132 replies to this topic

[ViperF1]

Mohammed Ben Sulayem has now also chipped in by writing an open letter.

 

https://www.fia.com/...st-online-abuse

 

Frankly, it is about time we all recognize it.

Moderators here had to write a special message to the members.

Reading some of the threads here is just sad.

I remember how proud I was as a young kid to be a fan of F1, where supporters were so much more cultivated than other sports and rivalries stayed on the track.

Not so much nowadays.

Edited by ViperF1, 08 November 2022 - 11:33.

[Risil]

Could you share Bin Sulayem's letter?

[Widefoot2]

It turns out that when we can all talk to one another with ease, that the conversations quickly turn nasty and manipulative.  We have met the enemy, and it is Social Media...

[PitViperRacing]

People just need to remember that whatever happens, every single person on the grid is a multi-millonaire and is set for a very comfortable life. Also no matter how much you go in to bat for them on an internet forum, they'll never know who you are.

People should just enjoy the sport, and if they want to focus so much energy on something; put it into their own achievements.

[itsgreen84]

Can't we just organize an online F1 race. I am sure that will bring change...

[piszkosfred]

1. Follow your own rules consequently (FIA)

2. Think before you talk or shut the **** up (certain team leaders mainly)

3. Respect your competitors on and off track as you wish to be respected by others (drivers)

4. Ignore social media completely.

[kar]

'Toxicity', is it actually growing though?

 

Pretty sure things were pretty gritty in the 'fandom' before Facebook and Twitter were a thing, just didn't get as much airtime.

[IrvTheSwerve]

I think it's all (mostly) lip service.

 

They need to encourage increases in security at circuits. They need to drop the OTT social media presence that is undoubtably stoking the fire (and has done between Lewis/Max fans over the last couple of years). They won't though, because $$$.

 

In any case, I think it's bigger than F1. Look at any social media threads that involve sport (or most things, for that matter). Honestly, I can't read Twitter for more than 20-30 seconds. It's truly awful how people speak to each other online. 

 

I would say that it's the DTS generation of young people who have been brough up with social media that are causing the harm, but honestly it looks like older generations are just as bad. I think the juvenility of some younger DTS fans who aren't typically motorsport fans probably doesn't help though.

 

Hashtags, stickers on cars and banners with 'respect' on do sod all. 

Edited by IrvTheSwerve, 08 November 2022 - 11:50.

[jjcale]

"We must stand united against online abuse ..." ........ good luck with that 

[Colbul1]

As much as Bernie said and did some unsavoury things, didn't he insist F1 would be better off not engaging with social media?  To some extent he has been proven right with that position.

[JHSingo]

Perhaps it'd help if people finally stopped going on about Abu Dhabi last year. That'd be a good start. 

 

F1 seems to becoming as tribalistic as football (a sport I've always disliked, in part due to the stupidity and hooliganism of many fans), which is very sad. It seems many 'fans' can't enjoy the sport unless their favourite driver is winning. I've always said that my interest in motorsport was first piqued, because I loved cars and I loved seeing racing. Sure, I've had my favourites over the years, and people I've wanted to see do well, but it's the actual racing that keeps me coming back, not who wins. I'll happily go to any race event, even if it's a low level clubby. I dare say the number of younger fans who know such racing exists, or would be interested in going to something that doesn't have famous drivers competing, would be pretty negligible. 

 

I don't know if it's a DTS thing, or because of social media, but it seems like the majority of new fans bandwagon one driver or team, and like them more than they actually enjoy the sport. I mean, I'm sure a significant amount of complaints about this season come from a certain group of fans who are annoyed that their driver hasn't been winning... 

 

Unfortunately, ultimately I think things will only get better when particular drivers retire from the sport, and take some of their more unpleasant fans with them. I've seen plenty of comments to that effect, people saying they'll stop watching when their favourite driver retires. To that, I say, "yes, please do!" Let those of us who actually enjoy motorsport, do so in peace. 

Edited by JHSingo, 08 November 2022 - 12:05.

[New Britain]

'Toxicity', is it actually growing though?

 

Pretty sure things were pretty gritty in the 'fandom' before Facebook and Twitter were a thing, just didn't get as much airtime.

You mean in, say, football, where the rivalries between fans made, and still make, rivalries between F1 fans seem like a spat between kindergarteners over a cookie?

[Peat]

I think the juvenility of some younger DTS fans who aren't typically motorsport fans probably doesn't help though.

 

 

What chance do the younglings have when they see the level of discourse practiced by the 'adults'....?

[P123]

Not sure F1 fan toxicity is a new phenomenon.  It's best not to read the comments section of any F1 related Youtube video since forever, for example.

[JHSingo]

Not sure F1 fan toxicity is a new phenomenon.  It's best not to read the comments section of any F1 related Youtube video since forever, for example.

 

It's not new, but it's definitely significantly worse than it ever used to be. 

 

As much as last season was a brilliant one for excitement and on track action, it was the nadir for online discussion about this sport. Events like Silverstone, Monza, Saudi, Abu Dhabi just turned into screaming matches. 

[Counterbalance]

It's not new, but it's definitely significantly worse than it ever used to be.

