A British MP cut down in his constituency. A new documentary investigating online hatred against women. Conspiracy theorists assaulting scientists across the world. Islamic fundamentalismA movement that aims to return to the founding scriptures of Islam, often by imposing puritanical moral codes and brutal punishments. on the rise again and the far right rising inexorably 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 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. 

Thanks to the internet, which allows people to contact each other instantly over vast distances and under a mask of anonymity, there is little doubt that more death threats are being issued now than at any time in history.

This is partly to do with the growth of conspiracy theories 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 as a result. 

People who believe that the disease is a hoax, or that the climate catastrophe is made up, often regard the scientists who talk about these issues as puppets, or indeed puppet-masters, in a vast conspiracy.

One reason this is so jarring is that it 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.

And indeed, those who send the threats mostly seem to think of themselves as basically decent people. The problem is that the anonymity of social media helps to strip the human element out of communication. Instead of abusing another person, with human fears and feelings, they can feel that they are simply threatening a computer screen.

Social media algorithms are not helping. Many ex-conspiracy theorists have talked about falling down a social media rabbit hole: when they started following racist, misogynisticStrong and deeply ingrained prejudice against women. , or anti-scientific accounts, they would be recommended more and more of these accounts to follow.

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".

Philosophers have long argued that love has the power to heal wounds and resolve conflicts. Friedrich NietzscheIn 1869, the German philosopher became the youngest person ever to hold the University of Basel's Chair of Classical Philology. He was 24.   referred to kindness and love as "the most curative herbs" available to human beings. It might be that the only antidotes to the hatred tearing the world apart are those most fundamental of human feelings.

Yes, say some. In the end, people do not want to hate each other. Right now they are trapped in a social media-fuelled cycle of abuse and threats, but bit by bit, as we recognise each other's humanity, people will climb out of the darkness and learn to care for each other again.

No, say others. Every year, hatred is further entrenched, and its root causes are too deep to dig out. InequalityWhen money and opportunities are not shared equally between different groups in society., bigotry, resentment, conspiracies, these are all here to stay, and for as long as social media companies can keep milking them for profit, they will only become more of a problem.