I think I need to....I actually don't know? read the news less? spend less time on social media? I'm just so worried about elite radicalisation and enraged by the useful idiots going along with it without seemingly noticing that I worry it's impacting my mental health, it makes me feel unhinged
When it's the BBC, rather than just the Telegraph, it hits particularly hard.
It’s not you that’s unhinged.
Social media is objectively bad for mental health. I deactivated Facebook weeks ago.
Except this isn’t social media. It’s a link to the main news item on BBC (England version) atm. I stopped paying their licence fee over ten years ago.
I’m going to do the same, I never watch it.
I end up getting really wound up by arguing with my one friend who is definitely a useful idiot. He laps up all sort of shite and denies evidence but is so convinced he’s right. Absolutely fucking insane. And maddening. Like pigeon chess.
It’s the media that are going their heads. Too many journalists pandering to this fasc BS
Nah these are not usefull idiots these people are complicit
I think if I watched TV and listened to the radio as well as being on Bluesky I would feel more unhinged. For me it's about managing how much political madness I deal with. ymmv, of course.
She pled guilty.
I know the feeling, but if I do try just switching off, all that happens is I still hear about it all because I live in society - see newspaper headlines when I pop down the shops, have taxi drivers and barbers and nurses assuming that because I'm a middle aged white man I'm racist too.
At least on here I see people like Marie reacting like this and feel reassured that I might be in a minority thinking it's awful, but at least it's not a minority of one.
You're fine! The BBC? Not so much!
I’m with you. There are seemingly no guard rails acting on the creeping loss of objectivity and fact based reporting with some of our news media.
Same here I find myself cursing, being agitated, angry, worried, annoyed - all in equal measure Don’t have an answer for it as looking away feels wrong also I focus on select outlets - the Atlantic, the Bulwark, the News Agents w Lewis Goodall And I continue to speak out
All of this. The UK has gone batshit.
"Useful Idiots" is spot on. Exhibit B: Whatever this special article was two weeks ago - www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... It's actually slightly terrifying, the lack of push-back. Or at least the tacit acceptance of racism/fascism/violence/misinformation as legitimate.
Not quite sure what the BBC have done wrong here. That is what she said to a UK newspaper. Although it is a Tory and Reform house journal.
It's ragebait, not news.
Yes, very much this. It’s terrible for my anxiety and depression even if it’s probably not the main trigger.
All the above 😔
Yeah I've 'resolved' this by massively changing what I consume here, not having news apps. Feels bad, but the torrent of unacceptable rubbish was just too much.
I know how you feel. Disengage. At least for a while. I have recently taken on an allotment and while I find it physically challenging, it has done my mental health a power of good. Very basic human activity, growing stuff to eat.
I do that (disengage, not an allotment). The trouble is I am always aware that this shit is happening whether I'm engaged or not, and my child is a constant reminder that people's futures will be destroyed if things get a lot worse.
The same here. I am very worried for my children & grandchildren. Worse my elder son is now living in the USA with his lovely American wife - I got myself into an incredible state of anxiety about them earlier in the year.
Check out Larry Bartels recent book on the far right in Europe, Democracy Erodes from the Top, in which he shows using hard data that the majority view is social democratic, but that the far right has found ways of circumventing this. co
I know exactly what you mean. I struggle a lot, the more I read the more horrified and scared and angry I feel. And I can’t stop reading either. I thought leaving Twitter would solve things but it’s not Twitter, it’s frikking world that’s the problem!
Send help. Fricking hurry!!!! 🫨🤐
Not only you
Are you me?
A while ago I stopped watching the news and muted a bunch of social media accounts to clear my head, I think I might do it again.
I know just what you mean, I was thinking that last night
I was thinking about that yesterday too, I was getting very wound up.
I can very much advocate for not reading the news so much. I basically never read a news story anymore. Am I proud of that? Maybe not. Am I saner for it? Absolutely.
oh I would love that but, sadly my job :(
Yes I can see how that would be a problem
No one has the courage to hold these "news" organisations to account. It's total, morally bankrupt acquiescence.
