There are no such thing as keyboard warriors, only losers – ask Rassie
TWITTER (or X, to give it it’s proper title since Elon Musk took over the social media platform) is a labyrinth for idiocy, dog whistling, misinformation, childish spats and, at its very worst, a place which fuels public pile-ons and online bullying.
And it’s become established over the years as a platform where public figures, who should know better, create no shortage of problems for themselves with trigger-happy posts.
One ill-advised Tweet has the capacity to end careers – as has been shown time and again.
Nonetheless, people just don’t seem to learn from these cautionary tales, and plough on with all this needless, selfgenerated hassle. One Irish tech entrepreneur, for example, who seemed to revel in all this agitation for years, learned the Twitter lesson the hard way recently.
The longer you spend on this social media website, the worse effect it seems to have. It’s a modern day version of the onearmed bandit and, in the end, the house is the only winner after all the noise and mind-numbing chaos.
So, it’s been somewhat surprising to see a character as streetwise and savvy as South African rugby supremo Rassie Erasmus lower himself to such levels.
Although, this is not entirely a new development for Erasmus, it should be noted. He has been fond of throwing a few social media grenades in recent years.
His loyal following love his Trump-style railing against authority but, whilst it may be delivered in grandiose fashion, in reality, it’s cheap and unedifying.
The Springboks rugby guru, who has just secured back-to-back World Cups, once said that a ‘lion doesn’t concern himself with the opinion of a sheep’. He hasn’t been following that mantra lately.
Earlier this week, the former Munster head coach took a moment away from the joyous World Cup celebrations at home to have a public spat with a New Zealand sports journalist by the name of Ben Smith.
It’s not the first time he and the reporter in question – who himself has a reputation for looking for trouble on social media – have come to blows online, but this latest altercation was the most juvenile.
Here’s one post from Rassie: ‘Ben I don’t know if you are a real person, but surely you must stop embarrassing NZ with your tweets. Grow up man and just have a look if you still have balls (he or she) that will show and help you to go be bit more as man or a lady. You = NZ (not).’
Bottom of the barrel stuff. Erasmus, whatever you think of him, should be revelling in what he has achieved over the past six years. The transformative effect – in every sense of the word – he has had on South Africa has been seismic.
The images of the Springboks on their victory tour have been genuinely heartening, especially the pictures of Siya Kolisi, who came from the townships to guide the Boks to global domination, sitting proudly atop the team bus as it rolled through Soweto.
Erasmus should be very proud of his impact on his home nation, a country which has been bitterly divided for decades. Why he feels the need to lower himself to such lowest common denominator nonsense on social media beggars belief. There are no such thing as keyboard warriors, only losers. And Erasmus has lost a bit of credibility with this ridiculous caper.
His latest altercation with this Kiwi journo was his most juvenile