It’s really specifically England if you haven’t been following but basically the gist is: A 17 year old heads into a Southport daycare and stabs about a dozen mostly kids and 2 adults during a Taylor Swift themed party resulting in 3 deaths Since the perpetrator is under 18, by law, his details are held under wraps The far right-wing element fills the void with rumors of a government conspiracy claiming they want to keep under wraps that it was an immigrant Muslim terrorist. Country starts suffering riots, racism, and violence towards Muslims and immigrants Police release 3 days later that the perpetrator was on the spectrum, born in Cardiff, Wales, whose parents are members and volunteers at a local Christian church and the parents are of Rwandan descent. Too late, the country is mired in racist actions, speech, and violence. The culture of conspiracy nonsense has real consequences. Is it only a matter of time here until a Jan 6 incident isnt localized and catches fire like in Britain? Online misinformation fueled tensions over the stabbing attack in Britain that killed 3 children LONDON (AP) — Within hours of a stabbing attack in northwest England that killed three young girls and wounded several more children, a false name of a supposed suspect was circulating on social media. Hours after that, violent protesters were clashing with police outside a nearby mosque — the first of several violent protests in across England. Police say the name was fake, as were rumors that the 17-year-old suspect was an asylum-seeker who had recently arrived in Britain. The suspect charged with murder and attempted murder was named Thursday as Axel Rudakubana, born in the U.K. to Rwandan parents. By the time a judge said the teen suspect could be identified, rumors already were rife and right-wing influencers had pinned the blame on immigrants and Muslims. “There’s a parallel universe where what was claimed by these rumors were the actual facts of the case,” said Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a think tank that looks at issues including integration and national identity. “And that will be a difficult thing to manage.”
You misspelled "peaceful protests" Seriously, what a tragedy. Political extremism is a terrible thing.
While the online rumors certainly didnt help, to place that as the reason and not mention widespread anti-immigrant rhetoric from the government is letting a lot of more "respectable" people off the hook. Bigotry top to bottom.
You cant start a fire without dry kindling for sure, but it was definitely sparked by social media lies and conspiracies to a willfully influenced mob of bigots and losers.
You create an environment of permission and look what happens. No one wants to make a full throated defense of immigration, both Labor and the Torries have indulged in Brexit & anti-immigration nonsense. Similar problems here when we have our militia gun guys show up the border to stop caravans they heard about on the news or online. Everyone in power agrees there is a "crisis" and that the Trump approach is the correct one, so the nut jobs will act accordingly.
