Standing up against internet hate

Do you ever feel like the walls have fallen and a flood of hate has overwhelmed the quiet world of what used to be polite discourse and reasoned argument?

That, more than ever, you have to carefully watch your own words to avoid unleashing bitter and hateful responses? Ever want to pull up your tent and head off to live somewhere quieter and, well, just nicer?

It’s not surprising. We’re being trained to think that way, almost every day.

Almost anywhere we go online, we’re surrounded by conspiracy barkers and racism-baiters. And online is ubiquitous — it’s in your living room and in your pocket. It hosts anger and bitterness and unrestrained spite, insults and attacks and threats. And it can’t help but colour your views about your neighbours and even your friends — are they really who they seem to be in your living room, or does a darker side lurk at an anonymous keyboard somewhere as close as the house next door?

People didn’t used to be so awful, did they?

The truth is, they always were. At least, some of them — and probably more than we knew. There were racists, conspiracy theorists, liars, fearmongers — and the list goes on.

They had their voices, in their own small ways. Some were pamphleteers — others set up small media outlets that flourished and fell. Others wrote endless reams of letters to the editor about conspiracies and the dangers of everything from immigration to science.

But there were some bulwarks against them. Newspapers were required to see that contributors met the standard of putting forward “an honest opinion, truly held” before publishing their submissions.

But more than that: newspapers were held to be legally responsible for the words published in their pages.

It’s not the same for everyone who now publishes hate and conspiracy. It is, to put it bluntly, an open-door policy.

Social media giants like X and Facebook have managed to convince lawmakers that they are not publishers at all — they are just pipes, a simple utility carrying something into your home, and they’re in no way responsible for someone attacking you personally or professionally.

The genie is probably not going back into that bottle.

It’s wishful thinking to imagine that internet giants that have no qualms whatsoever about anything they allow to be published on their site — and make good money from misogyny, hatred, racism, abuse and bile — will ever change their ways, their rules, or even admit their culpability in the coarsening of public debate.

And, frankly, faced with the power of the internet giants, the governments that represent us have absolutely no political will to do anything about it.

It has made the world a much, much worse place for us all. Yes, we have written about this before. And yes, it has failed to change anything. The default now seems to be inching ever-closer to doubting or even fearing your neighbour, rather than loving them.

Ask yourself — if you can cast your memory back five, 10 or even 20 years, did you think then that the world was basically filled with good people? That, yes, there were a scattering of the evil and the dishonest, but they were a clear minority?

Did you look over your shoulder, always fearful of the reaction to your presence or your words?

This is no way to live.

We have to find a way to step away or step back from this new bitterness. Governments — instead of harnessing this cancer for their own political ends — have to find a way to limit those who traffic in fear and hate, and build hope.

If they don’t, or won’t, we must.

Before it erodes up the good in us all.