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Original poster

Anti-Dementors : The AD’s

317 replies

MinkyGreen · 15/03/2023 04:40

Anti-Dementirs. These are a long running group of threads on Mumsnet.
I’ve recently been on a Covid thread and felt attacked by a group of posters for stating a consensus science view.
I then looked into who this group are - and they have formed threads called the ‘Anti-Dementors”. Dementors being those who wore masks/followed lockdown rules.
The groups they perceive as ‘dementors’ are dismissed/ridiculed as putting ‘cheese in coffee’, - or sitting in their garden with laptops during lockdown. The fact is that many were vulnerable/protecting the vulnerable.
There us also support/links to publications like ‘Unherd’ and ‘State of Fear’ which are bordering conspiracy theory territory.

While I think the discourse is important - it makes me very uneasy when people form ‘echo chambers’ and ridicule/attack/make snide comments in a group towards those with opposing views.

I look forward to your response!

OP posts:
Overthinkingnotdrinking · 18/03/2023 16:24

Looking at the thread you were actually called a ‘midwit’.

On that thread you were calling out the GBD academics as being far right, when one of them is a socialist who has researched health outcomes for poor people his entire career. On that thread you were accusing people of being far right and trying to smear any scientist or journalist who opposed lock down as being far right. I’m sorry you feel so bruised but why didn’t you report the posts at the time?

CoffeeWithCheese · 18/03/2023 16:57

Overthinkingnotdrinking · 18/03/2023 16:24

Looking at the thread you were actually called a ‘midwit’.

On that thread you were calling out the GBD academics as being far right, when one of them is a socialist who has researched health outcomes for poor people his entire career. On that thread you were accusing people of being far right and trying to smear any scientist or journalist who opposed lock down as being far right. I’m sorry you feel so bruised but why didn’t you report the posts at the time?

Probably too busy shaming number 57 for not clapping enthusiastically enough and compiling a tally chart of how many times the dog in the flats opposite was taken out for a wee in a 24 hour period.

MarshaBradyo · 18/03/2023 17:02

CoffeeWithCheese · 18/03/2023 15:03

It wasn't crazy - it was fucking evil at times.

I recall local to us someone had called the police to report a lockdown breech - a couple of family members had walked up a garden path to collect a bag hung on the front door handle... the bag contained shirts for the family members to wear to go and bury their father.

People were awful. On here, people were awful with time on their hands and a keyboard to hide behind. I barely left the house for 6 months once masks came in because of the insults and accusations on here (we saw them earlier but MN actually had a pair of balls and pulled them) about people claiming exemption... I'm autistic - I can't even deal with the sensation when a duvet comes up above chin level rebreathing moist warm air... I've had to fight over a couple of years to build up tolerance to a point I can have some semblance of a career left from the damned things.

And the responses to children suffering - on here they were foul. DD2 lost most of her language and was absolutely a wreck - to the point where she was having such severe headaches they were concerned about possible brain tumours, and she couldn't sleep, couldn't eat or anything because of how depressed she was... and on here I was accused of wanting to murder teachers and that she needed to learn resilience. She lost that amount of language and development DESPITE having a communication rich house with a parent who had a very good skill set to support - but who was never able to be a class of 30 separate 7 year olds with that level of interaction. Absolutely fucking foul on here the way desperate parents were treated. I remember spending night after night trying to contact any organisation or help desk I could for some advice how to support the decline in my child's mental health - no one was either answering their phones, or their responses were that they were seeing this time and time again and couldn't do anything to help but it was definitely "a thing"... it was only when the class teacher spoke to DD on the phone and heard the massive deterioration in her that school listened at all to how badly she was being affected (as a child with SEN as well so she should have been on their radar) - and she basically went to war with the head teacher to get her a school place. DD1 coped "better" - if by better you mean that she was completely thrown by the boundaries between school and home blurred to the point she was physically violent to those trying to enforce home learning - largely me, who would spend my nights trying to work out ways to support them, and my days trying to do my own degree, support home learning and getting the shit kicked out of me by a child.

