Wannabe extremists don’t have to go looking for others who share their views on Facebook (Credits: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
‘It’s not Musk – it’s all social media’
As Metro readers rightfully take aim at Elon Musk for his extreme postings on Twitter/X about the UK and his support for Donald Trump (MetroTalk, Thu), it’s important to remember that this is the default of social media, not the exception.
Self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist Musk has lashed out for seemingly no reason for years.
But it’s essential to remember that Musk and Twitter are not alone.
Years ago, I co-authored a paper for the US-based NGO Counter Extremism Project. My co-author and I analysed 1,000 Facebook accounts of Islamic State (Isis) supporters and fighters.
What hit home, however, was that as I was going through extremist accounts on Facebook, I started getting Facebook friend suggestions of other extremist Isis accounts. Facebook was doing the hard work of introducing wannabe terrorists to each other.
This is just one of a host of issues with extremism and Facebook – more can be found for any social media.
When it comes to social media, it’s essential to remember. It is not Musk. It is not Twitter. It is all social media, this is the default setting. Robert Postings, via email
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Public transport is not fit for purpose or women
Figures show over a third of women experienced sexual harassment or sexual offences while commuting (Credits: Getty Images/Westend61)
In light of reports that crimes against female passengers have risen again – 11,357 in the year to March, up 20 per cent (Metro, Thu) – can we now expect to see railway companies reversing their policy of reducing visible staff on trains and of not manning smaller stations at all?
We are supposed to be encouraging people to use public transport because it is greener and safer and rail travel is by far the safest and most environmentally friendly means of mass-transit travel there is.
Despite this, trains are perpetually stripped back to minimum staffing levels while costs increase prohibitively – and this while petrol duty is frozen and aeroplane fuel remains inexplicably tax exempt.
This situation desperately needs correction and that requires a concerted will to prioritise rail so that it is once again seen as secure, comfortable and affordable.
It ought to be seen as people’s first-choice travel solution rather than the last resort that it has been allowed to become – and that means women’s safety must be assured, not just through expressions of good intentions (how often do we hear promises of ‘working tirelessly’?) but by positive action. Julian Self, Wolverton
They’ll ‘simply’ put the price up
One reader tells us why we should be wary of the phrasing ‘best available fare’ (Credits: Getty Images)
Paul (MetroTalk, Wed) talks of the complicated railway fares structure and calls for simplification.
You can be certain that simplification would ‘simplify’ travelling costs upwards and ‘simplify’ out the cheaper options. Simplification of something is not automatically A Good Thing.
Loss of day fares. Loss of super off-peak. Loss of availing oneself of boundary zone fares, loss of railcard discounts because return fares meet the minimum-fare threshold but individual single fares don’t… it goes on and on.
Fares are too expensive but simplification isn’t the solution. Keeping what already exists – just reducing the price of what already exists – is surely the best solution.
Be mindful of the exact wording of things. Labour (and the Conservatives beforehand) have never actually promised cheaper fares, they have promised that you will be guaranteed to get the best available fare.
If simplification has simplified out most of the cheaper-option, turn-up-and-go fares, the best available turn-up-and-go fare is not necessarily cheaper than what was previously available. ‘Best available fare’ is not a synonym for ‘cheaper than before’. Nick, Hartlepool
Water sorry state of affairs in Walsall
A stretch of canal at Reservoir Place, Walsall, West Midlands, where dead fish can be seen floating on top of the water (Picture: Joseph Walshe / SWNS)
The sodium cyanide that ran into the Walsall canal (Metro, Thu) and which derived from a company called Anochrome Ltd is an appalling dereliction of responsibility.
Poseidon must be turning in his wave. This is another total destruction of our waterways.
Is it not enough that water company bosses are getting paid extortionately for doing nothing?
And then this happens. Good God, Poseidon, I don’t think even Hercules can get us out of this puddle – oops, I mean muddle. Bring back water campaigner Feargal Sharkey – he’ll raise the Undertones. Harry John, Linton
Alone with my thoughts
Are we just avoiding our thoughts? (Credits: Getty Images/Image Source)
Like Steve (MetroTalk, Wed), I am also tired of being bombarded by inane music everywhere I go.
I think people are afraid of silence or being alone with their own thoughts. That’s probably the reason people are constantly listening or watching something on their mobiles when travelling.
What happened to daydreaming? It’s good for the imagination – or mindfulness which, as we know, is good for mental health. Jean, Huddersfield