Why William Shatner Was Yelling at Outlander fans for Hours on Twitter Yesterday 

William Shatner, legendary actor and pitchman, is up to what he does best: Inserting himself into internecine disputes between factions of fans of the Starz historical-romance series

. Oh? What’s that? You didn’t know Shatner had a storied history of battling with

fans online? Well, buddy, welcome to the internet.

Yesterday’s story, which went from Shatner picking fights with

fans to the actor calling them “Snowflakes” and “SJWs” is intricate and fascinating in a way that only fandom beef involving an internationally famous cultural icon can be, but to get the full picture, we’ve got to take a trip back in time — how very apropos — to spring 2016. To oversimplify, there’s a group of shippers (fans of a show who want to see two characters in a relationship) who believe the two stars of the show, Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe, should date in real life, and a particularly hard-line group of fandom Bolsheviks that believes that they already are dating in secret.

Shatner, who is acquainted with Heughan, waded into the fray, labeling those shippers as bullies and calling them out on Twitter. It was a move many fans also saw as its own kind of bullying, with Shatner “

trying to kick a group out of the fandom.” (For a more nuanced walk-through, try this explainer from Aja Romano.)

Fast forward to July 2017. Shatner is still going at it with Cait/Sam shippers on Twitter. Here’s a photo he tweeted of Heughan with his actual girlfriend, Mackenzie Mauzy. (Some fans believe Mauzy is just a cover for Heughan and Balfe’s relationship. Or even that Mauzy is a beard because if Heughan and Balfe aren’t together then Heughan

There’s a lot happening on here before you even get to the fact that James T. Kirk is involved.)

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) July 30, 2017

And a different tweet from Shatner calling another shipper, who has since deleted their tweet, a snowflake and bully. The tweets only seem to devolve from there, with Shatner going off about misogyny and “feminists.”

🙄String people along? Snowflake, the only ones who are saying that are the bullies like you who made up a fairytale.

Funny how an actress with an impressive resume is belittled by same "feminists" who say that an 86 yo man telling the truth is a misogynist.

No just certain snowflakes in fandoms who don't like to hear truths or differing opinions.

Yes, their definition: Guys who don't agree with their misandry.😏

A snowflake ❄️ is upset 😭 What a shame! Should we get a twibbons campaign ready? 🤔

Shatner’s Twitter ranting seemed to reach a fever pitch when someone called him out for labeling himself “not political” in his Twitter bio but using terms like “social justice warrior” and “snowflake” — language that, frankly, makes more sense in the context of his recently revealed 4chan habit. This Twitter fight seems to be happening in parallel with the

beef, but the line between the two gets fairly blurry, especially when you bring in

fans who are upset Shatner’s real life/Twitter persona doesn’t align with the values of his role on such a historically liberal show.

@WilliamShatner claims he's "not political" in his bio -- yet throws around terms like "SJW" & blocks people who object.

— Gareth M. Skarka 🌹 (@gmskarka) July 31, 2017

All of that is true. I also use words like snowflake and misandry. What's your point sunshine?

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) July 31, 2017

Why is it that SJW's think they can align themselves with those that demanded social reform in the 60's?

And this is your failure of logic. SJWs stand for inequality, where they are superior to any one else hence my use of Misandry and Snowflake

SJW's can have political views but it's usually where they need to be superior in socio-economic terms.

Shatner’s preferred method of dealing with people fighting him in his mentions seems to rely heavily on blocking people. Which, as noted by Gizmodo, seems like a real “snowflake” thing to do. When a Twitter user compared Shatner’s penchant for blocking to Donald Trump’s — “It seems like @WilliamShatner is in a blocking duel extravaganza with @realDonaldTrump” — Shatner replied saying this wasn’t true and that he was only blocking people who “decided to ignore the warnings on my header & bio.” “Warnings” meaning his insistence that his Twitter is “not political.”

As a life long Trekker, this is truly devastating!

— Anthony Atamanuik (@TonyAtamanuik) July 31, 2017

It all comes down to whether or not you believe that talking about SJWs — 0r rather, labeling people as such — is an inherently political discussion. Shatner clearly doesn’t, but we’ll let you decide for yourself. Beam me up, snowflake.

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