To feel very uneasy at the latest 'conspiracy?' theory doing the rounds on social media?

[Cringingbutnamechanging]

I keep seeing different versions of the same thing, people saying that there are 'isis sleeper cells' hiding among migrants and there are plans to target children/schools in a terror attack.

I rolled my eyes to begin with thinking it's all scare mongering or it could be some idiots trying to drum up support for 'Reform'

However, there's a sizable amount of people vowing to keep their children off school and not send them back in September on account of these rumours. That's what got my attention.

Am I being unreasonable/ridiculous to feel unnerved by all of this talk? Do you think there's any truth in it?

I've name changed incase I'm being ridiculous 😩

Please be kind, I have PND so I'm easy to scare I guess and would like some perspective from the level headed folks on mumsnet.

Vulnerable includes those of lower intelligence, lower literacy and cognition as well as others who are less able to detect subtexts and inferences the writers are making - which also involves the inability to see that they are being wound up/lied to/manipulated or even that it's an attempt to use persuasive writing in the first place.

It's a rich seam to mine for political purposes, what with 6.5m+ of the adult population having the literacy levels at or lower than a child who has reached the age of criminal responsibility, irrespective of their IQ. 17% of adults having a low IQ (below 90) means around 11m in all.

Vulnerable also includes people taught to hate who may have average or higher intelligence/literacy/ability or have come to their opinions of their own volition.

Exactly this.

I’ve seen nothing. Step away from the madness.

Well it on social media and we all know that is where all the experts are so it must be the gospel truth lol
I would take any Facebook nonsense with a grain of salt

I think the poster meant the re spreading and repeating conspiracy theories makes more people exposed to them, causing more and more worry in turn leading to real life attacks as they get more and more sucked in. Not you in particular.
Not sure what's to be done about it really, but feeding into the panic isn't going to help.
As others have said, step away from the internet, get into nature. Sounds daft but it helps

Who are you friends with that this is the crap you’re seeing on social media? My social media is all smoothies and chicken keeping and the occasional video of cute goats.

It's not just friends though, it's algorithms.
Say if you're on Twitter and you interact or read an article, then it'll push more and more of the same at you as it'll think you're interested. Next thing you know you're in an echo chamber/down a rabbit hole.
It's worrying.

Also if we are panic buying loo rolls and pasta of the back of this can someone give me heads up I missed out last time didn't check social media in time lol would like to get involved this time round lol

This 'rumour' was initiated by a far right man who calls himself 'Active Patriot'. He's known on the far right circuit as someone who likes to stir up hate through false and misleading info. Don't fall for fascist lies!
https://hopenothate.org.uk/case-files-alan-leggett/

Even if it were true (which I highly doubt, to put it mildly) I personally refuse to live my life in fear and will carry on as normal unless I get clear evidence that I should do otherwise.
Life is not without risk but you wouldn't stay in the house for fear of getting hit by a bus, would you?
There are a lot of people out there, at home and abroad, trying to instil fear and unrest via our electronic devices. Ignore them.

However, there's a sizable amount of people vowing to keep their children off school and not send them back in September on account of these rumours

They're fucking idiots, then.

Don't give this a second thought. We're no more at risk from terror attacks from asylum seekers than we are from people who were born here.

I am not sure what you mean by conspiracy theories but we do have a friend in the police who said new leave is not being approved due to concerns around civil unrest although people on existing holidays could still go? I understood this was 'just' protest marches though, likely in September. Just sounded to me like reasonable thinking ahead...

Yeah you’re right actually, it’s massively more likely that the OP or others will be seriously hurt by the racists and their ‘protests’ - that’s something worth being aware of, much more so than migrant sleeper cells.

There are a dozen protests today all around the country and more over the weekend. This is spreading rapidly.

And the police have asked people to help them out by not spreading rumours.

The people who keep their kids out of school are exactly the people who will cause terrorist attacks, by raising children to drop out of society and live their lives online where they are ripe for grooming either by racist groups or terrorist groups.

I’ve seen a lot of videos about it on TikTok the last couple of days and it’s really scared me. My husband reckons it’s just scaremongering and I hope he’s right, but if’s making me feeel so uneasy.

Who reads all this crap?

I remember the IRA sleeper cells - they never advertised what they were doing. 🙄

Well any of us could be run over by a bus tomorrow, it does happen.
I find it best to basically not think about it. I can recommend some funny cat videos on instagram if that would help?

To the PP who wrote about the person starting the rumour being 'Active Patriot' - thank you.

By chance he appeared on my Facebook feed today as a facebook friend shared one of his videos because it turns out he's from my hometown, in the arse end of nowhere. He rides around on a bicycle making a nuisance of himself and harassing MP's. He's probably on drugs as most men his age in that part of Grimsby are!

I'm much less worried now I know where it came from, what a dick head.

I don't think you know what disinformation is

A recent report said that coordinated efforts are being made to push conspiracy theories online. I can’t find a link but apparently it’s rampant

The current threat level determined by JTAC is substantial, meaning an attack is likely. It’s been at substantial since February 2022 though. Get on with your life and stop reading shite from thickos on social media.

www.mi5.gov.uk/threats-and-advice/terrorism-threat-levels

I've seen this Active Patriot post and many others by this point and I'm terrified. With all the current censorship why hasn't it been taken down for disinformation and why are no big channels talking about it, is there another super injunction on this? Having a nursery age child myself is why I'm losing sleep over this, if this happened to even a single child what is claimed in the post I'd be haunted forever. Given the original post has had millions of views why wont to government come out and debunk it. I think I'll keep my child off nursery in September, this is too scary and those on this thread saying otherwise don't obviously understand the threat we've imported into this country because they're far left virtue signallers. I pray all the children can be safe the threat is horrific 😥