To wonder if AIBU is full of anti labour & anti Lib Dem fake news

[Timeforachange2018]

Logged into AIBU this morning to find an anti labour- anti Corbyn post and an anti Lib Dem post. As mumsnet is considered quite influencial, is it becoming a hunting ground for fake news and Tory propaganda. I find it all a bit disturbing to be honest - Aibu

I don't think Mumsnet is a great place to proselytise TBF.
I like hearing the different viewpoints but I get bored of the monomania ( or dedication to a cause!) that some posters show. I can't believe they change many minds.

Seriously, people, if you think TimeForAChange is simply complaining about people who hold a different point of view, you're daft and/or disingenuous.

Of course Mumsnet attracts politrolls - of all persuasions.

You would have to be seriously, seriously naive to think that every political poster on here is a mum, sitting at home. They clearly aren't.

Social media is an incredibly important tool of dissemination, and a virtual electorate. Have you not been following the Cambridge Analytica story? It's the story of our times, and it is important not only for what it tells us about what has happened as for what it suggests is the future of political communication and on-line interaction.

And, given all that, I think it would be frankly sexist if political groups were to ignore Mumsnet. It's a hugely influential site, with one of the largest user-bases on the internet.

In fact, when I come across political people who dismiss Mumsnet, with a 'That's just a website for Mums' smile, I know I'm in the company of an idiot.

I think people are just fucked off with the ineptitude of all parties full stop. The reason Labour and the LDsare drawing particular heat at the mo is that they should be kicking into an open goal with the Tories royally fucking up the NHS and Brexit and fighting like cats in a sack, but they’re making no headway in opposition. You could argue they are getting harsh press, but they seem to be making no effort to being forwards credible alternative policies and holding the government to account. Seriously, we need a better calibre of debate and politician. No platforming is part of the problem. I despair!

I’m really angry too. I’ve been an active, engaged voter since my teens and find myself politically homeless in my 40s. Where are the moderate voices? Where are the credible alternatives?

Also OP I don’t vote based on opinions of people on the internet and I would hope that goes for most people.

I thought it was pretty much accepted that there were shills around on all sides in the referendum and general election campaigns. And of course there will be 'disingenuous' posters around.

Just because some of it is anti labour doesn't automatically equal it being fake. Blimey. There's sadly plenty of real Labour shite out there at the moment as well as for Tories. You don't have to look hard to find it

To be honest I feel the same way as the poster this morning. I cannot vote for Corbyn even though I love Dennis Skinner as our MP. I voted for the first time in a long time for Tories or more specifically TM. The Labour party has lost its way for me and I don't see Lib Dem as a strong party either. It's ok to have a view against the party you would prefer to vote for.

Isn't 'fake news' false news stories? I don't think you see that on Mumsnet. It's puzzling that you haven't seen anti-Tory stuff on here, I'd say Mumsnet is definitely left-leaning so if as you suspect people are trying to influence opinion and garner support, they arent doing a very good job of it....

Tory trolls don't need to do much work against Corbyn as he does most of it himself.

There are some Russian trolls on the Skripal poisoning thread, for those that are interested in such things.

For what it's worth, I don't think Mumsnet gets much attention from the Momentum (Bromentum) types. Which, to me, suggests they a. don't have algorithm-based technology (which would tell them Mumsnet should be somewhere they visit) and are a fairly amateur organisation b. Bromentum are a bit men-heavy, with all the limitations that implies.

Do you think they hang out on footie forums?
I say to my DH that MN is my equivalent of those!

There's plenty more anti-Tory ones.
And no, I am not and never have been a Tory.

I think Mumsnet is more of a heavyweight than football forums. Partly because the internet is quite weighted towards men, partly because Mumsnet has turned into something quite wide-ranging, and partly because of the quality of interaction on Mumsnet (people here do tend to listen more), it attracts a huge number of users, across a very wide demographic range, interacting on a very large range of subjects.

Chat groups have largely died on the internet - the move has been to (often close) Facebook groups.

So Mumsnet is quite special. And it has a very light moderation policy - and a very loose grip on verifying poster identity. A good and bad thing.

I don't know about those Football forums. My guess would be "No" because I doubt they'd lend themselves to such interaction.

(sets the hares running!)

They tend to be of course local forums for local people!
I did actually ask him in the run up to the GE what the chat was on there.
My dh's team's one also can be informative for the occasional local story of wider interest.

In general I have always thought MN pretty much anti-Tory and pro-Labour, but it seems that on MN as in real life, Labour supporters are more vocal ... anyhow there is negative news about Labour at the moment so no doubt that's why you're seeing this stuff - it is not pretty obvious?

Maybe I have missed the anti- Tory threads!!

Yes, I think that's a fair assumption!

MN provides a lot of stories for the second largest selling 'newspaper' in the UK, the Paper that Supported the Blackshirts. So I think it is quite influencial.

YABU. Personally I think it's pretty even with which particular party takes a pasting! But there's always someone on to moan because it's not their particular view.

If there have been anti Labour/LibDim threads, it makes a change as MN is obviously left leaning and we normally get threads like 'Tories eat babies' or other such tripe.

Why is MN “obviously left leaning?”.

I thought that the "anti-LibDem" thread had been categorised as "anti-trans"!

Fact is that the Corbyn / Momentum / Labour mess is more about internal politics than the national best interest and it is incredibly tiresome now.

I think most MNers are smart enough to spot the goady posts.

MN isn't left-leaning demographically. In all the surveys done, it's pretty 50-50.

I suspect you'll get more - what I would term - socially progressive/socially liberal posts (though that doesn't translate easily into political right/left) for a number of reasons. And I'm not even sure that that's true these days on MN.

Very authoritarian posts do tend to stand out. That has risen since the Referendum. I think that is an interesting (and to me, worrying) aspect of wider culture, which I think can be traced to social media (having its origins there and being facilitated by it).

You would have to be seriously, seriously naive to think that every political poster on here is a mum, sitting at home. They clearly aren't.
^^ This.

What is interesting is that the 'professional' political posters haven't perfected it. Assuming their purpose is to create a shift in voting patterns or to mobilise MN members to create a campaign surge in a particular direction, the threads on here seem to have no obvious impact on LA results or GE results or referendums.

It's fascinating when you compare it to the activism generated by the self-id issue. That has been a grassroots campaign that people care about it and MNers have been very influential in propelling it into the press, etc.

It's those sort of visibility victories that probably keep the 'professional' political posters coming back but MNers know when they're being played even when they're participating in the 'discussions' on political threads so regardless of the countless 'Labour are dead' ; 'Corbyn is evil'; 'we hate the LibDems' - nobody's opinion changes. It's why political parties and pundits are continually bemused by election results. They don't understand people at all.

I see alot less support for Corbyn on here than I do in real life and on my social media. There maybe an element of 'shy Corbyn supporters' on here like there used to be 'shy Tory supporters'. I have no idea who or what to believe any more.