So right as usual Bear. I am from Liverpool, within an hour a NHS (!) colleague of mine was forwarding tweets with a picture alleging it was the perpetrator . A vaguely looking young Muslim man 🤦♀️ I despair. When I pulled her up about it today…….. ‘well it could have been, I won’t be convinced until I see a picture of the driver’. 🤷♀️😱
Is their motto “never let the truth get in the way of a good story?” I saw the incident unfolding in real time and wondered how quickly people would put two and two together and get five. After reaching their unevidenced conclusion they were so quick to start whipping up outrage. The press are no better. Showing gratuitous images, again to appeal to the amygdala (the part of the brain that responds to threats, and basically turns off our ability to think rationally) leads to people speculating and, again, reaching incorrect conclusions. We do not yet know why this man did what he did. He may have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs or has been increasingly despairing of his situation in life. Having worked as a mental health nurse within the medical model, I now see how “mental illness” has been used to silence and demonise people who are actually traumatised or brought down by the systems in which they live.
Definately so right as usual Bear. Right as in correct, not as in political view...I just wish more people would listen to your pinpoint accurate words...
I tried for 3 months solid, several years ago, on Britain First's Facebook page to reason with them. Sometimes their comments just stopped, others were clearly too angry to stop the hate. They just don't want to hear anything which doesn't fit their opinion.
Their Facebook page was banned, but only after years of mine and many others' reports. It's dangerous to allow bigots to spread their lies but social media seems to thrive on it.
Absolutely right, Bear, and as a previous comment has said, our TV journalists frequently don't help. Of course they must report events, but the endless repetition of quotes from people who were there, but mostly saw nothing, is largely unnecessary. Nuance has been lost in the bid to outperform social media.
Wish I could print this out a thousand times and plaster all over town. I might just plaster the lack of Dr app bit on the surgery window, the housing bit on the bench’s and estate agents, a one sentence in all the right places.
Save the gaslit, ignorant, gullible, and separate them from the hateful twisters.
Love your writing. I’m not a great reader but you make me want to read.
Nope, it was not autonomous or sentient. A car WAS DRIVEN by a person.
Language matters. Note how in the news "a cyclist" does a bad thing to pin the blame on the person and by extension in the minds of many readers all cyclists, and yet "a car" does a bad thing as if the person in the driving seat has no responsibility whatsoever.
So right as usual Bear. I am from Liverpool, within an hour a NHS (!) colleague of mine was forwarding tweets with a picture alleging it was the perpetrator . A vaguely looking young Muslim man 🤦♀️ I despair. When I pulled her up about it today…….. ‘well it could have been, I won’t be convinced until I see a picture of the driver’. 🤷♀️😱
Excellent article, but it was BH Monday, not Sunday.
Thank you for picking that up - and also reminding me that today is not Monday but Tuesday! Whoop!
I make the same mistake every time! BH Monday just feels like Sunday!
Is their motto “never let the truth get in the way of a good story?” I saw the incident unfolding in real time and wondered how quickly people would put two and two together and get five. After reaching their unevidenced conclusion they were so quick to start whipping up outrage. The press are no better. Showing gratuitous images, again to appeal to the amygdala (the part of the brain that responds to threats, and basically turns off our ability to think rationally) leads to people speculating and, again, reaching incorrect conclusions. We do not yet know why this man did what he did. He may have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs or has been increasingly despairing of his situation in life. Having worked as a mental health nurse within the medical model, I now see how “mental illness” has been used to silence and demonise people who are actually traumatised or brought down by the systems in which they live.
Thank you, Bear, I always enjoy your posts 🐻
Definately so right as usual Bear. Right as in correct, not as in political view...I just wish more people would listen to your pinpoint accurate words...
I tried for 3 months solid, several years ago, on Britain First's Facebook page to reason with them. Sometimes their comments just stopped, others were clearly too angry to stop the hate. They just don't want to hear anything which doesn't fit their opinion.
Their Facebook page was banned, but only after years of mine and many others' reports. It's dangerous to allow bigots to spread their lies but social media seems to thrive on it.
Absolutely right, Bear, and as a previous comment has said, our TV journalists frequently don't help. Of course they must report events, but the endless repetition of quotes from people who were there, but mostly saw nothing, is largely unnecessary. Nuance has been lost in the bid to outperform social media.
Wish I could print this out a thousand times and plaster all over town. I might just plaster the lack of Dr app bit on the surgery window, the housing bit on the bench’s and estate agents, a one sentence in all the right places.
Save the gaslit, ignorant, gullible, and separate them from the hateful twisters.
Love your writing. I’m not a great reader but you make me want to read.
Spot on. The far-righters - media, Farage et al - must have been dismayed to learn a white Englishman from Liverpool provoked this outrage.
"A car drove"
Nope, it was not autonomous or sentient. A car WAS DRIVEN by a person.
Language matters. Note how in the news "a cyclist" does a bad thing to pin the blame on the person and by extension in the minds of many readers all cyclists, and yet "a car" does a bad thing as if the person in the driving seat has no responsibility whatsoever.
You're better than this.