The so-called ‘culture war’ has impacted politics across the globe. Populist outsider candidates and traditional political parties are, more than ever, using ideological wedge issues to appeal to voters and criticise the values of their opponents.
In recent years, Scotland has been the focus of such debates, becoming something of a lightning rod for several right-wing and libertarian culture warriors who have criticised the Scottish Government for pursuing what they feel are radical ‘woke’ policies and curbing liberties.
But what are the issues that have made Scotland part of the global culture war? Ferret Fact Service explains.
Significant battles of the ‘culture war’ have been largely fought online, with the globalised nature of the internet allowing for debates and disinformation around issues such as reproductive rights, race and civil liberties to reach around the world.
Humza Yousaf’s racism speech
Former first minister and SNP politician Humza Yousaf faced criticism in Scotland and across the UK during his time as first minister , but it was a relatively low-profile speech made three years before that catapulted Yousaf into the global online culture war.
While justice secretary in 2020, Yousaf made a speech in a Scottish Parliament debate entitled ‘Showing solidarity with anti-racism’. It took place in June that year, just weeks after the murder of Black American George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.
Floyd’s death sparked a series of protests across the US and the rest of the world, and brought the Black Lives Matter protest movement to global attention.
In his speech, Yousaf described his anger that racism still persists across the world, and referred to experiences of racial abuse he had faced as a Scottish Asian, since becoming an MSP.
He argued then that Scotland was not “immune” to racism, and referenced the “unconscious, the subtle, the overt, the institutional and the structural racism”.
To underline his point, he went on to list senior positions across Scottish public life that were then held by white people.
He said: “Some people have been surprised or taken aback by my mention on my social media that at 99 per cent of the meetings that I go to, I am the only non-white person in the room.
“Why are we so surprised when the most senior positions in Scotland are filled almost exclusively by people who are white? Take my portfolio, for example. The lord president? White, the lord justice clerk? White, every high court judge? White, the lord advocate? White, the solicitor general? White, the chief constable? White, every deputy chief constable? White, every assistant chief constable? White, the head of the Law Society? White, the head of the Faculty of Advocates? White, every prison governor? White.
“And not just justice. The chief medical officer? White, the chief nursing officer? White, the chief veterinary officer? White, the chief social work adviser? White, almost every trade union in the country, headed by people who are white. In the Scottish Government every director general is white. Every chair of every public body is white. That is not good enough.”
This section of his speech has been clipped up and posted numerous times on social media, often accompanied by the suggestion that Yousaf is being an anti-white racist. It formed part of a lengthy speech which ended with the Glasgow Pollok MSP repeating the final words said by George Floyd as he died, ending with “I can’t breathe”. This phrase became a rallying call for protests against police brutality following Floyd’s murder.
The debate in its entirety was posted on the Scottish Parliament’s YouTube channel on 10 June 2023, and Yousaf used a portion of the speech, including the list of senior positions, on his social media channels two days later.
This speech began to get traction in Scotland and the UK a few weeks after it was posted online. It was featured in a number of YouTube clips and on social platforms, including a YouTube video, posted by the Scottish Family Party on 18 June that year, called ‘Humza Yousaf, racism and Islam. The truth’.
But it really began to take off online outside of Scotland when Scottish Government plans for hate crime legislation were criticised. It was used on August 11 2020 as part of a video by Rebel News, a Canadian right-wing news commentary brand, with nearly 1.7m subscribers on YouTube. The video, fronted by Rebel News founder Ezra Levant, uses a portion of the speech and then describes Yousaf as “pretty racist”.
Yousaf’s ultimately successful bid to become the leader of the SNP and first minister in 2023 led to a resurgence of the video among right-wing influencers in the US and Canada. Videos of the speech posted on X gained millions of views; shared by US-based accounts of right-wing influencers like Laura Witzke and far-right channels such as Red Ice TV, as well as videos boosted by Canadian psychologist and right-wing ‘anti-woke’ campaigner, Jordan Peterson.
