50 dead and 50 injured after white nationalist terror attack in New Zealand. They attacked two mosques with automatic weapons and slaughtered the crowd ruthlessly.
It’s hard to imagine that horror but also what the victims loved ones must be feeling. Terrible. The tragedy is extended when certain media, in practice, do exactly what the terrorists want.
One of the perpetrators wrote a manifesto. He clearly states his goal is to accelerate a race war, and one tool to achieve that is the mainstream-media. These neo-nazis literally rely on the medias polarizing tendencies to create resentment amongst social groups.
The perpetrator makes it clear he could’ve used a variety of ways to hurt large crowds of people, but decided specifically for automatic weapons “in order to further the social, cultural, political and racial divide within the United states”. This alleges to the heated debate on gun control in America, and worth noting is New Zealand has almost no gun control at the time.
Thus it’s safe to assume this is why he mentioned PewDiePie, because he knew what leftist-media narration would do to the right-wings trust for the establishment.
The fact that several media figures are playing along with the terrorists stated intention is embarrassing, and so obviously sickening to ordinary people that it may well bury their trust for the media long-term. On social media, criticism is huge and not many appreciate this.
However, it raises a bigger problem with media sensationalism. Journalists often mention mass murderers by name, and attention is given to their manifesto. This provides low-functioning psychopaths with the opportunity to use the media as a viral marketing tool.
The murderer’s manifesto predicted the establishment’s reactions, behaviors and narratives. Both the left and the right should therefore agree that media are the ones fueling social instability.
A news editor in Sweden went out immediately and warned that similar mass murders can happen here. He further explains how “terrorism is enshrouded in good-looking memes and share-friendly Facebook rants”, suggesting politicians should now censor the internet.
In essence: More authoritarian government. Less freedom. More surveillance. Less ugly words. More filters. Less ugly emotions. Smaller thought. Would this really create less polarization and violence? Or more?
Maybe it’s just as simple as this: You people don’t get the internet.
Therefore you desperately cling to power by throwing feces on everyone else, to create the illusion that you’re not the problem. The human world can now say it has a social media terrorist troll. This speaks volumes on the elites inability to adapt to the emerging information society.
Instead of censoring law-abiding citizens, I suggest we focus on the people who lost their lives. And reject the polarization mentality that leads to these kinds of tragedies. There’s enough bad ideas in the world, we need more good ones.
Rest in peace.