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.

Hahahaha the Hasbara thing nearly ended me when they first learned what it is! Then they dropped it into every fucking post.

If they start anything like that with me I just use this on them

In the days I used twitter before that because like a full time job it worked there too

Most people only start all that when they see that they are losing the argument. So it works pretty well most the time

Haha! I'm tempted to start a thread along the lines of Hooray for Hamas/Smite the Semites, noting how kind Hamas have always been to old ladies etc and their optimistic plans for a harmonious Middle East - constantly dashed by the swaggering white supremacy of Israel and its fascist backers who just want to get their hands on all that oil. If only we could leave them in peace to realise their vision!

The trouble is that I suspect much of it would be believed and then shared on TikTok/Insta to prove a point.

The trouble is that I suspect much of it would be believed and then shared on TikTok/Insta to prove a point.

The new generation of kids are all stanning Bin Laden so yes probably.

I must say this Hasbara wheeze has been disappointingly badly paid so far.

See also, the belated discovery of the West Bank, “where Hamas doesn’t exist”. That one spread like wildfire.

I am taking comfort from this thread. I have also noticed an influx of anti Israel propaganda from 'I live in Israel' or 'I left there because it's so awful'.
Ring any bells?

@Stomacharmeleon Yep.

It's absolutely crazy on the Conflict in the Middle East board.

Posters...
Obsessively starting one thread after another.

Sharing post after post of unverified links and information.

Uncritical acceptance of anything that makes Israel look bad, assumption that any one example is 'typical of the IDF'/typical of Israel etc .

Information from Israel is greeted with "they just lie and lie".

Everything is 'genocide'...except if it's people being evacuated, then it's ethnic cleansing.

Anything about October 7th is minimised or questioned, demands for video proof - never mind how disrespectful and ghoulish this is, never mind it has already been widely shared and shown to many journalists.

And the level of emotional manipulativeness, manipulation of language etc. Anyone who doesn't think a one-sided ceasefire with a terror group is a great idea should obviously be sent straight to the Hague for war crimes.

I just...it cannot be normal to obsessively hate any country this much.

This is the best description I've seen of what's happening on that board.

And not one mention of the recent BBC screwup saying IDF targeted medical staff.

I’m keeping away from that thread. I’ve not got the will or energy for it. Truly awful.

I think they've created such an aggressive echo chamber there is little to no balance that will be tolerated. I can't imagine that many people are still reading (?) but the obsessive one-sidedness must ring alarm bells for anyone reasonable.

It's very obvious they keep the emotional rhetoric cranked up to 'maximum outrage levels' as a kind of firewall to prevent proper discussion.

Yes, we are baby murderers and that's that.

I wonder if some people believe there is always a right and a wrong answer and struggle when the reality is a hideous situation with no good options.

I also think that (based on my experience during COVID, with people's reactions) that anyone who suffers from anxiety prefers a black-and-white dogma to feel more in control of the situation.

@Alcemeg you get attacked/ misquoted/ have your words twisted/ feign ignorance, shock, lack of knowledge....
'I am not an expert but'.... massive chunks of text from al jeezera
Ditto 'I just happened to stumble across'
'Your on the wrong side of history'
'Do you support genocide?'

And repeat

I had some advice to step back. For my mental healths sake I probably will. There is no point in trying to engage....

I wonder if some people believe there is always a right and a wrong answer and struggle when the reality is a hideous situation with no good options.

To be fair I am struggling with this.

That aside, I echo what everyone above has said. I try and avoid those boards but sometimes see threads in active and think oh, this one looks like it might be a bit better/ different (I did that with the bonkers Israeli trance one!) and then am shocked all over again by the hate.

I think it is now just a toxic echo chamber tbh. People with moderate views or those who just want to find out more risk an unpleasant pile-on. I remember in the early days after 7th Oct there were some really well-informed and interesting insights from posters with actual experience of middle eastern politics through their work. I can't be arsed to scroll through pages of vitriol on the off chance of someone saying something sensible now.

What was the bonkers Israeli trance one?!?!! I missed that. I'm trying not to even peek on here unless it's a thread I'm already involved in. But Israeli psytrance, if that was the theme, is actually something I have direct experience of...

I stepped back for a while to protect myself but responded to a few posts yesterday. One was claiming that IDF snipers shot through a window and killed a nurse in ICU 4 days ago. Managed to establish for them that the source was an extreme leftist who wasn't even in Gaza and who heard it from a friend. The same friend who I'd heard on the news on Sunday talking and saying there was fighting outside the (22 acre) compound but nothing inside. Besides the IDF didn't even enter the compound till yesterday.

And they were asking why Israel didn't let an An Al Jazeera reporter go into Al Shifa with them as an independent reporter 🙄🙄🙄

I despair.

As a PP says I think people can't grasp that it's just a horrible situation with only a set of horrible consequences whatever is done. People either have their own agendas, or are just unable to see things other than black and white.

To be fair I am struggling with this.

Oh me too. Even while I think, maybe this is least worst in the long term, I feel horribly ashamed and guilty that I'm not the one paying the price of my home and my family's lives for that "long term".

I'd have loved that section of MN to have far more contributers who are knowledgeable, who are not black and white in their thinking, who are themselves unsure, but I fear they've been driven away now.

I feel better after reading your posts. I was getting so miserable reading all the lies and vitriol. I can't believe how people can be so awful.

Definitely the odd user with more than one account. So I don't even think they have fans as such. More likely to by backing themselves up

That is what my gut feeling tells me anyway. During covid we had a lot of that. Many were caught out but there were more of us with free time during lockdown to police the boards. Mumsnet couldn't cope with all the vile made to scare people threads. So some of us users posted facts to disprove the lies spun and tried to calm the boards doin general.

I actually thought those lockdown threads were horrible but these conflict ones are often way worse. Just glad mumsnet made a separate board and most the more vulnerable users seem to have hidden that now.

I don't bother much with most the threads because I don't want to help them make their threads appear on the active list. Just in case someone posters still haven't hidden the board. It bothers me that more sensitive people will wonder about a title and end up reading the vomited stuff written on some threads.

I just can't bear reading the rubbish and hope that by popping on these awful threads and saying my piece that lurkers will think again and question the rubbish they are reading.
On a side note - I think the BBC are getting a lot more anti Israel. The six o'clock headline last night was questioning the veracity of IDF videos inside Al Shifa. And that's after Orla Guerin and the faux pas that they apologised for.

Just listened to a brilliant podcast about Israelaphobia by Let's Talk: The Jewish Chronicle.