The British tabloids have turned increasingly hateful of late and it's got absolutely nothing to do with their subject matter. Like a jilted lover they have realised that our news sources are more freely available, and in short, we just don't need them anymore. This sorely rejected ex is desperate to get you back and it has tried everything from offering you cheap holidays to money off your shopping and even their FREE pull-out posters of the Queen don't do the trick.
You've had it with queuing in the newsagents for your 60p red-top and now you can pay at the pump, they just sit there staring at you from their rain protected stand, begging you to pay at the kiosk and buy one on the way. But because you won't, they're getting angry so they start screaming out the worst things possible to get a reaction. Whether they're attacking the Brexit ruling high court judges or demonising the working class, depreciating refugee children and mocking minorities, beyond the headlines they are only really saying one thing "PAY ATTENTION OR THE TABLOID WILL DIE".
For every appalling inhumane headline, there is someone with a compassionate heart and good-old common decency using their keyboard in defence. It's encouraging to think that there are righteous people are out there, clued up on the facts and ready to right any wrongs in an instant. These people are worth their weight in gold, but to whom?
The answer, unfortunately, is the tabloids themselves. Your reaction is generating valuable traffic. Traffic that causes a big nasty pile up behind their every abhorrent headline and the only people reaping the benefits of your valid and considerate opinion is the newspapers and their countless media outlets. But they don't actually give a flying fuck at what you're saying as long as you click, because a click to them is money in their right-wing wank bank.
With Facebook rolling out their new anti-click-bait algorithm, journalists are having to be particularly creative with their articles and often attempt to hijack naturally viral stories, for example take the recent story of the tampon tax nitwit and self proclaimed "meninist" who thinks women should pay for sanitary products as they "should be holding their periods in their bladder". Quite clearly that kid was not worth the time of day, however, the newspapers and websites leapt on it because the preposterous subject had immense value in shares. People from all walks of life shared that very story and it quickly went viral along with millions of people commenting on how dumb the poor lad was. It turns out that the subject of the story was slightly more savvy than initially thought and 15 minutes of fame was all he was after. This became clear when his appeal for "media enquiries" died a quick death. I'd like to think that his whole 'meninist' thing was an attention seeking act from someone seeking more Facebook action and snapchat followers but, whatever his motive, the papers went for this lad because they thought that his extraordinary stupidity would solicit a huge response from their easily outraged readers and it most certainly did.
The vulnerable members of society are always an easy target. They've already attacked those on benefits. Next they attacked immigrants, claiming that they're coming here for the benefits. (If our benefit system looks appealing to some, you have to ask yourself what conditions they're escaping from). They encouraged Brexit with indisputable lies and divided the country in two. Then they went for the refugee children with some appallingly misleading and inaccurate headlines. The stories were repugnant and downright inhumane and made many feel desperately sad at our savage state of affairs. BUT we all reacted to them in one way or another. Whether in defence of the tabloids or not, millions took to their keyboards to express their opinion. Then good old Gary Lineker got involved, adding further fuel to the fire whilst the tabloid owners and it's many employees warmed their frosty hands on the flames. Lily Allen, for nothing more than an act of kindness, also found herself in the mix. Here we have two popular celebrity tweeting targets (with over 10 million followers between them) and a hugely divisive topic that guaranteed that the tabloids, regardless of physical sales were right up there where they needed to be, trending.
To put it simply, struggling media outlets have got us sussed. They're drowning but they need our help to keep them afloat and that is exactly what your reaction is doing. They don't care about the contents of your comments or the expression of your emojis. They just want your clicks and when you're cross, angry or filled with unbridled rage, you give clicks in abundance. Think of the red tops as a big steaming pile of excrement. The bigger the shit, the more we flock to it like greatly opinionated flies and that is exactly where they want us. If you think about it, they're never going to get your reaction by being gracious and friendly as they need news that will encourage an explosive reaction and you can't start a fire unless the material is incendiary. Also you need to consider, what is actually going on behind these headlines? Whilst we're angry and fighting among ourselves what are we missing?
But what, as decent human beings, can we actually do? It's in our nature to react, a reaction, one would assume should throw a wet tea-towel on the blaze to put it out but, where the right-wing media is concerned, the tea towels are all petrol soaked. The only solution to the problem to do nothing! The moment you see the article on the newsstand turn away, when you see it online don't even bother to read beyond the headline, just ignore it and whatever you do, don't click! Let's start a silent revolution, using something similar to the controlled crying method. Those without children may be unfamiliar of this technique but here I'll apply it to the papers and you'll get the general gist. When the struggling tabloid is screaming its inhumane headlines at you, simply turn away, leave it alone. When the terminally ill media outlet is scraping racist right-wing shit from down the back of its nappy and throwing it at your face, just grit your teeth and bear it. Do nothing, absolutely nothing, don't react and eventually, hopefully, the noise will stop and everything will return to calm and we just may enjoy reading some good news for a change.
If that sounds too difficult and you can't contain your outrage, use it creatively. Write something positive in defence. Kill what wound you up with bountiful kindness, post it on your own social media pages, but don't mention the source of your indignation. Each time you mention the source by name, you're encouraging their pathetic behaviour. Don't get caught up in their loathsome rhetoric, stop fighting hatred with equal measures of animosity, that is their plan. It's their twisted moral compass guiding you to where they want you. Stay positive. Be nice. Stop reacting. Sit on your hands. Just turn away, shrug it off, smile and start a silent revolution.