Presumably the “trust building” exercise from execs earlier this year. Barely even mentions the “set fire to all the f*cking hotels full of the b*stards” part…
The problem is not you. It's other people consuming this and getting radicalised
Matthew Amroliwala was banging on about "legitimate concerns" in a BBC News interview with @zoejardiniere.bsky.social the other day; the BBC has been influenced by right-wing rhetoric and is repeating it as propaganda. Zoe put him right, but I don't think any of it fully resonated with him.
I think 'they' are hoping it will have this effect on you and you will back off from the turmoil. As the saying goes...'don't let the bastards get you down'. You must keep one step in front of them.
It’s not bearable, really.
You have my sympathies. I feel very similar. It is increasingly difficult to watch this happen and increasingly damaging to my mental health and wellbeing. Such awful times to live through.
Likewise, I feel your anxiety too.
Welcome to the European mainstream, Brritain.
I’ve had to reduce the amount I’m engaging with the news and political content as it’s just so damaging for my mental health.
Not just you, Marie! The media has gone completely and dangerously nuts!
Unfortunately the Tories seeded the BBC heirarchy with some *very* right-wing people before they got booted out, which is why the news and politics part of the organisation frequently sounds exactly like the Daily Telegraph, and they can't be got rid off for years yet.
With political will, thee Gvmnt can. But this weak, set of shitstains continue to pander to it.
Agree 💯 I seem to spend most of my days with head in hand in total despair of the human race.
Same.
I guess because I have to know the news *beyond the headline* for my job I still get access to a lot of what is happening through osmosis, but I have never had a news app on my phone, I never get push notifications about news, and honestly it's so good, it's so nice, I'm very:
Turning off push notifications in general has been great. I only get them for WhatsApps now, which means when I go into various apps I get lots of pleasant surprises rather than the constant drip feed of dread
I have the news in Welsh because it mostly passes me by but I think I'd recognise "Aliens Invade".
same. i call them anxiety apps.
Social media is not reality, it’s a playground for adults. You wouldn’t normally hear from nutjobs or lunatics but they exist here. Take it with a pinch of salt , you’re a normal , rational, honest person, so are 80% of the population, it’s just the 20% who are a problem.
You're not alone. I was a news junkie for years. Podcasts, talk based radio stations online, I couldn't get enough. Then we had Brexit & the tone changed, & it's got worse with every passing year. Now I don't listen to podcasts. My radio is all music now (Soho, Worldwide FM & 6Music).
I deleted my Twitter account & I stay off Facebook. I'm far more selective in what I engage with now on social media & have far fewer rows than I used to. My mental health isn't great, but hopefully I'm doing what I can to not make it any worse. Good luck with it.
I started by turning off automatic updates of political podcasts and kind of burn through them about once a fortnight (er, probably not helpful if you're in them) but I need to destream more. Or look at my lovely curated tumblr feed of scenery photos.
Please continue to call it out Marie. We should all be very worried about what is going on. There is clearly a strategy to drive the hard right agenda and the BBC is complicit (knowingly or otherwise.) The UK media is so fucked. Not US levels of fucked, but fucked all the same.
Look after yourself, we go through these periods, I was terrified by the Arab/Israeli war in '73, I read Notradamus and was convinced the world was going to end. There's always been nutters on every level, they never win, we're British, in the end, we can't be arsed and we'll start laughing at them
Same as it ever was..... My whole life the news has been the same: US does something stupid, Israel does something stupid, terrorists do something stupid, UK economy broken, Panda moved to a new zoo. Miss the Apollo launches, though.
Spot on, we need a new Laurel and Hardy or the Marx Brothers, we're all too bloody miserable, start enjoying life people, it's not a rehearsal
Unplugging yourself can easily feel like a betrayal (“if I don’t care, who will?”) but it’s frankly necessary every now and then to conserve stamina and live your life. Having said that, I increasingly feel like an Old Testament prophet waiting for something shocking enough to make people *wake up*.
I don’t like shaking hands with another smiling journalist or businessperson or analyst or what have you at the end of every conversation and thinking to myself “I hope to God something happens soon that knocks you out of this smug, too-clever-by-half apathy.” It’s worrying.
