This is due to a police request given recent events.”
The McDonald’s next to the Farage demo. Someone clearly got wind. pic.twitter.com/kHETQ66TOq
— Scott Macdonald 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🇵🇸🇨🇺 (@scott_eff) May 17, 2019
The rise in milkshaking is no doubt inspired by the egging of Fraser Anning, himself a far-right douchecanoe that was smashed with an egg in March, kicking off the Egg Boy viral sensation. There’s also, in general, a rich history of throwing food at people you disagree with. Britain already went through its own egg-based revolution in 2015.
Back then, people laughed, but some people also asked questions about what the egging represented and how it could be interpreted as violence. Those same arguments are now being repeated by those against the rise in milkshake-related suit-ruining.
Violence is bad, but throwing an egg or a milkshake at someone isn’t the same as attacking someone physically – and you can argue all you want that milkshaking is just the top of a slippery slope towards chaos – but food-borne protests have existed for decades and everything seems OK for now.
Yes violence against anyone, including politicians, is bad. The point is not that throwing a milkshake is aggressive or dangerous, the point is that it is humiliating – as The New Republic‘s Matt Ford points out quite succinctly.
Getting doused in a milkshake robs far-right figures of the air of chauvinistic invulnerability that they spend so much time cultivating. They hunger to be taken seriously despite their racist views. They want to be described as dapper, to be interviewed on evening news broadcasts and weekend talk-show panels, and to be seen as a legitimate participant in the democratic process. Most politicians to the left of Enoch Powell would brush off milkshaking as a harmless stunt. For those seeking mainstream legitimacy, it’s another searing reminder that they don’t belong.
Of course, a lot of people have made this point already.
If someone can throw a milkshake at a racist demagogue, what will stop them from throwing acid on a baby
— Mike Cobraman (@MKupperman) May 22, 2019
God grant me the strength of a pro-open carry conservative muttering that maybe milkshake sales should be regulated
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) May 22, 2019
https://twitter.com/jaredlholt/status/1131267226215092226
So that’s why English political wannabes are cowering in buses and getting generally upset about milkshakes. It could be a one week thing, like Egg Boy, or it could be the start of a greater movement. Who can say?