Incidentally I'm still working picking up the consequences of it all - vulnerable people who were so terrified into not leaving their rooms (or indeed are still randomly confined to their rooms for a week + at a time when there's an outbreak in their care homes) and lost so much of the groups and activities that they would go to that they now won't leave their home at all and spend their days with alternative activities - like smacking their heads off brick walls and similar. We spent months and months convincing them that the bogeyman was around ever corner - and now, not surprisingly, they're struggling to reconcile that with expectations changing yet again that things are relatively OK. Not to mention that in lots of cases these are people with limited communication, who rely on things like facial expression and routine to support their understanding - who found all that gone, and are still surrounded by masked faces all day every day (although most of the times the masks seem to be protecting the wearer's chin mainly these days).

Show quote history

It wasn't crazy - it was fucking evil at times.

True. There were some absolute horrors.

WestwardHo1 · 18/03/2023 18:12

MinkyGreen · 18/03/2023 10:50

There you go! Best answer is : ‘an emoji’.

No, I've already answered you many times with actual words. You haven't acknowledged any of it

KnittingNeedles · 18/03/2023 18:20

I’m still struggling to understand why this wasn’t raised at the time rather than the op waiting for 3 years to claim victimisation.

DanceMonster · 18/03/2023 18:25

KnittingNeedles · 18/03/2023 18:20

I’m still struggling to understand why this wasn’t raised at the time rather than the op waiting for 3 years to claim victimisation.

The OP had no idea about the threads at the time. She’s gone trawling back through them and found things she feels personally offended by, even though none of it was aimed at her.

Original poster
MinkyGreen · 21/03/2023 06:12

@HopeMumsnet

Oh the ganging up happens on the Covid threads. I’m being mocked on an earlier post on here about a ‘call to arms’. I’m not saying they contact each other behind the scenes, but they’ve clearly ‘ganged up’ here - and on the Covid threads.

And the general theme is support for The Telegraph, Unherd, Great Barrington Declaration, accusations of cheese in coffee, lockdown supporters being of a particular social
class, weaponising suicide rates/abuse cases to support an anti lockdown stance.

OP posts:
DanceMonster · 21/03/2023 06:23

MinkyGreen · 21/03/2023 06:12

@HopeMumsnet

Oh the ganging up happens on the Covid threads. I’m being mocked on an earlier post on here about a ‘call to arms’. I’m not saying they contact each other behind the scenes, but they’ve clearly ‘ganged up’ here - and on the Covid threads.

And the general theme is support for The Telegraph, Unherd, Great Barrington Declaration, accusations of cheese in coffee, lockdown supporters being of a particular social
class, weaponising suicide rates/abuse cases to support an anti lockdown stance.

I did not ’mock’ you re the call to arms. I asked you a question.
Anyway, @HopeMumsnet responded earlier in the thread that if there are posts you’re concerned about, then report them and they’ll take a look. Sounds like a good way forward for everyone.

DanceMonster · 21/03/2023 06:25

Im fairly sure that support for the Telegraph/Unherd etc aren’t against the rules of the site. It’s not a dictatorship where only one view is allowed. I don’t support those institutions myself, but others are allowed to.

Original poster
MinkyGreen · 21/03/2023 06:35

@@HopeMumsnet

The ganging up has been somewhat toned down on this thread, I would imagine because big Mumsnet is watching.

I’m 99% sure there are previously banned posters on the AD thread. I would imagine for posting misinformation and attacking others in the past.

I rarely see that sort of behaviour from what would be the opposing stance - bans, ridiculing etc. Or certainly not to the extent that threads and threads and threads have been written to mock and ridicule.

i

OP posts:
DanceMonster · 21/03/2023 06:43

99% sure there are PBPs? What are you basing that on?
Do you think people who are/were anti lockdown shouldn’t be allowed to express those opinions, @MinkyGreen ? Do you think only one view of the pandemic measures is acceptable?

DanceMonster · 21/03/2023 06:45

You’ve said you don’t want those threads deleting… so what do you want? What are you hoping @HopeMumsnet is going to do here?

TeenDivided · 21/03/2023 06:58

The ADs weren't even particularly anti lockdown.
They were anti 'make up your own ridiculous restrictions' and also anti 'we're all going to die on the streets, there is no hope' scaremongering.

DanceMonster · 21/03/2023 07:03

TeenDivided · 21/03/2023 06:58

The ADs weren't even particularly anti lockdown.
They were anti 'make up your own ridiculous restrictions' and also anti 'we're all going to die on the streets, there is no hope' scaremongering.

Quite. It appears though that the OP doesn’t think any dissenting views re lockdown should be expressed on MN.

