Us for Them

[namechangchange]

I've name changed for this.
Had a wee look over on that page tonight as I have a ( possible ex) friend who's really active there and shares things all the time.
There is a post on tonight where people are actively threatening to take on the police as they have " weapons to match them ". I get we are all scunnered but I'm really worried by it. It has nothing to do with keeping schools open or protecting children!

Nothing you can do unfortunately. I've reported a few posts re education which are just lies but only seen one ever taken down by fb.
Also, they're using a picture of children and adults murdered by the Pinochet regime to advertise their latest 'protest'. Utterly disgusting.

On their FB page? I can’t see anything. Other than that they are mostly bat shit crazy 🤦🏼‍♀️

There are a quite a few of us (mainly teachers or parents who oppose the extreme rhetoric) who screenshot the worst stuff and share on Twitter . They have invited me to join so that I can "discuss" my views but that's just so they can block me which they can't at present. The Pinochet picture is awful and (fair play to the members who joined what they thought was a genuine parent campaign ) there are pleas to take it down . Ignored deleted and ignored.

"Punch to the throat for that teacher " and "give her a kick in the fanny time" are some I have shared previously, so threats of assault are nothing out of the ordinary.

The group has links to the seriously sinister Scottish Family Party and there are questions over what the crowdfunding money goes to.

There are some members on here who think it's perfectly reasonable. Lots who left when schools went back full time in August and didn't support the new angle adopted.

That sounds awful. I never joined. I thought that at the time blended learning was proposed and the way things were looking in terms of low case numbers etc that it was ridiculous that that was the plan rather than the backdrop and I think a lot felt the same way. However it sounds like it's become something really nasty. I'm sorry that people are having to put up with threats and general fuckery.

What absolute idiots. They could do with opening a book themselves. No wonder they're so fearful of their kids missing out on school- they have no chance with parents like that.

The group has links to the seriously sinister Scottish Family Party and there are questions over what the crowdfunding money goes to.

That party are absolutely terrifying it wouldn’t surprise me that Us For Them were aligned in some way.

They are a bunch of fannies, frankly

Constantly harping on about the science, educating yourself, sheep, brainwashing

The lack of self awareness is astonishing.

I know some of the names through work. Very unsavoury and a few with severe mental health issues who seem to have found people who will listen to them

Nutcases

I actually feel sorry for the genuine folk who joined that group.

Those who do post (and it's worth remembering that it's actually a very small number of the 12k members who regularly post) appear in the main to be deluded conspiracy theorists with all sorts of wacky theories about 'what's actually going on.'

The attitude to teachers is appalling and it's clear that many of them have no idea about the education system or how schools actually work.

The most vocal of them are particularly ridiculous.

And yes the Pinochet comparisons is horribly offensive. Good for some of the members for calling it out (even if they are being completely ignored).

That picture is appalling! And people are actually justifying, saying that schools moving to online learning is in a par with a murderous dictator.

There are different types of mental health crisis - when you start expressing violent thoughts about an entire group of people clearly sanity has left the station. I never joined, the scot gov u-turn was quite fast.

Sympathy for all the teachers that have heard about or read this deranged stuff.

This year I've had so many friends express different kinds of distorted thinking.

They are deranged fanatics but if they're now threatening violence that is very worrying. The other side of the debate is also pretty fanatic though, I've seen some grim attitudes on here from teachers (although no threats of violence to be fair).

@MintChocAddict

I actually feel sorry for the genuine folk who joined that group.

Those who do post (and it's worth remembering that it's actually a very small number of the 12k members who regularly post) appear in the main to be deluded conspiracy theorists with all sorts of wacky theories about 'what's actually going on.'

The attitude to teachers is appalling and it's clear that many of them have no idea about the education system or how schools actually work.

The most vocal of them are particularly ridiculous.

And yes the Pinochet comparisons is horribly offensive. Good for some of the members for calling it out (even if they are being completely ignored).

