How X Radicalised Me

At the beginning of September 2023, I was completely unheard of on Twitter (now X). The most exciting thing going on in my life was the fact I had a cat who was so heavily pregnant that she waddled around the house after me like a baby duckling, her huge tummy almost scraping the floor.

I have a great idea, I thought to myself. I’ll document the kittens growing up on TikTok and Twitter. I’m sure people will love that.

What a lovely idea that was. But, as you can tell by taking one glance at my profile, it didn’t go quite to plan.

My girl gave birth to her beautiful little kittens. Absolutely in love with their tiny little faces, I started to post photos and videos of them to X. However, I quickly became distracted by posts from ‘transphobic’ accounts such as ‘TroonyToons’ and ‘Males In Disguise’ (RIP to both accounts). I found myself very surprised to learn how disgusting, fetishistic and predatory a lot of so-called ‘trans women’ were. I’d previously believed that these were just people who wanted to live their lives in peace, and that the concerns about them came from people who were just ignorant, bigoted and mean.

I used to be very left-wing. I voted for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour in 2019, for the many, not the few. I would make ‘refugees welcome’ posts and share memes about how ‘trans women are women’ on my personal Facebook page. I stuck a Black Lives Matter sign up on my front window during COVID lockdowns. I was well and truly indoctrinated.

I had never considered myself transphobic at all. However, I did have some quiet concerns about some aspects of the transgender ideology. Namely that I was worried about puberty blockers, and felt that women should have the right to their own bathroom if they wished. However, these concerns were not something I felt able to express to anyone, because I knew that I’d be called very many names and probably be disowned by friends that I cared about.

I also identified as transgender for a time in my teenage years, but desisted without any medical intervention. I later discovered that my undiagnosed autism had had a lot to do with why I felt that way. I found myself worried that there might be other teenagers out there who thought they were transgender, but were actually just autistic. I still believed that there were some kids who were truly trans, but I worried about those who were just like me - autistic, confused, misled.

Because I’d thought I was transgender previously, and struggled with very bad depression as a result, I used to consider myself somewhat of an Ally+ to trans people. Not only did I support trans people, but I also had a unique insight into how much it sucked to be transgender, given that I’d lived it for a little bit. I felt I was more empathetic to their struggles than the average person.

X changed all of this for me.

At the time, it was the only social media site where you could post about the dark side of transgender ideology without being met with censorship and an immediate ban. I truly had my eyes opened to what was actually going on. Fetishistic men pleasuring themselves in women’s bathrooms, surgeons removing the breasts of depressed, confused autistic teenagers, minors being groomed into thinking they were born wrong by adult males on Reddit who would supply them with DIY hormone tablets without their parents knowledge. I very quickly changed from the type of leftist social justice warrior who would cry if I was called a ‘TERF’, to becoming one of the largest ‘anti-trans’ accounts on X in the UK.

I found myself sliding to the right of politics very quickly. I cheered on the election of Donald Trump, despite the fact I used to think he was evil (yes, I had TDS, too). I left scathing replies under Labour’s posts, despite the fact I’d spent election night in 2019 crying because they hadn’t gotten in. It very quickly became hard to believe that I’d ever held my old opinions.

But things escalated further for me in July 2024 when son-of-migrants Axel Rudakubana stabbed those poor girls at the Taylor Swift dance class in Southport. Until this point, I hadn’t truly shifted or reconsidered my previous stance on migration. I’d truly believed the narrative that had been pushed - that people coming to our country illegally were genuinely just desperate people fleeing terrible circumstances. It was this tragic event that caused me to reexamine my beliefs.

I already knew that certain cultures saw women as second-class citizens. I already knew that women were treated like property in the same countries the migrants were coming from. What didn’t occur to me was the fact that these people would not change their beliefs just because they changed where they lived. I didn’t even think about the fact that when these men came to our country, they would bring their disgraceful mindset with them. But the incident in Southport made that all too obvious to me. Of course these men weren’t going to assimilate into our culture. Of course they weren’t going to suddenly see women as worthy of respect and protection. They had been raised this way - and this is how they would stay.

I could not contain my sobbing when the faces of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar were released. I went to my next-door neighbours house to shield my daughter from my grief, and cried into her arms as if I’d lost three children of my own. In a way, I had - we all had. But that grief lit a new fire in me. Through the pain, a patriot was born. I went from ‘refugees welcome’ to ‘close the borders’ quicker than it took the media to spin their bullshit about Rudakubana’s mental health.

I was a new person entirely. I posted tweets that would probably get me arrested if they’d reached the eyes of the powers that be. I attended anti-migrant protests, screaming “GO HOME” to hotel migrants right in front of a line of police officers. I championed Restore Britain, and will continue to do so until we either save this country, or die trying.

The old me would hate what I have become. But she was wrong. And none of this would have been possible if it hadn’t been for Elon Musk buying Twitter, and allowing the news aggregators to show the world what the media simply would not.

If someone as left-wing as I was can open their eyes to what’s going on in the world, I think anyone can.

We just need to keep showing them.