People are just vile

[holymoly56]

Numerous stories about the tragic air India crash all over my socials at the moment. The comments sections are fucking grim. Racist jokes, racist comments, conspiracy theories about the sole survivor, not to mention the gutter press posting photos and names presumably before passengers have been formally identified and families informed.

It’s as though people have become so detached from reality they just don’t care. The fact so many people actually died in such a horrible way seems to be lost on them. No sympathy, not even a respectful silence…they all just want to stick their two penneth in. It’s really bothered me today.

I agree, some of the comments haunt me.
I’ve been involved in politics for ten years, have had a lot of doorstep conversations and am well aware most of us live in a bubble.
But these cross lines I thought were uncrossable in this day and age.

There wasn't even a Reform party till ten minutes ago, who were these people voting for then?

The whole situation is horrific. I hate to think how the survivor will be feeling. I hope he gets all the support possible and is kept of the media.
it’s the same on morning radio, they actually play the 999 calls made before tragic events. We really have no right to intrude on what could quite possibly be the worst moments of someone’s life.
the media are scum. But they are like that to feed the public so in many ways they just reflect us.

There absolutely is a problem with racism and it's getting worse again. Just a few years back people wouldn't have dared express such things in public, now they're proud of it. We are heading in such a bad direction as a country.

I would refuse to read comments like that and I certainly would not wade in with any comments of my own, this just encourages these sick people.

It's very sad that some people in this life have no empathy or respect whatsoever. 😪

I've not seen them but that's the sort of thing that would stop me reading a particular outlet/ social media source. I wouldn't go on X or Daily Mail for example as comments are always vile. You cam control what you are exposed to, and as others have said once you start looking at unpleasant content algorithms serve you more

This is the problem with social media it has become toxic. I don't believe the majority of people hold these views, it just feels like that due to the toxic nature of these platforms and the bots / fake accounts that stir up hatred. We need to do all we can to protect our children from some of the worse sites

I closed my Facebook account about two months ago because my mental health was definitely being affected by the content. I felt that if I read it that I was then responsible for making sense of it and it's impossible to make sense of the absolute crap thats posted. Also Facebook do not monitor the online abuse that takes place. I feel so much better for not trawling through crap everyday and wasting my time and emotions.

I’ve only seen one tweet that says something along the lines of “not being funny, but why is everyone so bothered about a plane crash in India” and everyone else commenting is outraged.

The overwhelming majority will be bots created by nefarious influences (eg Russia) keen to create social instability in the UK

My first thought when I heard there was one survivor was: ''If God saved a life, it is to bear witness to what has happened''.

Why do some people express grief by saying outrageous things?

Any news article shared on social media about the crash and victims has plenty of these sort of vile racist comments underneath. There's no point in pretending these vile racists don't exist when they're growing in numbers and getting bolder by the day.

Basically keeping screenshots of the relevant comments. Receipt keeping = keeping evidence.

Just in case in about X months time they pop up in some other context. It's why quite a lot of various elected officials end up having to sheepishly apologise or even resign for various bits of bile they were happily spouting 🐳 in their echo chamber

Nope, it's facebook profiles that are everyday people. The racism at the minute in the UK is scary.

On social media, you're grossly underestimating the targeting and orchestration of what you are presented with. The comments you see, the ordering, the timing, the tone, the users - is absolutely targeted and personalised to maximise engagement. Every interaction, scroll movement, screen dwell time - is recorded and the algorithms use this to maximise ad revenue.

You can prove this easily enough - get a few people to look at the same posts, you don't all see the same comments

Agree. I never normally go on X but read a post the other day condemning the racism riots in NI and some of the comments underneath it completely shocked and depressed me. Hard to believe that such people and opinions exist. I suppose on a daily basis you are surrounded by people with similar backgrounds and views to your own (friends and family, even work colleagues) so it is a shock to be faced with comments from people with completely different values.

I'm familiar with X (obviously rife with bots) but not Facebook; how do you know an account is legitimate?

Click on their profile and see their history if its public access, often they have photos with family, other people posting on their page, info about them, where they work etc.

I feel exactly the same. Some of the comments on SM and newspaper websites have been utterly vile not to mention racist and lacking empathy for the victims and their families.

Agree. Social media is hugely different to how it was a few years ago - it is hugely targeted /manipulated and creates a distorted reality

TBH I don't go out of my way to follow news stories-ever. It's easy to blame social media, but vile comments have always been out there- social media just makes it quicker and easier. I don't like an hour by hour assault on my faith in human nature-so I just don't follow news stories.

Fucking good!

I personally haven’t seen anything vile.
lots of people don’t believe the survivor was on the plane… not sure where he’d have got a boarding pass from though (he presented one).
The only speculation I’ve seen is that he jumped out of the emergency exit which is seat was located next to… OR the plane snapped in half and ejected him as he’d removed seatbelt.
My friend was also upset by the comments and jokes .. but like I say I haven’t seen those

??

I wondered about that one but really didn't want to ask.