To think the comments in the Daily Mail are frightening

[MotherOfDragons90]

I shouldn’t read it, I know, it is drivvel, but I downloaded the MailOnline app to read the Brexit stories as my friend said most of the comments were from Leavers and I quite wanted to know what Leavers think of how Brexit related things are going. Anyway, I digress.

There’s an article on today about new mothers and their maternity rights in the workplace.

The comments have shocked me to my core!

So many posts basically claiming women shouldn’t have any rights as they choose to have children, people saying they refuse to hire women of child bearing age etc.

If this is how Leavers feel, AIBU to be scared for our future as women?

You should have tried the Telegraph comments when they were still going. Made the DM ones look like a bastion of tolerance and open-mindedness. Maybe that's why they got pulled.

I think we are living in a total backlash against anything progressive. So yes if the Brexit deals means there is no protection for employment rights, I think they will get worse.

Birds those are usually 4chan blokes. The Mail is usually older ones. Both racist wankers but different demographic.

At least the Mail has a comments section under most articles. The Guardian doesn't, Having said that the Guardian comments can be very well written and not always PC.

Much like mumsnet the DM comments section is primarily a Russian troll farm designed to make you question your grip on reality.

Surely?

I think we are living in a total backlash against anything progressive

Against the far-left maybe - I’d hardly term them liberal or progressive.

Oliver No a backlash against anything progressive. Such as employment rights, welfare benefits, equality legislation, support for the homeless. Basically anything that helps those who are struggling.

Many Guardian comments are women-bashing as well. They're just dressed up in fancier rhetoric.

At least the Mail has a comments section under most articles. The Guardian doesn't, Having said that the Guardian comments can be very well written and not always PC

Agree that the Graunaid has declined in this respect. Giving in to to the trolls. Really fucking annoying. Have read the Guardian since it was the Manchester Guardian and it pisses me off.

Still free access, though.

The daily mail comments are always horrible, be it brexit, working mother's, or someone's appearance. It's quite shocking really and makes you worry about humanity if you think about it too hard.

The comments are truly awful but I'm not surprised, it's their target market. I was reading a story yesterday about a woman being told to move somewhere more private to breastfeed. All the top rated comments were the ones saying women should show some respect and cover up.

I never thought I would say this but I do now believe social media is starting to destroy society as we know it.

Brexit/Trump etc has emboldened people to let out the hate they feel, but kept publicly quite about and rage about their entitlement and loss of privilege etc - now the floodgates have been open and they are not going to go away.

How quickly the great liberating free internet has been whipped into a tool to shape and influence the feeble brained and compliant - and we carry it all in our pockets. We invite it in - the ultimate vampire wolf in sheep's clothing. It's going to get a lot worse.

Not really commenting on the article directly as did not read it but studies have shown, following anonymous surveys where people cannot be identified for their views, that a very very high proportion of employers will still discriminate against young females who carry the risk of getting pregnant. Obviously if there are many applicants it is very hard to prove discrimination and I guess the only way to tell would be to monitor the balance in a workforce between young men and young women. Also, if more men take up their right to shared maternity move then opinions may change a bit.

And older women are the group who find it hardest to get a new job. Particularly if they look old.

@marymarkle

Progressive implies improvement, and it isn’t obvious to everyone that ‘progressive’ measures actually achieve their aim. It depends what you mean by improvement in terms of equality legislation and welfare benefits. Pehaps our respective views would be different.

Agree that the Guardian comments are often really sexist too. And the Independent: euch. There are a lot of nasty men out there, on the right and the left.

Oliver Yes it sounds as if our views are very different. I think progress is life improving for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable.

I never thought I would say this but I do now believe social media is starting to destroy society as we know it

I agree. Social mores are being destroyed and personal attacks have become the norm. From both right and left, the two extremes are becoming ever more vocal and nasty.

@marymarkle

Of course, I think progress is life improving for everyone, but we’d probably disagree on how to make that happen.

The comments section is the only reason I read the DM, some of them are so over the top it is helerious!

Same reason that I read MN, it's hilarious by the way. Not everyone in the world is going to agree with you, as one gets older one's perspective changes. None of this is supportive of the DM, their hysteria is one of the reasons we're in the mess we're in now re Brexit.

That's one of the best and longest excuses for reading the Daily Mail I've ever heard

Makes me quite nostalgic about the days MNetters used to claim they picked it up in the Hairdressers or the Doctor's surgery

A friend worked on all the papers at one time or another moderating comments and he told me lots of the trolls operate across all the papers, it's the same people posting vitriol on the Mail as on the Guardian. He said quite a lot is filtered out automatically but any stories about, women, gay people and ethnic minorities illicit horrific comments. He said he felt depressed about the state of humanity. Just don't read the comments, there are so many nutters out there.

I never thought I would say this but I do now believe social media is starting to destroy society as we know it

Starting? Whoever thought that the opportunity to 'share' the tedium of one's life with total strangers would be a bad thing!

It can be no coincidence that the increase of mental health issues among young people has happened as the use of social media has escalated. Young people have always been nasty to each other, I suppose I was 'bullied' verbally at school, but at least it was contained rather than being world wide. Get young people off these hideous sites to see an improvement in their lives.

I know several people who write nasty comments because they have a competition with one another to see who can get the most responses and downvotes!

I sometimes go on the Leave EU fb site to see what hardcore leavers are talking about.