1/11
It may sound counterintuitive to be having a conversation but there are some issues that just don’t have two sides. Nobody is in favor of tornadoes, or cancer, or against pizza – maybe pineapple on pizza, but not pizza itself. #velshi

2/11
There are, in fact, things that we can all agree upon. Unanimously. Or at least within a very VERY small margin of error. What led to the second impeachment of the former president is one of those things that doesn’t have two sides. #velshi
3/11
There are many who claim to be against the 2nd impeachment but, when you examine those claims, they are political, or maybe even constitutional when considering impeaching a president whose no longer in office. #velshi
4/11
On the specifics of what happened on January 6th, there’s no debate. Exactly 2 weeks before we inaugurated a duly elected president – a fact determined not just by 50 secretaries of state but by MORE than 50 courts of law - a violent mob ransacked Congress. #velshi
5/11
The mob attacked the building itself, and then members of the mob went in search of its occupants. A mob that, by admission of many who actually participated, & have since been arrested, was doing what it did because the former President motivated them to do it. #velshi
6/11
The murderous mob didn’t spontaneously appear. Nor did it randomly decide to enter the Capitol. There was a plan, or at least a lot of preparation, all of it fomented by years of attacks on facts & truth, ending with two months of election lies & hysteria. #velshi
7/11
If you doubt the former president’s total influence, consider this: according to the media-intelligence company Zignal Labs, in the days AFTER his ban from Twitter, disinformation about the 2020 election fell by 73%. #velshi
8/11
Words are powerful and a President’s words carry the power to move financial markets and start wars, so it’s not a surprise that so many were willing do what they did on that now infamous January day. #velshi
9/11
The charge is of inciting an insurrection is on video. The former president delivered a speech telling his supporters that he’d never give up, that election was stolen, & that his VP and Congress should reject march to The Capitol & “Fight Like Hell”. #velshi
10/11
You’ll hear a lot about how this impeachment is dividing the country and about what the Constitution does or doesn’t say but, in the end, we all – no matter your political persuasion - know what happened on January 6th. #velshi
11/11
If you think there are two sides to the story, chances are you’re eating a pineapple topped pizza right now in the middle of a tornado. #velshi

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Two things can be true at once:
1. There is an issue with hostility some academics have faced on some issues
2. Another academic who himself uses threats of legal action to bully colleagues into silence is not a good faith champion of the free speech cause


I have kept quiet about Matthew's recent outpourings on here but as my estwhile co-author has now seen fit to portray me as an enabler of oppression I think I have a right to reply. So I will.

I consider Matthew to be a colleague and a friend, and we had a longstanding agreement not to engage in disputes on twitter. I disagree with much in the article @UOzkirimli wrote on his research in @openDemocracy but I strongly support his right to express such critical views

I therefore find it outrageous that Matthew saw fit to bully @openDemocracy with legal threats, seeking it seems to stifle criticism of his own work. Such behaviour is simply wrong, and completely inconsistent with an academic commitment to free speech.

I am not embroiling myself in the various other cases Matt lists because, unlike him, I think attention to the detail matters and I don't have time to research each of these cases in detail.

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