Actress and outspoken Scientologist Kirstie Alley raised eyebrows following a lengthy bout of bizarre behavior on Twitter after getting called out for defending COVID-19 conspiracy theorists.
Alley—who publicly supported Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020 and has used her Twitter account to amplify propaganda related to the QAnon conspiracy theory—has frequently generated controversy with her own often deeply odd tweets.
And recent days have been no exception.
It all began with a tweet presumably referencing the pandemic and the vaccines in which she claimed "Physicians & Scientists" are being "BANNED"—a thing which is not happening.
I can\u2019t think of a time when differing medical opinions from HIGHLY qualified EXPERT Physicians & Scientists were being BANNED & labeled as \u201cMIS-information.\u201d This is the product of being dominated by the composite Entity of Big Pharma Big tech & Big government. \nBIG TYRANNY— Kirstie Alley (@Kirstie Alley) 1643817257
Alley's tweet read:
"I can’t think of a time when differing medical opinions from HIGHLY qualified EXPERT Physicians & Scientists were being BANNED & labeled as 'MIS-information.'"
"This is the product of being dominated by the composite Entity of Big Pharma Big tech & Big government."
"BIG TYRANNY"
There are, of course, multiple strange fallacies in this tweet.
The medical and scientific communities generally do not disagree about the pandemic and the vaccines, except when it comes to the sort of alternative and holistic medicine practitioners frequently favored by right-wing conspiracy theorists (not to mention Scientologists) like Alley.
Naturally, Kirstie got quite a bit of blowback for these absurd claims—after all, it's not like these conspiracy theorists being banned on Twitter has stopped them from spreading conspiracies and we have the overwhelmed hospitals full of needlessly dying unvaccinated COVID-19 patients to prove it.
Alley just chalked all of that up to a violation of free speech rights in a subsequent tweet.
The point of freedom of speech is to be able to speak what you would like to speak. It\u2019s not called \u201cspeak if someone tells you it\u2019s OK to speak and if everybody agrees with it\u201d— Kirstie Alley (@Kirstie Alley) 1643854971
Alley, like so many misinformed others, seems to have missed the civics lesson about how "freedom of speech" doesn't mean "freedom from consequences" and how the First Amendment protects speech from the government, not citizens and corporations.
Criticism and deplatforming aren't violations of free speech.
Anyway, people didn't exactly take kindly to all her yelling. When they pushed back Alley moved on to her two preferred rebuttals—blocking and the homophobic bigotry for which she and Scientology, for that matter, have become somewhat infamous.
You have a dick so far up your ass it can see the TV.. so?https://twitter.com/jgclingenpeel/status/1489436608638197761\u00a0\u2026— Kirstie Alley (@Kirstie Alley) 1643944849
Charming.
Kirstie's days-long rant got so out of hand it resulted in her trending on Twitter for awhile.
This led to lots and lots of roasting and dragging.
If you haven't been blocked by Kirstie Alley, you aren't tweeting right.— Renee Libby \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Renee Libby \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1643946370
I'm gonna tell my kids this is Kirstie Alleypic.twitter.com/FZKrp1f4WK— Ashley Tinsworth\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf0a (@Ashley Tinsworth\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf0a) 1643582286
Kirstie Alley is trending under "Entertainment". She hasn't been entertaining in over a decade. Annoying yes, entertaining no.— W. M. (@W. M.) 1643933873
8 inches of snow today AND a block from Kirstie Alley! It\u2019s like Christmas all over again!pic.twitter.com/4yQSlVumEj— Stephanie MacLean (@Stephanie MacLean) 1643934765
Kirstie Alley is trending. Which means it\u2019s a great time to let people know that Cheers was better with Shelley Long. pic.twitter.com/YBz0URRInj— Kate \ud83c\udfb1 (@Kate \ud83c\udfb1) 1643944378
Oh lord what is Kirstie Alley talking about now? \n\nShe blocked me after I told her I\u2019d do her a solid and rent Look Who\u2019s Talking on Redbox cause I was feeling generous and I know she needs the residuals.— chris evans (@chris evans) 1643944444
Every time Kirstie Alley tweets, a demon gets it's horns. Just sayin'. LOL— \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8Meidas Mighty Jeremy\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8Meidas Mighty Jeremy\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1643941570
Kirstie Alley\u2019s trending. Assuming she\u2019s not dead, so she must have said something entirely idiotic and false again?— Red Gray and Blue \ud83c\udf0a (@Red Gray and Blue \ud83c\udf0a) 1643938728
Kirstie Alley's entire life has been leading to her playing Marjorie Taylor Greene in a one-woman show called I DON'T CARE THAT I'M WRONGpic.twitter.com/EW9za3ma7k— Paul Rudnick (@Paul Rudnick) 1644006965
I completely forget about Kirstie Alley\u2019s existence until she\u2019s being dragged on Twitter pic.twitter.com/hP5MGDUVCl— \ud83d\udd25 Summertime CHI \ud83d\udd25 (@\ud83d\udd25 Summertime CHI \ud83d\udd25) 1643942898