Mumsnet is getting worse

[LondonMummer]

Seriously. Is it the same few people just name changing or is it really this toxic in the UK? There is so much poisonous Jewish hatred on here. I'm not talking hatred of Israel, just vile antisemitism on so many posts now.

I truly think I have to step away before I lose faith in humanity. Why does MN seem to attract so many hateful posters? Maybe it's the anonymity.

I can't keep calling it out. Im exhausted and actually deeply disturbed by it now.

@stomachameleon and @Pizdietz
Wait, what?! How?!

Personally I don't have evidence of being stalked off MN (only on it!), but my husband is pretty heavily into online security so I use a VPN to be on the safe side, although I do realise this is paranoid! I just get unnerved by the aggression and personal attacks, which I don't encounter elsewhere.

We live in such a scary world. My husband isn't keen on using a VPN as it'll slow the internet down too much and he needs good internet for work 😔

I only use MN because it's anonymous. My family used to receive hate mail and death threats when I was a kid so I have always been very careful not to openly defend Israel just to avoid it happening again. If MN isn't as anonymous as I thought, I guess I'll have to stop posting.

During covid there were people desperate to know who I was and it never happened so I don't think that they can find out. Recognising similar posts or posting styles on a different forum, or personal details maybe?

I only use a VPN on my laptop, which is what I use for MN, so it doesn't affect our PCs.

I'm so sorry you experienced that as a child, and that you feel under threat again. I'm not even Jewish and not even in the UK and I feel the hate. Ugh.

Apparently usernames could theoretically be tracked down if used across various sites, and that info used together with an IP address to build a profile from. I'm talking absolute gibbering paranoia on my part, especially as my username is unique to MN, but I prefer to play safe! It's a bit like checking under the bed before you go to sleep!!! (which I don't do any more, honest... 😊) I suppose I just like to feel there's a virtual fence between me and some of the nut jobs we interact with on here.

I name change a lot, once I feel I've said too many things that could be put together to give a clue as to my identity.

@stomachameleon I'm so sorry you've not been well, really sad to hear that.

@noblegiraffe has hit the nail on the head I think. It's more people piecing bits of the jigsaw together. That's as far as I seem to have an issue.

I have changed some names and things around on other sites and tbh it's only a couple of belligerent and unpleasant people I seem to have an issue with.

And I suppose we all have to remember to not post anything that's too identifying.

Yes that's the difficulty really because in amongst the emotive hyperbole and hateful rhetoric there's a huge amount of misinformation being spread and it absolutely needs countered.

I agree with this. I'm not sure how well this would work as it would obviously be a red flag to a bull for certain posters, but maybe a thread specifically to counter disinformation would be useful? It would be good to have information in one place. So much is taken out of context or treated as if it's unique to Israel or part of a specific agenda rather than just acknowledging that often there's a lot more to the story, and also that there are instances we could point to in every country where things have happened or where individuals are at fault - but we don't usually condemn the nation as a whole. Actually even countries where there are genuinely awful regimes and human rights violations get a fraction of the attention Israel does.

I'm getting more paranoid now. I've tweaked my username several times to break the 'search trail' to ward off people following around threads or if outing. But wondering if a full name change is in order. It's just nice to recognise posters and keep an element of connection with the same folk, especially given current events so it helps if you know the person you're engaging with is 'safe' so to speak (if that makes sense).

@ProvincialLady1 I think that would be great but there would have to be a concerted effort to not let people derail it.... and I am not sure how we can do that?

Re the special thread debunking false information, the trouble is that the people spreading false information, or reading it and accepting it, are not particularly interested in truth. As for derailing, we can pretty much take that as a given!

Yes, I think in theory it's a great idea. In practice, we'd barely reach the end of page 1 before a significant derail and posters telling us we should be listening to truthers like Asa Winstanley and Aaron Maté actually.

I would say...
Set out the purpose of the thread at the start
Ignore anyone posting in obviously bad faith
Report offensive posts
Continue with the thread topic

I know it's not easy though

Although, if the point is to address disinformation then derailing comments full of buzzwords could be used as illustrative examples!

I think before posting their vitriol, all of them should have to watch the 47 minute video they pieced together of what was done on 7/10.

@etmoiandme I’ve name changed quite a few times tbh😏

I'm another one who name changes frequently. I had noticed with a previous username that I had mentioned being Jewish and an entirely different thread, someone referred to my religion as an attempt to discredit me (I had been discussing Christmas traditions, as I married a Christian).

@WibbleWobbleFlop that's strange. Exactly the same Happened to me.

@etmoiandme almost worth restarting that 'antisemitism on the left' thread.
Why is it so difficult for people to except what you are telling them!

@stomachameleon Just feels like banging your head off a wall now. I laughed at the last post though, and sense it was duplicated on purpose 😂

A new thread was started quite late last night that very quickly descended into outright atrocity denial. It got picked up.by someone on X who posted images from the MN thread. So the poor OP sensibly had it deleted by this morning (not Jewish, but she was basically whistleblowing some very biased teaching in a UK school re Israel/Palestine).

But it had already gained a huge amount of traction on X and was then posted by other accounts. The thing that really struck me though was how genuinely shocked folk on X were at it. Not just at the blatant Jew hatred on here but also the subject of the thread, which a majority of posters on here were defending or barely raising an eyebrow at. Which is saying something, because X is a racist, antisemitic sewer and you'd think if you've seen it on there, nothing else could shock.

It just really hit home how bad the antisemitism and gaslighting is on MN, especially by the more belligerent 'dog with a bone' posters. We're almost accepting of it because it's out of control now and just feels normalised. Out in real life however, I'm not sure these posters are quite as representative of Joe Bloggs as I feared before (although Im not trying to downplay it out there - it's still fucking awful). But I do think there's a lot more Jewish allies out there than it may feel like.

There is a hardcore of extremist left wing deniers that are difficult to argue with. They wreck threads, derail and bully. There is also a lot more personal digs

Thankfully the dog whistling is not a reflection of RL. There are lot of repeat echo type posters on here who act the gatekeepers. We just need to keep going when we can.

I think the light has been shone on Mumsnet a couple of times in the past couple of days and not favourably.

Thanks for having my back @etmoiandme particularly when things have got a bit hairy.

Am Yisrael Chai

@Stomacharmeleon
I think the light has been shone on Mumsnet a couple of times in the past couple of days and not favourably

Well there was that 'other' one today too...

It's the nature of Mumsnet anyway. I hadn't posted on any 'normal' threads for ages so I breezed into one a few days ago. Dip the old toe back in, as it were. Totally innocuous thread by a pleasant sounding OP who'd received poor customer service in a high-end shop. And by fuck some of the posters were brutal! I'd completely forgotten that in normal MN land it's business as usual and still totally savage 😂

@etmoiandme I really wish I was on X now so I could see what it was all about!

@stomachameleon I just wanted to apologise in case you thought my comment yesterday was directed at you when I said I don't like where the post was going. It really wasn't, and I was glad to see your clarification. I wasn't happy with where other posters were going with it as they seemed to be focusing on the wrong part, and I don't think smearing a whole religion is a particularly good look!

It’s very depressing. Maybe new threads should start with clear ground rules. Like this is not about bloody Netanyahu!