I've been reading some of the comments about the recent drowning of people trying to make their way across from Africa and various associated stories on various websites. I was pretty shocked by some of the things I read. Is this country getting nastier in many ways or is it just my perception?
Yes. Some of them are.
we're being encourage think nastily about things. i.e. the Me before the Us, The Us before the THEM. Them being in read and said with the sneer.
I would imagine the comments would be quite horrific, probably of the same vain of the Britain First page which made me think we should flood the world and start again...
what do you expect from a country led by "worse than vermin" ?
Probably not, but with social media everyone's got a voice.
I just got back from NZ where everyone is very noticeably friendlier to the point that I struggled with it a bit...
I thought I was coming back to gloomy reserved Britain, but I've been surprised to notice how bloody lovely everyone is on the whole now that I'm looking
No, but with 24 hour news and social media we just hear more about it when they are.
I think it's mostly just the internet - it allows people to say stuff they'd never say in real life (like being in a car allows a level of aggression that wouldn't be tolerated face-to-face) and it also gives an opportunity for these nasty comments to accumulate as other stupid people jump on board
There have always been ****s, but they're harder to avoid these days
Probably not, but with social media everyone's got a voice.
This is spot on.
In the past you would watch the news, or read about it in the paper. And presume everyone else equally sad about sad news.
Now we access the news differently, and have the chance to comment, along with that comes the accidental benefit of realising that there are lot of complete arseholes around.
Still I wonder why people like Katie Hopkins have any coverage at all she's a proper c word and no mistake.
10 posts in and no-one has blamed the Daily Mail yet! What is this forum coming to!
Still I wonder why people like Katie Hopkins have any coverage at all she's a proper c word and no mistake.
Arseholes agree with her and see her as an outspoken ally.
Everyone else disagrees with her, but a lot of people kind of enjoy moaning about her.
Like or loathe she generates a lot of interest from both directions.
At the risk of generalising and fallng into the same trap (under a pseudonym, on a public forum) - yes.
Social media pages are becoming swamped with the loudest and most obnoxious voices commenting. The new LAD (sic) culture etc etc. It reads and spreads like sh*t, ironically by emerging generations who have even less and less actual real-life face-to-face commerce with other people, other genders, other cultures etc. Hated 'out-groups' now seem to include every minority, cyclists included. People have the opportunity to be shittier with a mask, and even then I'm amazed at the comments on FB that people put their actual names to. And now, as mentioned, we have the Katie Hopkins of the world actually making a lot of money for just being a total BLANK. Surreal. Every day is a witch hunt , throwing to the lions.
Yours,
Penny Dreadful
I think they are, yes. I agree there is an element of the internet giving a voice to those who wouldn't have previously had it, but you also see it in the streets. You go out in most large towns on a Friday and Saturday evening and it is really quite depressing.
Although I don't blame the Daily Mail, I do think the media has a part to play: It seems to be cool to be a c***; what with the likes of Danny Dyer (regardless of whether it's all an act or not), East Enders, Katie Hopkins, Nigel Farage etc all getting a lot of media attention.
No, it's perfectly normal.
There are people who are vocal and there are people who are not.
There are people who are for and there are people who are against.
Both sides neutralise each other so it's normal.
Of course media play a big part in stirring up sentiments otherwise many of them would have difficulty justifying their pay.
At ease ... be calm ... the exodus has started ... now feed all of them. 😯
I suspect it's partly the economic climate, you always seem to get a rise in extremist views when things are depressed. There is definitely to much did you jack I'm all right about these days.
Anyone remember the General well being index introduced by the toad PM in 2010?
Its got little if no coverage since, but the information has been collected twice a year since. But there are some interesting statistics in it.
Economic austerity coupled with very nasty output from the Government has certainly soured things in the last few years.
The media do polarize views ...
You are in a polarised society btw especially when the election is looming.
Feed them ... let's see if EU can accommodate everyone ...
It does seem like that sometimes but no, I don't think we are.
Social media gives bigots and idiots the ability to voice their opinions to the world, when previously they just voiced these opinions to other bigots and we never got to hear it - probably because people like that have no friends!
Social media also allows people to act in a way they wouldn't otherwise - think of some of the silliness and handbags that get thrown around on here sometimes!
It also means stuff like that silly tantrum those 2 BMW drivers had in East London last week gets heard about by all of us - 5 years ago you'd have no idea it happened
Don't underestimate the existential crisis some people are going through as they realise that globalisation has eaten our lunch and that we're getting poorer in absolute and relative terms - and that the materialistic/wealthy lives we thought we were living were largely an illusion and actually only the already wealthy and getting wealthier. financially I suspect some people are in a really tight spot with no way of getting out of it, and that fear will be playing itself out in all kinds of places. Something similar happened in 1930's Germany... economic crashes tend to lead to bigotry and anger.