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 21/03/2023 10:08

Apart from the 'boohoo women weren't being nice to other women' and accusations of ganging up (which all feels a bit like being back in the playground) I can't see what OP wants here. It strikes me it's just another version of 'women, be kind' along with a wish to re-write history. OP is throwing around a lot of accusations about people's behaviour three years ago which has been thoroughly rebutted by numerous posters. It's a very one-sided view that ignores the real venom and abuse directed at anyone who dissented even mildly from the covid narrative and frankly, I can't see OP's point.

DanceMonster · 21/03/2023 10:14

The ganging up has been somewhat toned down on this thread, I would imagine because big Mumsnet is watching

I think they’ve probably just stopped bothering replying because it’s a boring, circular conversation and you are just repeating the same points over and over without saying what you actually want anyone to do about it.

KnittingNeedles · 21/03/2023 10:24

And dragging up three year old threads which weren’t bad enough to complain about at the time.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 21/03/2023 10:32

The ganging up has been somewhat toned down on this thread, I would imagine because big Mumsnet is watching

Doesn't the ganging up on those of us who had different opinions count. It was as though a klaxon went off at times and certain posters would descend on a thread and abuse and belittle people. And yes, I did report certain posters at the time.

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 21/03/2023 10:56

I think they’ve probably just stopped bothering replying because it’s a boring, circular conversation and you are just repeating the same points over and over without saying what you actually want anyone to do about it

And this. OP seems desperate to prove there's some sort of shadowy cabal behind the AD threads when in reality it was posters who wanted a bit of a refuge from all the doom and catastrophe. Thank goodness they did, is all I can say; I realised thaT wasn't alone in feeling like I did at the time.

MichelleScarn · 21/03/2023 11:02

If its going to be seen as being part of a shadowy cabal because we spoke about it, and tried to make some 'lightness out of the dark' I want a badge!! 😄

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 21/03/2023 11:19

MichelleScarn · 21/03/2023 11:02

If its going to be seen as being part of a shadowy cabal because we spoke about it, and tried to make some 'lightness out of the dark' I want a badge!! 😄

There does seem to be a hamfisted attempt at suggesting that, IMO of course. Let's face it, March 2020 onwards was a gift to conspiracy theorists. Three years after the event is a bit odd, though.

I want a badge!!

🏅Will that do?

MichelleScarn · 21/03/2023 12:25

Have been trying to change prison to lockdown but sadly have appalling techy skills! 😁

Anti-Dementors : The AD’s
CoffeeWithCheese · 21/03/2023 12:44

MinkyGreen · 21/03/2023 06:35

@@HopeMumsnet

The ganging up has been somewhat toned down on this thread, I would imagine because big Mumsnet is watching.

I’m 99% sure there are previously banned posters on the AD thread. I would imagine for posting misinformation and attacking others in the past.

I rarely see that sort of behaviour from what would be the opposing stance - bans, ridiculing etc. Or certainly not to the extent that threads and threads and threads have been written to mock and ridicule.

i

You must be new here then if you didn't see the fucking horrendous ganging up and thread invasions we put up with all those years ago. And no, I'm definitely not being nice and fluffy out of fear over Big MN... (is that like Big Pharma).

You are being utterly ridiculous (sadly we don't have a subforum for that yet)... stirring it up and poking for a reaction, then running off to Google whatever legislation you think might be remotely relevant to your hurty feelings and coming back. What exactly do you want MN to do - retrospectively ban anyone who ever clicked on or posted on an AD thread three years ago? An apology for the fact that something you were unaware of being said three years ago made you sad feels when you went actively looking for it? As adults throughout the land have said since the dawn of time - if that bit of your arm hurts when you poke it - don't fucking poke it then.

The desperate and frantic tagging of MN bods every time you bounce back with a little bit more evidence of your hurty feelings from the threads you've clearly spent a lot of time with advanced search trying to find also looks distinctly pathetic btw. I'm sure @HopeMumsnet is currently desperately trying to put her knickers on over her tights and find a cape to come down like Superman and sort the meany people who said nasty things I went looking for that they were saying out for you.

CoffeeWithCheese · 21/03/2023 12:45

MichelleScarn · 21/03/2023 11:02

If its going to be seen as being part of a shadowy cabal because we spoke about it, and tried to make some 'lightness out of the dark' I want a badge!! 😄

Oooh can we have a shadowy cabal cool kids club now?

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