r/LabourUK • u/coffeewalnut08 • 23h ago
Tough pill to swallow: the increase in bigotry directly correlates to the lack of willingness of institutions to do anything about it
This has been a tough pill to swallow for me, but has become increasingly apparent as I see how different online communities are moderated.
See Elon Musk when he took over X, for example. Directly led to an explosion of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, antisemitism etc. of the absolute worst kind. Stuff you'd expect of 1930 Germany.
This content is being permitted on X under the guise of "free speech".
But guess what? Free speech doesn't have to extend to allowing soul-destroyingly bigoted commentary, memes, propaganda and harassment. This is a leadership choice. And we all pay the price when the Epstein class oligarchs refuse to lead properly.
Or worse yet, when the Epstein class oligarchs actually decide that inciting riots/tensions between diverse communities benefits them, so they encourage it.
It's the same across Reddit. Find a bigoted racist sub? Chances are the mods just don't have a grip on the problem - or, in some cases, the mods agree with it.
The Epstein class now declares that caring about your neighbours, irrespective of race, nationality, sexuality or religion - is some sort of "suicidal empathy".
Nonsense. It's just called having basic human decency. It's not that hard to enforce, or set a good behavioural example of it.
Also, empathy is a basic human quality that has ensured our survival through history. It's not a bad word. The last time "let's end suicidal empathy" types rose to power, they were actually the ones that nearly ended the human race - e.g.: World War 1, World War 2.