Can the tide of hate be turned? Serious threats to kill politicians, women, scientists and other public figures have soared during Covid. What is going on and can it be stopped?
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Death threats hit record levels worldwide
Can the tide of hate be turned? Serious threats to kill politicians, women, scientists and other public figures have soared during Covid. What is going on and can it be stopped?
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A British MP cut down in his constituencyAn area whose voters elect a person to represent them. . A new documentary investigating online hatred against women. Conspiracy theorists assaulting scientists across the world. Islamic fundamentalism on the rise. The far rightA range of ideologies that emphasise social order, racial purity, and the elimination of opponents. rising in Europe and the USA.
If there is one thread running through the news this morning, and almost every other morning in recent years, it is hatred: hatred of women, hatred of difference, hatred of the unknown. And those in the firing line of all this hate are being flooded with death threatsAny threat to kill another person or group of people. The aim is sometimes to intimidate the recipient..
No one knows how many death threats are made. In England and Wales, police recorded more than 42,000 death threats in 2020-21, which is likely only a fraction of the real number. And that figure is more than four times higher than it was ten years ago.
This is partly to do with the growth of conspiracy theoriesTheories that explain world events by blaming shady groups of powerful people operating in secret. Some conspiracy theories have a basis in fact, but many more of them are completely invented. What is more, they often play on dangerous prejudices such as antisemitism. It's worth being especially cautious and critical when you come across accounts that ascribe enormous agency to small and secretive groups. about the world's most pressing issues: Covid-19 and climate breakdown. One survey just this month found that 15% of scientists who had commented publicly on Covid-19 received death threats.
This seems to clash with what we understand about humanity. We do not like to think that the average person is so full of hate that they will send abuse or death threats to someone they do not even know over a difference of opinion.
The problem is that the anonymity of social media helps to strip the human element out of communication.
How can we stop the hate? Perhaps the best solution is also the simplest. In the aftermath of David AmessA Conservative MP who represented his Essex constituency of Southend West for 38 years, from 1983 until his death on Friday.'s murder, his family called upon others to "set aside their differences and show kindness and love to all".
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Can the tide of hate be turned?
Keywords
Constituency - An area whose voters elect a person to represent them.
Far right - A range of ideologies that emphasise social order, racial purity, and the elimination of opponents.
Death threats - Any threat to kill another person or group of people. The aim is sometimes to intimidate the recipient.
Conspiracy theories - Theories that explain world events by blaming shady groups of powerful people operating in secret. Some conspiracy theories have a basis in fact, but many more of them are completely invented. What is more, they often play on dangerous prejudices such as antisemitism. It's worth being especially cautious and critical when you come across accounts that ascribe enormous agency to small and secretive groups.
David Amess - A Conservative MP who represented his Essex constituency of Southend West for 38 years, from 1983 until his death on Friday.
Inequality - When money and opportunities are not shared equally between different groups in society.
Bigotry - Prejudice towards a certain group, and an unwillingness to change your mind.
Death threats hit record levels worldwide
Flowers and a balloon left at the scene, following the stabbing of UK Conservative MP Sir David Amess as he met with constituents at a constituency surgery on October 15, 2021 in Leigh-on-Sea, England © Getty Glossary
Constituency - An area whose voters elect a person to represent them.
Far right - A range of ideologies that emphasise social order, racial purity, and the elimination of opponents.
Death threats - Any threat to kill another person or group of people. The aim is sometimes to intimidate the recipient.
Conspiracy theories - Theories that explain world events by blaming shady groups of powerful people operating in secret. Some conspiracy theories have a basis in fact, but many more of them are completely invented. What is more, they often play on dangerous prejudices such as antisemitism. It's worth being especially cautious and critical when you come across accounts that ascribe enormous agency to small and secretive groups.
David Amess - A Conservative MP who represented his Essex constituency of Southend West for 38 years, from 1983 until his death on Friday.
Inequality - When money and opportunities are not shared equally between different groups in society.
Bigotry - Prejudice towards a certain group, and an unwillingness to change your mind.