I agree, lots of people joined back in spring or whenever but as soon as it became anti-mask, anti-vaccine etc it was pretty clear they were deviating from reality.

I got chucked out for expressing reservations on the lunacy 😂

I just wanted schools back. Not anti vaxxers over dramatic guff.

Us for Them has changed tone considerably since the late Spring. I joined along with thousands of others when it became clear that the Councils were offering as little as 33% of time in school. We emailed, we posted on social media, we made a massive fuss and they u-turned. (Even though they lied that part-time school was always only a contingency).

So we achieved our aim, schools went back full time in August. Most of us muted the group, or just stopped posting. There always was a very small minority of protestors, rabble rousers and general anti-establishment people but given that 90% of the "normal" posters have stopped posting, they are more noticeable.

I was one of the 12k members who joined first lock down as some of it made sense but I left when they went a bit bonkers.

I do believe that the Scottish government has failed thousands of parents though with the latest nursery closures because they never actually announced it nor have they referred to it in a briefing since Saturday they have only said schools.

Parents shouldn't have to find out via twitter and hear say. It took them 3 days to get any guidance on it on their website which to me is incredibly poor.

I blame Facebook too, it's an awful company and does nowhere near enough to police things. Same with all the trump stuff. Some of the responsibility lies with these too big to fail tech giants not caring enough as they're busy ripping off and selling your data.

So hard to leave though when you've got people accumulated on there.

People need to leave the group. Muting doesn't cut it, they still have big numbers and therefore influence.

I joined for the same reasons @RaspberryCoulis did as I didn't feel the autumn school plans were reasonable or proportionate.

FWIW I think the government did a blinding job (sarcasm)- open school fully with zero PPE measures- which they probably decided to do once they did the math on the economy- and put all the blame/responsibility onto a parent's pressure group.

I keep Usforthem on my FB just to see what looney ideas they come up with next, although I gave up on active participation when they kept wanging on about masks, water bottles, teddy bears, not being able to go into the classroom et al.

Apparently members DCs should not engage with the new online learning - well that's really going to help their Dcs education.

Unfortunately they are now such an embarrassment even if I did want to protest about the school closures- and at this point I just want a more realistic idea of how long it will go on for - I wouldn't associate my signature with their cause.

@Sarcobaleno they really only have influence if people sign the petitions. Also it was convenient at the time for government to open schools and UFT were a handy scapegoat.

@rookiemere not convinced. I think they get media coverage because they seemingly represent so many people, when I think the reality is most members would be much more moderate and not go along with the more extreme stuff.

Is there an alternative?

Just read your second post, if you want a nosey it's an open group. I'm not a member but I can still see posts, although it's pretty dull with endless crazies kicking off

They are lunatics who can’t deal with reality. Anyone who joined with them helped stoke that fire and it’s now going to be children’s education that suffers.

If we’d been allowed to go back with rotas and blended learning we’d not be in this mess and children would have a steady and secure education system.

I fully blame everyone who got involved with Us for Them for the fact I can’t see my family this Christmas and my entire department are having to isolate. I also blame Us for Them for the rise in teacher bashing and general unpleasantness towards education.

Never has so much been done by so few to harm the lives of so many. I hope you are proud of yourselves.

I'm not defending them (hell, no) but I'd say tensions have risen across every single group in society this year.

If we’d been allowed to go back with rotas and blended learning we’d not be in this mess and children would have a steady and secure education system.

No we wouldn't. We were being offered less than 2 days a week in my Council area, that's not steady or secure. The government proposals were hugely unworkable for so many reasons which were all discussed at length at the time - the most important ones being that if you have primary age children you can't educate them and work at the same time, lots of families don't have the technology, and secondary pupils need to be in school with subject experts not YouTube.

What the Scot Gov was proposing was totally unworkable and Us For Them were right to challenge them on it. Just because a few loonies have become the most vocal participants in the group doesn't mean the initial aims were right.