I largely agree with you - personal responsibility for ones actions is important. But the solution is more complex than the somewhat simplistic generalisation:
Yep, it's not simplistic but responsibility for consequences ought to be the central tenet.
- what is a lie - an agreed set of data can produce opposing conclusions - X or Y. Depends on which figures are selected - eg: last year, last three years, last 10 years, global, continental or country, this or last government performance etc etc. Politicians use this ploy all the time.
A *basic* lie (on social media) is something that can quickly and easily detected (using the exact same device being used for social media). It stops being a "mistake" or a "confusion" at the exact moment that somebody says "but that isn't true, you'll have to provide evidence".
Responsibility for being a deliberate liar starts from the moment they continue, without checking or providing evidence, to precipitate the thing they've been told is a lie.
Many examples of this are prevalent. See above. Also see Musk and Jenrick and Badenoch this week ref Starmer - the truth being that Starmer took the initiative and worked to completely alter the CPS, Judicial and Police systems and that nobody else is singularly responsible for bringing so many people to court and obtaining successful convictions. Exactly the opposite of what has been being spread by media. The real issue is that the truth is freely available given a browser and 30 minutes searching.
It's the digging-in of heels without basic checking that signals deliberate intent.
It really is that easy to classify.
Waiting for the truth to surface "naturally" is sub optimal. The harm will already have been perpetrated.
- not all similar posts on (say) "X" have similar impacts - an individual may get 10 views, Trump doing similar, millions. If the posts are proven to have inflamed public disorder, should Trumps carry a larger penalty than the member of the public
- where posts are repeated, should the original post take more responsibility than those who simply repeat. It is not usually only one post but a hysterical build up which produces problems. It is a global problem over which the UK has little/no control.
- conclusions drawn from agreed data can be wildly divergent - illegal immigration - "send them home" or "sink the boats" is a legitimate personal opinion, as are the moral and legal arguments in favour of asylum. They both have the capacity to provoke extreme reactions.
Apart from maybe posting that "sink the boats" could be unlawfully an incitement to murder.
Another good example of the lies being continually spread is from the Farage Riots, where perpetrators of this exact racially motivated incitement to murder have been described as "being fast tracked" or "two tier" and that all they did was to "post an opinion" or that it was "Political Correctness gone mad". Utter lies every single one of them, and the big players who keep trolling that lie out are doing so in the knowledge that it is a lie, but it suits their agenda to keep pushing the nonsense out.
The truth of the matter is that those jailed over social media posts:
1. Contravened specific laws (incitement to cause physical harm).
AND
2. Pleaded Guilty and confirmed they intended their incitement to be carried out and that was their reasoning for posting on social media.
Pleading guilty means no trial and move immediately to sentencing.
Consequently, it is clearly evident - a fact - that it wasn't just "PC gone mad" or that there was any "two tier policing" and neither was there "government involvement". Purely a local policing and local Judicial issue.
And yet, the lies are still being spread. I even saw it posted on this forum recently. There has been so very much coverage about this that nobody can really be in any doubt about the facts in this issue. It's just that we now have a culture where people feel emboldened and supremely confident to believe what they "want to believe" despite any evidence to the contrary.
- the courts can only judge the merits of individual cases. That one of a grooming gang served under 3 years of a 6 year sentence and on a third appeal against extradition won, demonstrates the probable inadequacy of the UK legal system to implement effective sanctions
Effective solutions must be thought through and workable - otherwise it is simply noise to no good effect. The most helpful suggestions relate to increasing the capacity for critical thinking. Taking action after the event is likely too little, too late.
Agree about effective solutions needing to be thought through, but with the current culture of believe what I want is the antithesis of critical thinking. Social media bears a huge part of the responsibility for this, but then so do some of the current high profile public figures on both sides of the Pond - who have clearly promoted the "believe what you want" culture as part and parcel of their agenda
