Why we must combat social media manias before it is too late - Jenny Lindsay

It has been both tiring and frightening to witness movement after movement warp reality

Published 12th Oct 2026, 04:00 BST

Social media helped usher in a period of manias. Whenever one seems dealt with, another rears its head. When I see offline protests now – whether for ‘trans rights’, Scottish independence, or in support of Palestine Action – it feels like the cacophony of the online world made flesh.

We’re all susceptible to getting caught in a mania. I know this, having faced the tough realisation I once was. Between 2012 – 2014, I campaigned for Scottish independence.

While some of my reasoning is defensible, the first clue this wasn’t entirely rational should’ve been that I’d never once thought about such a thing before.

But it felt exciting. I enjoyed running events for the ‘cultural campaign,’ as part of a tight-knit group doing the same. In-group loyalty meant the practicalities of what we were advocating became secondary to the camaraderie.

But, when I started to question things in the months before the vote, I was suitably shunned.

I still voted Yes – but soon realised my foolhardiness. When a movement starts treating a Dear Leader as a rock star who mustn’t be questioned, as new First Minister Nicola Sturgeon soon was, it’s time to halt. Her Hydro stadium gig in late 2014 was my definitive ‘Oh F—k’ moment.

Some poets – as I used to be – whispered to me post-referendum, they were frightened to admit to some friends they’d voted No. There was undoubted arrogance in the cultural campaign; the message was ‘independently-minded’ artists should vote Yes. Oh, the coming irony. Mea maxima culpa.

A second clue fanaticism is in the mix is if you’re terrifying those who disagree with you – accidentally or not.

On cue: the ‘trans rights’ movement arrived pretty swiftly post-referendum, hitching a ride on Sturgeon’s popularity and wholly unearned reputation for being political savvy.

Then Brexit madness, #MeToo, Black Lives Matter - cause followed by backlash followed by backlash to the backlash. Bad ideas – and gender identity ideology has arguably been the most successful – have spread offline into institutions, normalised. With all opposition monstered, some forget how novel, how strange, some of these ideas are.

Never in a million years, for example, would some caught in the ‘anti-TERF’ mania have believed, not a decade ago, they’d come to advocate for children to identify as the opposite sex. But to them it’s seemingly become as natural to think such a thing ‘kind’ as I did when thinking voting Yes made me ‘progressive.’

While the movement for Scottish independence has a long history, denying women are a materially important category of human being has been the most unforgivably stupid contemporary movement to find oneself up against. Its flagrant lunacy, however, means - as the sunlight hit - its power has started to wane.

But now, a very dangerous mania is unfolding. And, the supposedly ‘pro-Palestine’ movement is frighteningly allergic to the cure of daylight. The 2023 October 7 massacre of Jewish Israelis was the most documented, livestreamed atrocity in human history. The denial and downplaying of what happened that day is therefore deeply disturbing.

Hamas murdered 1200 Jews. This carnival of death was celebrated proudly by mass crowds in Gaza. Their genocidal intent – to kill Jews and wipe Israel off the map – was clear. This wasn’t ‘resistance.’ It was a pogrom.

Being neither a fan of terrorism, a masochist, nor bereft of empathy for victims of the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, I view last week’s October 7 marches with contempt. Though supposedly arranged to oppose what some call ‘the genocide’, nobody outwith the mania – including those inclined to agree with that movement – can plausibly deny the horrific messages being spread.

Any doubt about the ignobility of the cause can be assuaged by looking at the march from Glasgow University. The lead chanter barked slogans off her phone - in itself, a crime that should be punishable with community service. Behind her, two keffiyeh-adorned students brandished a banner reading ‘Glory To Our Martyrs.’

Meanwhile, at last week’s Green Party conference, it became official policy that ‘Zionism Is Racism.’ To be clear: all ‘Zionism’ means is Israel, a country that already exists, should be permitted to.

Some may balk at my use of ‘mania’ to describe what, for them, is merely opposition to Israel’s subsequent – inevitable – war against Hamas. So, for clarity: it’s undeniable the people of Gaza face atrocities. Caring about the plight of Palestinians is not a mania.

Calling anyone who doesn’t want Israel obliterated a Nazi? Calling those who question the obvious antisemitism of many campaigners ‘genocide-supporters?’

Glorifying the murder of Jews on the streets of Glasgow? Yeah, boy-o. That’s where the line into mania has been dangerously crossed.

If the slogans chanted last Wednesday somehow transpired, their messages granted, the consequences would be utterly dire.

It has been both tiring and frightening to witness movement after movement warp reality, splitting complex issues into battlegrounds where one side is claimed to be ‘goodies’, the other ‘baddies.’ Ordinarily, the ones claiming righteousness display behaviours towards opponents fully at odds with their self-identity as the arbiters of moral good.

Theirs is the mindset of toddlers, their destructive power due to another human foible: most peoples’ desire for a quiet life. To whisper, frightened, ‘I hope it all just goes away.’ If I’ve learnt anything about manias, that never happens. If it isn’t already, the forces unleashed by this most dangerous of manias must be opposed before it’s too late.