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05qgm2n ]Radio 4 Two Rooms[/url]
I highly recommend anyone who thinks the great British public are going to the dogs to listen to this programme - it's a real eye opener - most people know we're in serious economic trouble and life's going to get harder rather than better, but they're thoughtful about it and sympathetic of others worse off than them. It's a tonic to all the negativity in the media
It's a multifaceted thing IMO. The picture people are presented with through the media they consume. The stupid stuff people post on social media, even when it's not annonomised there's a bit of a "real life" disconnection so they stick up horrible comments to get a response. The popularisation of deliberately divisive, insidious "characters" The Katie Hopkins and Clarksons add to the maelstrom...
My missus isn't a stupid person, but by habit she reads the Sun and watches ITN news every other night, she even acknowledges it's all deliberately depressing shite aimed at keeping the viewer/reader in a state of mild fear and suspicious of just about every other minority group.
I don't think we're naturally nastier, it's simply that the nasty elements of our culture are thriving in a world with general economic and social issues and upheaval...
The world isn't as bad as they want you to think...
[url=
of fear innit... [/url]
brooess - Member
Something similar happened in 1930's Germany... economic crashes tend to lead to bigotry and anger.
Interesting post. I was thinking about this recently after watching a documentary along similar themes (Adam Curtis maybe), about how the Jews in Germany were 'set up' in the preceding years before the war. I wonder if the wheels are turning again, but this time for the poor in general, those on benefits, the disabled etc?
Re the politics of fear comment, this is a good point - with social media we can have conversations like this thread - real people with no agenda chatting (albeit virtually) to other real people - which takes the power right away from the media/government/vested interests and allows us to get a different (and more hopeful) perspective. It takes the power of control over the message right away from those who used to have it... and that's a real sea change in the balance of power. Not a good time to be an autocrat 🙂
If you regularly watch BBC or ITV news...try switching to Aljazeera for a week to watch their news instead.. Its tone is notably different.
Opinions are like assholes everyone's got one..
some assholes also have opinions 🙂
Social medias just opening up new avenues of being one and advertising the fact to more people than you used to be able to in the pub years ago..
Due to the Dullwitch of Dulwich millions of people and their communities have been completely destroyed.It's really a wonder how things aren't alot worse.If the Bullingdon club wins the election,I expect crime and violence to massively increase.Don't say you weren't warned.
Farage,he's really just the Oswald Mosley for Generation X.Post financial crash all the scum rise to the surface.
No - but media feeds on bad news
When are you all going to realise,we don't live in a rich country we live in a country for the rich.
When that's true?
A bit of travel and you will soon realise why.
I think one of the legacies of the coalition and IDS is a significant increase in hostility towards the disadvantaged. IDS has waged a war of disdain upon the poor, disabled and unemployed for five years and has certainly managed to reframe them as only worthy of contempt rather than sympathy. A very sad legacy.
I just got back from NZ where everyone is very noticeably friendlier to the point that I struggled with it a bit...
Interesting because race relations have always been dry tinder in NZ.
I think so
Try working a public facing position for a while, people wander around with a sense of entitlement snapping at anyone they so desire it's unreal
Some of it is well founded, like it or not public services have to be paid for and if more people come into the county who are seen as taking out of the economy rather than paying in (whether this is true or not) then there will be ill feeling.
Yet to espouse this view is seen as akin to revealing oneself as some kind of racist, being concerned at the changing demographics of the country and how services are to be funded is a legitimate political topic....of course debating it in xenophobic UKIP terms is one extreme and to shrug your shoulders and simply hope it'll be alright is the other end.
As always there is a rational sensible middle ground but talking about things in those terms doesn't make for sensationalist headlines.
When people are constantly bombarded with fearful news...they become fearful, there's no place for tolerance and understanding in fear.
Avoid the bottom half of the Internet.
No
Probably not, I rather think that many Brits have always been fairly unpleasant, it's just that they didn't previously go round telling people their opinions and there was a veneer of manners to disguise them.
In life there are nice people and bad evil thinking people, and the internet just allows the later to flourish and claim the internet noteriety they crave.
Just ignore the faceless intrnet idiots
Maybe we've just become more intolerant towards freedom of speech?
what's really offensive is the way certain sections of the commentariat go running to the police every five minutes when somebody says something they disagree with or don't like (there being a clear difference between saying something nasty and illegality, like threats to kill or incitement to violence)
I'd say so, the divide and rule seems to be working, he/she gets more pension than me, he/she's a scrounger, he/she etc etc ad infinitum.
Britain seems to be infected more than anywhere else I've been in my life with people who pretend to be live and let live/moderate to peoples faces/public arena, but are the complete opposite and support by proxy interfering in other peoples lives (as long as it doesn't affect them of course).
I get the feeling that alot of the UK are becoming increasingly insecure and they present this by being unpleasant as a defensive mechanism.
When are you all going to realise,we don't live in a rich country we live in a country for the rich.
If that ever becomes true, we will all probably realise.
But currently it's not true. So none of us have.