Help me feel less angry and disgusted about this.

[friedaklein]

Deliberately put this in Chat as AIBU is a bearpit.

I have been following the horrible and tragic deaths in the Nepal floods. ( aside: hardly any discussion on MN?).

Most foreign victims are British, US or Australian citizens of Nepali or Indian origin, as the region is a religious site for Nepalis and Indians. Headlines say: 33 Britons killed in Nepal. Invariably, at least 30% of comments on social media say: 'These are not real British, US or Australians'.

Whole families wiped out, but people still find the energy to be racist. I consoled myself with the idea that the comments are by bots, but no, they are real people.

It's a very loud minority and best to ignore them as they thrive off conflict.

They are usually people miserable with their own lives and lashing out at anyone they think is below them in an attempt to feel better about themselves. I mostly feel pity for them.

Get off social media then. I refuse to read stuff like that so im not on any sm apart from mn.

People are just horrible, and it seems to have become socially acceptable to be a racist arsehole these days. What has happened in Nepal is horrific. I think your feelings are perfectly reasonable.

I'm not bothered whether 30 of the tragic victims were British - what difference does it make what nationality they were fhs! Headlines like these are bound to attract racist comments, total bollocks.

Social media comments are where the true dregs of society hang out and show their true selves. They do of course exist in life , just as a smaller group, which makes them less noisey.

As for "hardly any discussion on MN?", there won't be if everyone is thinking the same as you, and looking for a thread discussing it. You sonetimes need to be the person who start the thread.

Generally a good idea. But when I say social media, I mean, say, the BBC or CNN news reports on Facebook, Insta or Twitter. Should just go to the actual BBC website and read the news directly. Or go back to newspapers!

Yes, I may start a thread. I feel like I glimpsed a thread somewhere, but maybe I imagined it.

It might be helpful to know that the majority of culturally divisive comments online are generated bot content. It's not all fake, there are definitely people who think these things, but more than 50% of it is, and the number climbs higher daily as there's almost no cost or limit to the number of bots that can run online.

Agree, it’s very concerning how the racist comments have increased in recent years. Official news Facebook pages all seem to have awful comments below any story that involves anyone who is not white, no matter how tragic the story is.

Yes. I may be making this about myself when it's not! I am of Indian heritage so I guess it touched a nerve. Also, my brother-in-law was in the region on a trekking trip, but luckily nowhere near the floods.

Yes, get off social media, because also the more you read like this, the more you will see. Algorithm.

What annoys me is when a disaster happens and the headline is how many Brits were affected. If no Brits, we hear about Australians, Canadians or Americans in that order. Like there’s a hierarchy of people we should care about. That sort of reporting is what stokes the “Britain for the British” mentality. It should be “At least XXX dead” not a competition as to which passport country they were from.

Very reasonable feelings. It’s a horrific event/series of events. I hope the pp who says this is substantially bot traffic is right. Still horrible that the bots exist.

Tbh I feel angrier that famous climate deniers are still opining all over sm from their well appointed mansions without even acknowledging these events at all or that they were stone wrong.

They did a study into the online abuse of black football players after they missed penalties and 85% of it was bot generated. I have no idea who is behind these bots or why they do it, but it’s best to remember that most of these dreadful comments are not typed by humans, for the sake of your mental health. I’m glad your brother in law is OK.

I don’t know why social media platforms are not held more accountable for allowing racist or other offensive posts. I often report racist posts on TikTok and Facebook and the posts are almost never removed. These social media sites are chosing to all these posts

I have to agree. Social media does nothing but feed us negativity and hear the opinions of the dregs of society. Deleting it was the best thing I ever did.

Stop reading the Daily Mail comments section then. Why even read comments online when reading the news? Who cares what other people think.

It's not the DM. It's the Independent, the BBC, CNN and similar.

Racists and bots are everywhere. Don't read the comments full stop.

It’s an utterly horrific disaster of biblical proportions. One of the British missing is a nurse from our local hospital, who was on a pilgrimage. Bot or not, any comment not beginning with sympathy should be removed immediately. The only human response should be “how do I donate money to help?”.

TBH, I always find it a bit odd when the media are so keen to emphasise that ‘British’ or ‘American’ lives have been lost in some disaster. It’s reported as if we should care more about the lives of people from rich countries. Like their lives are more valuable than unknown poor people.

I too have been following the news about this awful disaster, and I have not seen any comments like the ones you describe anywhere.

I always assume this is more about closeness than value.

I used to regularly read a Ugandan newspaper, and headlines about international disasters would mention how many (if any) Ugandans were killed.

None of us has enough time or capacity to care equally about everyone and everywhere in the world. It doesn't mean we think other people and places are worth less (although obviously some think like that).

The cold-hearted responses which OP has seen on social media are inexcusable. They - not the headlines- are the problem.