THREAD: One of my big bug bears is people using human rights to defend every idiotic idea going. When people misuse the term "human rights" they end up diluting the meaning of it and undermining campaigns which aim to defend actual ones. 1/

Being blocked on Twitter is not a violation of human rights. Not being invited to speak on a panel, or having views challenged, is not a violation of human rights. Someone refusing to place their safety at risk by not dealing with anti-vaxxers is not a violation of human rights 2

One of the reasons that governments such as the UK's can attack human rights so effectively is because they have been able to play into this idea that they can be abused to allow all manner of things. Mostly things which they don't even relate to. 3/

Just because you personally don't like something or feel aggrieved by it, it doesn't mean that it is a violation of your human rights. Trying to make out otherwise undermines very real abuses of human rights and makes it so much harder to campaign against them. 4/