Yes, agreed. I actually feel like leaving the country at the moment.
yeah I've genuinely considered it too, but only realistic place for me given work and my partner would be New York and....well, lol
But where? Italy? France? Germany? This madness seems to be everywhere
Fucking preach.
You're not alone Marie, I read all the rubbish being pushed out by the right wing media about her last night & felt totally helpless. I suspected the #BBC would follow suit as seems to be the way now. We're heading for something pretty dark, it feels like a boulder rolling down a hill. Worrying.
BBC has fallen out of my consumption for several years, post the Brexit madness and COVID. Their reality only narrowly corresponds to mine. I can just about cope with checking the Guardian daily. It's become increasingly "oh this a teachable moment in media studies".
Yep. Reporting of Brexit by the UK media was deranged, and the derangement has now spread to the rest of their reporting.
I'd flip it around: Imagine if you thought this was how people's mental model of the world was constructed. Now that's crazy.
But you work with news right? The only thing that comes to mind is despair. I feel powerless too.
One thing I started doing was reading ground news, they show the bias, the different tendencies and generally they make the whole thing a little bit less aggravating.
Maybe we need some mass protests outside media corp headquarters...
Anger, frustration, impotence... these are perfectly legitimate feelings to have when seeing our country slide towards xenophobic radicalisation. If anyone says "lest we forget" to me this November I might just scream at them.
The world would benefit from a large-scale English-language anti-propaganda media company. It would benefit member states of the EU to fund it in part, along the lines of wartime BBC broadcasts or Radio Free Europe. Could base it in Ireland. Not even kidding!
Short of that, independent journalists in the US & UK should form closer ties and more of a support network.
I feel the same. Helpless.
I periodically take breaks- highly recommend it. It’s the only way I manage to stay vaguely sane
Same, and I actually think they want us to give up. We’re being drowned in misinformation and disinformation on news and social media. We need something better than reacting into the void - perhaps a government that doesn’t follow the far right drum on immigration. It’s not too much to ask.
Quite worrying isn't it. The BBC editors know perfectly well few people read beyond the headline.
Even beyond the headline so much is missing regarding this event, the tweet that encouraged the attack on the hostel, the sentencing remarks by the judge that explains the sentencing and the agreement from the defence on the level of her actions.
And when you combine it with things like this: the third headline on the front page of the app is Farage vowing mass deportations. WHO CARES?! He has a handful of MPs, but he's being reported on as if he's already the prime minister?! Why is he given such priority? It drives me mad.
And when you complain you get a pompous, “how ignorant you are” response. We can’t do without a BBC but really, they MUST improve, Davie and Gibb are failing us all in the mass comms arena. How on earth could this silly woman be a political prisoner? What an insult to those with political conviction
The top management BBC is stuffed full of Tory political appointments, they're not there to be objective, they're there to oppose the Labour government.
They literally are. After 14 years there's a generation of BBC staff indoctrinated to suck up to the Tories.
To be honest it goes back further, look at Brillo Pad & Nick Robinson, huge Tory activists that were appointed political editors, Neil especially remained a major voice of the right through all his time at the BBC, but voicing left wing views is treated as disqualifying.
So why hasn’t Starmer or his culture sec fired them all? God knows there’s cause.
I thought the idea was to give Davie and Gibb enough rope, but it’s gone beyond that now.
Oh they gave them enough rope alright, but not to hang themselves - to hogtie our government!
but why do we keep the party apparatchiks on after they left government? Can’t they be politically unappointed?
I can only assume they're afraid of 'Starmer siezes control of BBC to Stifle Free Speech' headlines just like the ones Johnson didn't get. The 'free' press in this country is so slanted and powerful that Labour plays by Tory rules when it's in government.
Which is just so obscene.
The BBC board all have contracts which don’t come up for renewal until 2027 (I think) until them Starmer would be accused of removing criticism if he changes the board. I would love him to do it but I doubt he will.
The govt doesn't have to change the bosses they can ensure they remain impartial especially ehen the BBC are openly saying they have to pander to what Reform voters want which sounds like we will leave out facts to make a story when there is not one.
