‘Lockdown Sceptics’ dating site launched by eugenics proponent Toby Young and the jokes write themselves
The anti-mask movement now has its own dating forum. (Getty)
A new dating forum caters to “lockdown sceptics” whose main personality trait is “COVID scepticism”.
The “Love in a COVID Climate” forum aims to go boldly go where the likes of Grindr and Hinge have never gone before: providing a safe space for those who think COVID-19 has been blown quite a bit out of proportion, really.
Right-wing journalist Toby Young – who was forced to resign from a government-appointed universities role in 2018 after a string of homophobic and misogynistic tweets resurfaced – launched the forum as part of his Lockdown Sceptics site, which carries the motto: “Stay sceptical. End the lockdown. Save lives.”
Young – who has previously written in support of eugenics – was inspired to take action after receiving an email from an unnamed reader pondering their romantic future, who shared their key dating criterion: “That they absolutely must be a lockdown sceptic.”
“If they are pro-mask or pro-antisocial distancing, they will be instantly binned,” the reader explained.
“I could never date (let alone build a relationship) with a lockdown zealot, such is my disdain for these virtue-signalling bedwetters!”
It will come as very little surprise that the forum was met largely with ridicule online.
What’s the opposite of breeding a master race? https://t.co/yjvTsKCaeC
— Rick Edwards (@rickedwards1) August 9, 2020
There's something beautiful about a proponent of eugenics creating this. Darwinism in action. https://t.co/Mf0w14xhxM— Peter Marshall (@marshall_proEU) August 10, 2020
https://twitter.com/john_cope/status/1292515897811390464
Sadly for Young and his ilk, the forum appears to have quickly been hijacked by, as one forum member put it, the “sheeple scientific brigade”.
One post purports to be from a “38-year-old nationalist libertarian” seeking a “15-55 [year-old] white female”, who would like potential suitors to know that he “will not tolerate homosexuals, Guardian readers, feminists, or those who believe in equal rights”.
Another post, shared to Twitter, claimed to be from a man interested in “Brexit, admonishing people for using the wrong skip at the council dump [and] breeding koi carp”. Helpfully, he clarified: “Breeding, not breeding with.”
“Seeking patrerotic simpleton,” was the title of another, according to a screenshot on social media.
“I have my own car and my own teeth. Not much else since the second divorce but don’t let that put you off. They were slappers. Better off without them. And my kids. I love the Queen, Nigel Farage, the Union Jack and Tommy Robinson IN THAT ORDER! You will be fifth but a solid fifth.”
While the majority of posts are seeking mixed-gender matches, one members longs for a “queer encounter” with a man who “isn’t a raging leftie or telling me to stay at home and wash my hands”.
“Let’s get sloshed on some good claret, pop on a Last Night of the Proms playlist and reminisce about the days when Rhodesia was ‘a land both true and great’,” he added.
