How Online Hatred Toward Migrants Spurs Real-World Violence
How Online Hatred Toward Migrants Spurs Real-World Violence
Social media posts assailing immigrants have fomented a climate of fear and hatred in Britain, Portugal and other countries. The vitriolic language is now spilling onto the streets.
The challenge is that the incitement also comes from outside their borders. Only 14 percent of posts on X about the stabbings and resulting outcry originated in Ireland, according to an analysis by Next Dim, a company that tracks activity online.
This is interesting. It's basically the military principle of concentration of force operating within the digital sphere. Much like how one of Alexander the Great's armies could concentrate their strength along a certain segment of their line to break through that portion of the battlefield to create a desired effect, right wingers can concentrate global force to a specific region where news is happening to create their own effects.
They don't need to outnumber the local population in any specific region if they've become so good at reinforcing each other like this.
They really gloss over the impact of social media from outside each country, pumping up nationalistic outrage. That seems to be a significant part of the story.