I haven’t heard them say they have to pander to what reform voters want. I did read a reply to a complaint about airtime reform got, which said due to the number of votes they got in the local elections, reform are now considered the official opposition and are given the appropriate air time🤯
A fellow blueskyer posted the reply they got from the BBC a few mths ago where they said they know Reform voters don't trust them so they have to under their charter cater to them as well. I would say it is pandering when you don't ask Reform for evidence or check the evidence they offer.
It’s crazy, the right way to gain trust is to tell the truth and report fairly. If one section of society doesn’t like that tough, you don’t tell lies or change the narrative for their benefit. Next it will be vaccine scepticism to gain the trust of those nut jobs🤯
There was this Minutes of a meeting in March, seen by Byline Times, show that BBC News CEO Deborah Turness gave a presentation in which she discussed plans to alter “story selection” and “other types of output, such as drama” in order to win the trust of Reform voters bylinetimes.com/2025/06/09/b...
Also watch the BBC drama Showtrial shown on Oct 2024 where there is a protest scene where a white guy is going on about 2 tier policing, didnt take them long to jump on that phrase.
Oh wow, not seen that before🤯
Ah fuck. That seems to be what the Labour government have decided too. It’s fundamentally flawed doomed because their truth is the racist conspiracy and they’ll only trust things that agree with it
What about the trust of the rest of us?
That's such bollocks. The Tories are still the official opposition in Parliament, no matter how enfeebled and deranged. Can't the BBC see it is playing into Farage's hands? Or does it want to?
The problem with the media is they want a story. "Plucky Underdogs" and close races. The US media (I believe) sanewashed Trump because they thought he'd lose but wanted it close enough to keep the excitement going & the ratings up. Look how that worked out. Treat Führage like the grifter he is.
It wants to. That is the only logical conclusion when taken with how many times they've led with a Farage story, invited him onto panels, shown interviews etc. BBC management want anything but Labour, even if it's full-on fascism.
That would make sense. Thank you for raising it.
Didn’t know this. Super useful. They should still be drafting sweeping media reforms generally right now.
He might be behind the scenes but like every other policy they don’t tell us until they are ready. Annoying sometimes because the media just make stuff up. I would be very surprised if they weren’t looking at some way of forcing the media to report stuff they are doing.
Labour have a habit of not publicising the good they do, tax credits were Brown's huge push to help the poorest but he & Blair never spoke about them. Jack Straw commented on how much they'd helped his poor constituents, but they thought it was a correction of an overpayment or something.
I think they are going to have to find a voice before too long or we are doomed as a country.
Well, it's time that Starmer pulled on his Big Boy pants and implement Leveson II. One suspects he gave that one up to Rupert...
Yeah, they’re never going to get worse press, why not forge ahead? Not pissing the press off is only argument against Leveson II.
My read on this is that, Starmer likes the BBC like this. He finds them more favourable than a comparatively leftwing director general would be. Which I think is just correct. You don't even have to be a socialist to think his government's doing a bad job. Just like vaguely believe lefty things.
The legacy media is one of the biggest problems in UK politics and an enduring obstacle to decent governance, being so grotesquely slanted to the right
They need to get off their damned knees and exercise the mandate the electorate gave them. I despair of this Labour government.
There is no difference.
We can do without this poisonous version. Stop watching and complain!
I stopped funding the BBC long ago. I don't watch or record live television and don't watch the I-player contraption.
Th BBC is about more than its current version of itself.
The BBC lost all credibility with me when it became the Brexit Broadcasting Corporation. I'm not paying for them to pump Leave propaganda at me. Now if there was a way to pay for some of the radio stuff I might do so, but radio costs so little that they say it is not worth the BBC collecting.
It was bad enough before the vote, but immediately after the vote the BBC dropped any pretence of balance. That was the final straw.
Not seeing any obvious reference to the fact that she pleaded guilty? She admitted to committing the crime?
She did.
I got off Twitter and immediately felt better (there was much less going on on BkueSky then), but now I'm spotting similar dangers of getting enraged. Ignorance is bliss but also I'd rather not sleepwalk into a terrible right-wing society.
Propaganda, swallow it whole and nod along or disengage and become isolated and cowed. They win both ways
bsky.app/profile/cura...