Out of the Echo Chamber and Onto the Trump Train

deportationI have been living in a bubble for some time called Facebook, and the people running Facebook have underestimated and hidden the threat of racial violence people casually place on its pages for too long.

I gave up reporting credible threats to them because they always ignored them. Altogether now,  “unless threats are directed at a specific person” blah blah blah.

They can’t do anything, as in the law of the street. So over the years I stopped looking at the growing number of hate pages, and consequently, Facebook’s ever-shifting algorithm ensured I didn’t receive anything other than veggie recipes. That’s the, ‘Don’t upset the lilly-livered pinko’ algorithm. Hence, I’m polarized for my own good, after all who wants the abuse of ranting Kippers and Britain Firsters? Not me. Not Facebook. They washed their hands and let hate grow.

So now we have President Trump.

This excellent Guardian article about the polarisation of Facebook users made me go and catch up quickly. I read that some Trump supporters yell at Africans and Muslims, “Go get on the Trump train”, and I immediately thought of the mass deportation carried out by train by the Nazis.  Are they really suggesting deportation by train, or do they just not know? Those WWII images are indelible. Maybe it’s an age thing. Maybe younger people haven’t seen these images. Maybe the people who run Facebook, who are young people, haven’t either.

So I checked Facebook, and I searched Trump Train. Clearly Facebook has no idea what’s implied by the Trump Train because the results and the threats of violence aimed at specific people have spread over hundreds of gleefully hateful Trump Train pages. Do these people really think a policy of deporting peole by train will work? It won’t. It hasn’t. And it never will. How could Facebook let that idea flourish?

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” ― Elie Wiesel