1.4K
Well, quite a bit, as it turns out. We live in a time when the Oxford English Dictionary‘s word of the year is post-truth, born out of the recent ability of so many politicians – running, say, for The White House, or campaigning for Brexit – to make any kind of outrageous claim and then dismiss such deliberate misinformation once the votes have been counted up.
Closer to home, the grand experiment of a million monkeys with a million typewriters has hit some turbulence too, with a very public spat continuing today (having started December 31st) on the Facebook forum Greystones News & Views between two of the three administrators, Basil Miller and Michael Martin.
Greystones’ Facebook Forums In Face/Off Fracas
previous post
2 comments
This stuff is all a good laugh on the surface, but there were some serious issues involved.
May I correct the record slightly? I don’t actually mind you said this, Paul, but it’s not accurate to say I attempted a coup — the reality is, I was finessed and made the object of a coup, however virtual.
The essence of the dispute was over two posts which, while not overtly racist, used the ‘dog whistle’ technique we have heard of from the Brexit campaign across the water to convey coded messages, heavy with racist sentiment towards the Obama couple.
The posts came from my fellow-admin, Michael Martin, the second following quickly after warnings to Michael from both myself and Davida Bradshaw. As the latter was unwilling to take any further action, and I perceived clear breaches of the few rules of the forum — against hate speech and the like — I suggested publicly on the forum that they might like to step down and allow new admins or mods to take over.
The reaction was, one, that many members supported that approach, and two, Davida’s coup, which made any more or less orderly and amicable change impossible.
That’s it in a nutshell. No coup, or even a coup plan, from me. And another member of that forum, also disgusted by the sudden excess of rather violent language from one quarter, set up the new group — not me.
All very amusing I suppose, and a bit of a storm in a teacup, but at least it has led to a firm determination by the five people administering the new ‘free speech’ forum that neither overt racism nor the dog whistle will be tolerated there.
We intend to be an example in that regard, and on homophobia, sexism, abuse on religious grounds, denigration of disabled people — of which there is disappointingly plenty in ‘civilised’ Greystones — or any other minority. It won’t be allowed.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1387137027971331/
it can get complicated!