We've all seen those silly trolls who cry 'political correctness gone mad!' at every instance of ethnic diversity.
'A black James Bond? That's political correctness gone mad!'
'A cartoon Rastafarian mouse? That's political correctness gone mad!'
'Actually asian actors playing asian roles? That's political correctness gone mad!'
You get the picture.
And however much you come back with an argument like, 'They are qualified for the job', or 'why not?', or 'we should strive for representation so our children feel they have more choice' or even 'because why does everyone have to be white all. the. time?'
Sometimes you don't quite have the data to back your opinion up.
Thankfully, every now and then, there is a nerd (we use this phrase very fondly by the way, we should all strive to be nerds) lurking, ready to debate their bums off and win you the argument on totally valid, factual, incontrovertible grounds. Huzzah!
In this case, it's the turn of notionally right wing writer and talking head Paul Joseph Watson, who has a website called Prison Planet. He posted a screenshot of a children's BBC show, depicting a cartoon family in Roman Britain.
He captioned the shot on Twitter, 'Thank God the BBC is portraying Roman Britain as ethnically diverse. I mean, who cares about historical accuracy, right?'
Whilst some of us might simply think, 'well yeah, I might actually prefer for my children to see ethnic diversity on their screens. I'm pretty sure this show doesn't include all of the details of Ancient Rome (washing their mouth out with wee, all the phallic art in Pompeii etc)'.
Others have appeared to agree with Watson, suggesting that a so-called leftwing agenda doesn't need to be pushed into every crevice of every media.
Well, before we had a moment to think about how to respond, Mike Stuchbery turned up in the comments.
Mike is a historian and someone who clearly takes his profession - and Roman Britain - very seriously.
He took his time to explain that, actually, it seemed that Watson could be seen as the one pushing an agenda here since, yes, Roman Britain was a pretty ethnically diverse place.
He took 14 Tweets to gracefully detail the evidence found supporting his case, and ended (not so gracefully) telling Watson to 'Get f***ed'.
He is nothing but succinct.
We are so here for this nerdy take down. And so was the rest of Twitter, with his responses gaining thousands more likes and retweets than Watson's original post.
Obviously Watson did not think himself 'schooled', but we might have to disagree with this one.
And we thought our interest peaked when Caecilius mortuus est…anyone? No?
Daisy Murray is the Digital Fashion Editor at ELLE UK, spotlighting emerging designers, sustainable shopping, and celebrity style. Since joining in 2016 as an editorial intern, Daisy has run the gamut of fashion journalism - interviewing Molly Goddard backstage at London Fashion Week, investigating the power of androgynous dressing and celebrating the joys of vintage shopping.
