One of the great things about Twitter is how it can get information to such a wide audience. This is particularly the case when it comes to missing people and pets. I generally retweet any messages about missing people and lost pets. Because so many people try and help, tweets can continue being shared after the situation has been resolved, so I also try and check that the person or animal is still missing.
Earlier today I was about to retweet a message about a missing dog in Kent, but first checked the owner's Facebook page to see if the animal had been found. They hadn't found him, but my check revealed that the owner has shared posts from Nick Griffin British Unity and Britain First. This made me think twice about sharing the tweet about her lost dog.
Why shouldn't I share the message? We live in a democracy and, as part of that, have to accept people's right to support the party of their choice. The woman said her young daughter is devastated. Her child doesn't support extreme right wing nationalism, hopefully. The dog - and its fellow pet, left behind by the thieves, definitely don't support any political party, surely the dogs deserve of my pity? I eventually retweet the alert.
I had tried to justify not sharing the tweet, but had
failed. I hope the dog has been sold on rather than used as bait for dog
fighting. It's new owners may have less extreme voting tendencies. Wherever it
has gone, the poor dog will be distressed at being ripped from its home and the
other pet will be distressed at losing its mate.
The owner shares extreme right-wing Facebook posts,
but that is no excuse for me being narrow-minded. It really does bother me that people are
taken in by the rubbish Britain First spout. In our by-election, they garnered
only 52 votes, this is 52 too many, but it was a humiliating result for them. I
dislike the way they highjack national news items to gain followers and
'shares'. I started reading their policies, I got to 'Reject and deport all
“asylum seekers” who do not originate from countries bordering Britain.'
Extreme right wing and terminally stupid – I have to wonder how high that
correlation may be.
The constituency the woman lives in has had
Conservative MPs for the last 100 years, apart from 1929, when they went wild
and elected a Liberal. The current MP has been their MP for 18 years and has a
majority of over 17,000. In the unlikely
event that he loses his seat to a Britain First candidate, I have only myself
to blame and will probably feel the need to visit Tenterden and rescue the
other dog from a life of nationalism.
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