But it was when the clip caught the attention of billionaire X owner Elon Musk, that it became a truly global phenomenon.
Responding to the speech posted by a popular far-right account called End Wokeness in 2023 – the video now has more than eight million views on the platform – Musk called the former first minister “blatantly racist”. Musk has continued to describe Yousaf as racist, and has dared the former first minister to sue him. Yousaf has called Musk a “dangerous race baiter who must be held to account for his actions”.
Misgendering and the hate crime bill
Renewed controversy around Yousaf’s speech is closely linked to the controversial implementation of Scotland’s hate crime bill.
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 came into force on 1 April 2024, after years of disagreement about the language and scope of the legislation.
Criticism of the law came from artists including Rowan Atkinson, Elaine C Smith and novelist Chris Brookmyre, alongside campaigners, who argued the legislation could impact freedom of speech in Scotland.
The inclusion of transgender identity as one of the characteristics protected under the new law was perhaps most contentious, and brought criticism from many, such as novelist JK Rowling.
Transgender rights have become a major ideological battle in the UK and US. Videos and articles on the proposed laws were posted by US and Canadian right-wing creators and channels across social media, including the influential Rebel News. Elon Musk shared a video from former Fox News anchor John Stossel claiming Scotland had “banned misgendering” and people could face “seven years in jail if misgender someone”.
This is not included in the law, and the bar for an offence linked to someone’s transgender identity requires a person to be considered “threatening or abusive”, rather than just insulting.
Abortion, buffer zones and the right to pray
Scotland’s recent law placing so-called buffer zones around abortion facilities in Scotland led to significant criticism from anti-abortion campaigners across the world, and again placed Scottish politics in the crosshairs of global culture warriors focussed on one of the world’s most contentious issues.
The legislation was featured in a number of videos and articles across US right-wing and Christian media.
Much of the criticism focussed around false claims that the law would make prayer illegal.
One such video was produced by Isabel Brown, an American TikTok creator with more than 500,000 followers and 15.4m likes on her videos. She posts content that has a pro-Christian, pro-Donald Trump and anti-abortion stance.
In a video posted on TikTok, she claimed “So theoretically praying silently inside of your own house is now illegal in Scotland”.
Her video, posted before Donald Trump’s victory in the US Presidential election, warned “the exact same legislation is coming to the United States”.
Using a familiar trope, Brown then states that she is becoming less surprised by “how far the elites are willing to go to silence and suppress freedom of expression”.
A fellow Christian YouTube creator called Cliff Buell, who has more than 500,000 followers, also posted similar thoughts on the law, saying the legislation would be coming to America if Christians don’t “stand up, speak out and vote”. His YouTube video has more than 12,000 likes.
Personal freedoms and owning chickens
Even poultry has been drawn into the international debate around personal freedom and government overreach.
An AI-generated image of a man surrounded by chickens being arrested by body armour-clad police was widely-shared by a number of popular accounts on X this year. The image’s text misleadingly claimed that owning a single chicken without properly registering it would lead to a £5,000 fine or even jail time.
This came from reports in the UK media that Scotland had implemented a registration for chickens, amid outbreaks of bird flu. This register is real, but according to the Scottish Government, it is extremely unlikely that someone who fails to register one chicken will receive close to a £5,000 fine or any jail sentence.
However, reports of this new policy made their way around the world, cited by websites sharing American libertarian and ‘pro-liberty’ views.
The image and attached claim was shared by prominent X accounts including Wall Street Silver, a user with 1.5m followers who has made posts associated with conspiracy theories around the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Covid-19 vaccine.
This led to numerous articles in UK newspapers and forced denials from the Scottish Government and the UK’s department for environment, food and rural affairs (Defra). They stated that the highest penalties would be for people who were deliberately endangering public health, not those who did not register a chicken.
Ferret Fact Service (FFS) is a non-partisan fact checker, and signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network fact-checkers’ code of principles.
All the sources used in our checks are publicly available and the FFS fact-checking methodology can be viewed here.
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Main image: Ministério Das Comunicações
