On the Internet, Ignorance is Malice

District Election & LtL on Disability Representation

Hello Sweet Teas!

What a start to the month! Yesterday was the day of my District Council Election, and after a morning of calling up local residents and reminding them to vote, a rather dramatic event occurred… Somebody had gone out of their way to print of hundreds of fake ‘Green Party’ leaflets, impersonating me by using my face and name, and had littered them EVERYWHERE! It was awful. I felt so sick to think I was the cause of such massive littering, and that people might think I had instigated it!

However, even after nasty smear tactics… WE WON THE CAMPAIGN! I am the first Green District Councillor in my county, and this is on a council of 75% men and 75% conservative!

My thoughts after reading Hank Green’s novel ‘A Beautifully Foolish Endeavour’ have been centred on how we treat each other on the internet, so here is an excerpt from my latest blog post ‘On the Internet Ignorance is Malice’, read the full version here

On the Internet, ignorance is malice. 

Hanlon’s razor is a mental model that is summarised in the words of Napoleon Bonaparte: 

‘Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.’

I truly believe that bad intentions are rare. Rarer than incompetence and naivety, certainly. But not on the internet. Not when it is all too easy to take anger out on somebody from behind a keyboard.

I heard Hank Green say that social media is no longer a place we visit, it is a place where we live. They have their own cultures, rules, they are as powerful as countries in their ability to influence, and yet they are not democratic…

My newest Lifting the Lid is all about Disability representation, be the first to read it here & please share with a friend to help raise awareness for this important issue!

Love,

HB x