hypochondriac

Because its a hugely disproportionate response. A miniscule minority post horrible abuse on twitter and there's calls to change the entirety of the Internet on an international level and to end social media, for GCHQ to get involved etc etc. It's also unhelpful to the issue to not be honest about the extent of the problem on social media. It's rather like how twitter blows up certain issues in the uk and it looks like these are giant issues and driving the political agenda, only for elections to come around and remind us that the reality is that twitter is not real life and the majority of people in the country do not give a toss about what social media thinks about certain things. There's nothing wrong with the things you outlined above but those aren't the things that people are objecting to.

The division is what I've already outlined in my previous post. Racist abuse should be harshly dealt with as it is already. If people can be identified then they will be and will suffer serious consequences. It simply isn't socially acceptable to be racially abusive to anyone in the UK and the vast vast majority of people consider it to be completely wrong and most studies into it show that Britain is the most tolerant it has ever been and getting even more tolerant all the time which is fantastic news. I think that focusing on what we have in common and what united us will help hugely. Over the past few years we've sadly imported an insidious type of culture over from America that seeks to divide people along racial lines, seeks to tell others what is an acceptable way to think based on skin colour or sex (look how people are denounced as not really black or not really female based on their opinions) and a horrible type of victim mentality that tells people they are either perpetual victims or irredeemably evil based on their skin colour (see the Robin deangelo best sellers for more of that type of thing.) The last thing I want is for these racial divisions perpetuated and sustained by this sort of thinking to continue because it will only make things worse, resentment will grow on both sides and it will lead to a more racist and intolerant society.

Only a total moron would go out of their way to bang on about the shades of skin of the players in a national football team. Players are there because of their ability and how white or otherwise they are should have zero bearing on it. Certain people have been harping on about it over the entire tournament just as they did during the world Cup. It's so boring and divisive to separate teams in that fashion. Same goes for idiots on the right who were suggesting that there was some conspiracy from Southgate by picking black players to score and potentially win the shootout for England. Its all pathetic.

It's not awareness of a problem that's the issue and that's not what's causing the division. Focusing on skin colour as a great divider, defining people by the colour of their skin as their primary characteristic and ascribing opinions to individuals and making assumptions about them based on their race is what has caused division and made racial relations a lot worse. Many people of all races agree with this and polls back it up.

He was referring to the fact that the police were involved. I suspect he would agree that the clubs would be right to sanction or dismiss them if it is true.

Isn't it not possible to be worried about both? Being accused of being a racist is one of the worst things you can possibly be accused of. I'd suggest that on a personal level you'd be much more likely to be worried about a slur of that nature rather than some idiots sending Rashford some monkey emojis on twitter.

I think that's nonsense. There's loads more tension and division as a result of some of this racial consciousness and critical race theory stuff. There's a fair few polls that back that up too.

Why do people continually say that anyone has said that "racism doesn't exist or that it's not a big deal?" I see people suggesting that continually on here but I haven't seen anyone say anything even close to that. It's a total straw man argument.

Sounds like that was bollocks then. Police don't believe it to be of a racial nature. The media have deliberately obfuscated things to push an agenda.

Vile and disgusting abuse on social media isn't the sole preserve of Black people you know. Some of the worst and most shocking stuff I've read has been against white males and women.

What's the sensible law? I haven't seen it yet.

The Centre for Identifying Digital Hate identified 105 instagram accounts that directed racial abuse against Rashford, Saka, and Sancho. BBC Newsnight analysed the location of these accounts. Of those they could identify 59 outside the UK, and just 5 within the UK. Hard to think this hasn't been massively overblown. We don't live in a "racist" society. Like every society we have a tiny percentage of idiots and racism is socially unacceptable already. The UK is one of the most tolerant places to live on Earth.

Hard to disagree with that. Its not just racist abuse either, there's been all sorts of death threats and vile abuse against all manner of individuals including some people that it's fashionable to hate like Nigel Farage. I find all that equally objectionable to be honest but I accept that at the moment as the price to pay for a free Internet. I still think what I said earlier about allowing people to only see replies from verified accounts if they want to. That way people have a choice whether they want to run the risk of abuse or not.

But the problem with this proposed law is that it can be selectively ebforced based on the politics of the people holding the levers of power. We have enough of it already online but this would be ten times worse because it would be decided at a governmental level. It would be disastrous in many countries with dodgy human rights records who would just use it as a green light to clamp down harder on their citizens.

I expect his answer will be something about society having to change to be fairer or something like that. It's not an argument I would agree with and everything I have seen is that the taking of the knee doesn't bring reasonable people on board with "the cause." Far better imo to choose an expression that 99.999% would agree with and that everyone can unite fully behind.

All reasonable people who don't send racist abuse to others aren't the problem. The unreasonable racists won't be swayed by taking the knee.

Do we really want to be taking advice for this from the likes of China?

Taking the knee does more than just getting people talking about it. Imo it stokes racial tensions in society and doesn't lead to any greater harmony and actually makes racial tensions a lot worse.

I'm not sure that's true. I think a sizable number don't like the gesture and that virtually everyone would be on board if the gesture was different.

That's a different topic then isn't it. A tiny minority on social media send horrible abuse to all manner of people online including racist abuse and the solution is to end social media? That doesn't seem like a proportional response to me.

I think it's more of a larger narrative. I believe that certain people want control and censorship of the Internet and are hyping this up in order to bring it in. The online harms bill for example is an appaling piece of legislation that is being brought in off the back of this under the pretence of protecting children.

How would you like to see it dealt with? I personally think that focusing on the things that divide us rather than what we have in common and what unites us has made things much worse.

I do wonder what the agenda is of the people pushing this stuff.

Making them publishers would end social media overnight. Certain words and topics will be banned from discussion by bots and context will not be taken into account. It will be a ban first and ask questions later approach which will remove the free Internet. Its a sledgehammer to crack a nut and why would you want to remove that from the entire Internet?

TBF I thought the graffiti was racist. I think that's the implication given that it's been reported alongside the racist abuse online. It's certainly been heavily implied that that was the case and I think the average person reading these articles would have come away with that impression.