To be sick of propaganda on MN

Getting tiresome isn’t it? And we’re only a few weeks in…

Whether you’re a Labour voter or not isn’t concerning to me. Watching various posters try and undermine mainstream media outlets, to suit their own political views has been a familiar sight on MN, disagreement is frequently framed as ‘Tory’, ‘bot’, ‘Labour champagne socialist’, these are all reductive terms designed to hinder freedom of speech and close the debate. What’s the point of a forum without differing opinions?

I think people forget what it was like over the years on here when the Tories were in power. There were so many similar threads on here then, and so much scaremongering about Brexit. How we were going to have massive food shortages etc.

The boots on the other foot now and the Labour supporters on here don't like it. Yes some of it is getting a bit boring now but if you don't like it, just scroll by.

Just things that to me do not appear to be written by casual commentators and feel disingenuous

It's a fairly well known site, @Apolitia, so is always going to be targeted by those keen to push something other than a genuinely held personal view

Luckily it's usually pretty easy to spot though, and even easier to scroll by

There has been a lot of Tory propaganda which is quite blatantly such on here. It doesn’t even read like normal people’s write iyswim.

All this stuff about expenses and “do you regret voting Labour now?”. It’s really blatant.

It’s aimed at the many threads which I believe your post addresses, such as the Keir Starmer one on AIBU?

@MermaidEyes ,These WW3 threads; are they the result of people reading the "Armageddon" interpretation of the Global Warming problem as spouted by Just Stop Oil and others? As if the world will suddenly heat up and fry us all.
We know there is a problem and we are managing the thing that we control.

YANBU, but I think you need to tread carefully, OP.

I don’t mind pointing out when a real shit stirring post has come out under a new user name, abs I think most of us underestimate the propensity of the gutter press, the Tory party and especially hostile governments for stirring the pot (there has been much research into the last).

But a minority of these posts are from long time Mumsnetters and I think we do owe them the courtesy of civil disagreement

OP, I think it's reasonable to question whether propagandists are using Mumsnet to influence political discussions. Trouble is being able to identify who the propagandists are? I'm always horrified at posters who descend on threads where women / parents are discussing safeguarding children and accuse women of being "pearl clutchers "etc. Apart from the sexist language, I wonder why safeguarding children threads so attract their attention and scorn? But that's because I place a high store on parents being able to tease out and speak freely about safeguarding children without being shamed.

The motivations of posters are often a mystery and I suppose there's nothing that we can do to "police" it. Imho, MNHQ are pretty swift to identify and ban dodgy posters.

It’s absolutely bewildering to watch those who allegedly support left wing politics want to exacerbate freedom of speech for others. Aside from being completely undemocratic, it’s screams of low intelligence and an inability to debate current affairs, anyone who dares disagree is a labelled a bot or a Tory. Certain Labour voters want the conversation shut down because it doesn’t suit their personal political agenda. It’s disgraceful. I am neither a Tory nor a Labour voter, if people could allow themselves to be free thinkers, rather than tribally aligned, Mumsnet would be vastly more interesting read.

Well this. This is clearly exactly what is happening here.

Agreed

You do realise there have been plenty of charities and community orgs making similar concerned comments on the news? I guess they are all thick wimmin too 🙄

I am neither a Labour nor Conservative voter but I entirely expect both Labour and Conservative voters to start threads expressing their opinions.

That Labour supporters think the Tory ones are ‘propaganda’ but their own, presumably, are not (even the dirge I am replying to above) speaks volumes about the Labour mentality.

I haven't noticed any uptick, s there were frequent threads criticising the Conservative party
There will obviously be an increase in threads criticising the Labour Party because we now have a Labour government.

Give over. People have different opinions, different views. Wide range of people on MN. Why do you think the posts criticising Labour are bots, but the ones criticising the Tories are apparently genuine? I hate the propaganda stuff on the Middle East, but just avoid reading them. Can’t you do the same? The clue is usually in the title - if you see something that’s going to get on your nerves, just scroll on by……

Whilst there is a problem on many sites with bots be careful of thinking everyone without your opinion is a bot. Unless you love echo chambers?

Let’s put it another way. Is Rosie Duffield a bot?

Yes, and these threads as well.

Doubtless some of them are by real posters – including real posters who've been wound up by something they've been given by their Facebook feed.

(Lot of that during the Brexit referendum, like the ones who were anxious about the whole of Turkey immigrating to the UK because of the the non-existent "Turkey joining of the EU". I quite believe some were genuine posters, genuinely anxious, about fake news.)

But some, as you say, are by supposed "newbies". Mm-hm.

To be fair, that particular mother has been on TV for a lot of years, publicising herself. She contacts the media, especially the DM.

Before the benefit cap, she used to boast how much she claimed, and the luxuries she bought etc. Anyone that worked was a fool etc.🙄

She thought she was clever.

This story was her boasting how many breast jobs etc she had funded on benefits. 🤷‍♀️