Thought for the day, 25 January 2022

There was an item tonight on the news, about death threats against the PM. Jeez.

Not liking people, the PM or otherwise, is a spectrum.

Disagreeing civilly in a democratic society? We might not see eye to eye, but I recognise you're part of a healthy and peaceful process. Fill your boots.

Protesting lawfully? That's fine too.

Protesting a little bit unlawfully? That's a judgment call. Back in the day, I occupied the university registry and helped block a couple of streets during protests, so I've got mixed feelings on this one.

Ethically, I can live with this stuff. It's honest, after all. I see it as not really hurting anyone: as above the line, more or less.

What's below the line?

Some of it's obvious. I mean, death threats. We should be able to agree those are bad, but apparently that's no longer a given.

But, like I said, it's a spectrum.

The death threats don't come out of nowhere. They are stoked by other kinds of behaviour.

The misinformation; the willingness to share it, even knowing it's false. The mocking of the PM for her appearance - an ugly carnival of misogyny involving women as well as men.

The crass invocation of Nazism, from the childish Hitler moustaches on photos of leaders to the pathetic claims of persecution rivalling the Holocaust.

I see it sometimes on my own social media, on the margins; people I thought I knew before I realised I didn’t. I know I’m meant to try to find some understanding. I just feel despair. I think, ‘I don’t know how we got here’, then I remember that I do.

It's a funny old world. Folks who invoke Nazism are the first to point to the thin end of the wedge. Misinformation here, denigration here - it's a slippery slope to worse behaviour, to dehumanisation, to social decline. A spectrum, if you like.

They've got a point. Maybe they should listen to their own advice.