As much as last season was a brilliant one for excitement and on track action, it was the nadir for online discussion about this sport. Events like Silverstone, Monza, Saudi, Abu Dhabi just turned into screaming matches.

In my opinion it was just as bad in the early 2000’s with Ferrari vs Rest of The World threads. Wasn’t a member here then, but there were some arguments on other forums which made the threads you mentioned look like tea parties.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube contain the truly horrific comments. That would be a good starting point for a clean up.

[ForzaFormula]

This place is like the new planet F1, but is nowhere near as bad as twitter, facebook, racist abuse (aimed at Lewis) and constant bashing of some other drivers, some of the comments are awful, never mind all the pictures made up.

But FIA should look at themselves also for their inconsistencies, not punishing cheating correctly (now and in the past) and not following their own rules to aid in titles does not help their cause and this stir up between certain fans.

[Ali623]

Well there's certainly many things the F1 sphere could do to help the situation for a start.

 

You have out of context radio messages being broadcast, DTS which deliberately embelishes narratives and creates entirely fabricated ones. Teams and drivers aren't excused either, you had multiple teams caliing Red Bull cheaters because of the cost-cap before anything had been released/confirmed. Red Bull themselves saying Hamilton had sent Verstappen to hospital last year at Silverstone. Alonso with his recent comments about Hamilton's championships being worth less as another example.

 

All of this is just stoking the social media fire and is done deliberately for enagagement one way or another. And ultimately the best engagement is controversy.

[se7en_24]

It's not new, but it's definitely significantly worse than it ever used to be. 

 

As much as last season was a brilliant one for excitement and on track action, it was the nadir for online discussion about this sport. Events like Silverstone, Monza, Saudi, Abu Dhabi just turned into screaming matches. 

You're joking right? It was so bad here before that we ended up having these 'team' threads that you see now, rather than individual topics being created. I remember a crazy Jos Verstappen fan with a nickname of 'Michael Schumacher hater'. 

[Sash1]

We used to have opinions about things, some discussions about facts, maybe acknowledge that somebody else is right based on the evidence. 
Now it is more defend your own position until eternity, reacting to everyone and everything who or what doesn't agree. It is not F1 specific, it is with everything. It is even happening in our firefighting squad where we are all trained to follow procedures. You should be able to pull 6 people from 24 at random and know that everyone (within limits) follows the same procedure. Instead we now get people who argue about every petty detail they disagree with, act wrong on it and defend their actions until they are kicked from the team because they endanger others. At the kindergarten and schools parents make a habit about discussing every detail with the workers who are ff-ing trained for the job. At work people start to do their own thing instead of following the technical outlines and tell the boss not to bitch about it. They bitch at sport trainers about stuff for effin 10th class kid level, because the kids are all the new Ronaldo/Hamilton/Federer. The others are always playing unfair. The others always have unfair facts/answers/explanations. Me me me me. Some people are now always wrong because they presumedly belong to the wrong team/group/fashion style/politic-side, so they must be biased in the view of the other and are therefore wrong by default. Facts, rules, history can always be explained in a different way. Hearsay are the new facts and because person A belongs to the 'right' group, his words must be true, despite the real facts. FFS even when the police pulls people over for speeding it has become so friggin hard to acknowledge that you got caught. No, instead an argument starts about not endangering anyone, it is always me, it was just 10km to fast, the rules are stupid. I just read an article about some idiot who was doing 70 km/h to fast and argues that the cyclist whom he killed is somehow responsible for the accident. You nowadays get excluded by some because you listen to the "wrong" artists, or because your sane arguments about some local situation is to much in line with some politician. 
Maybe there is too much freedom of speech, but I think it is more a total lack of respect for other people and to much self righteousness. 

Edited by Sash1, 08 November 2022 - 13:02.

[Anderis]

It's not new, but it's definitely significantly worse than it ever used to be.

Not sure if it's worse or just more exposed.

 

Social media, for example, are much more universal experiences to most people than some isolated internet forums we had in the early 2000's. There's also plenty of examples of horrible and violent behaviour of various sports fans in the pre social media era.

 

I don't think it's worse than it has been but more so harder to ignore nowadays due to the nature of social media. Back in the day, you would hear about something horrible happening from the media maybe once a week but it's all you would be aware of. Nowadays you just oepn about any website and has all this behaviour from all the strangers from around the world exposed on a daily basis. 

[thefinalapex]

So much Bias, (especially amongst mods) protecting certain drivers while others get bashed is not good.
There needs to be clear no bias right from the top otherwise it will never go away.

This place is like the new planet F1, but is nowhere near as bad as twitter, facebook, racist abuse (aimed at Lewis) and constant bashing of some other drivers, some of the comments are awful, never mind all the pictures made up.

But FIA should look at themselves also for their inconsistencies, not punishing cheating correctly (now and in the past) and not following their own rules to aid in titles does not help their cause and this stir up between certain fans.

I don’t know what you have been reading here but its mainly Max, Horner and Red Bull bashing. Before that it was Vettel, Rosberg, Alonso and Schumacher that got the most bashing. Hamilton is 50/50 as he also has an big fanbase presence on this forum so more people that stick up for him.

[pacificquay]

It turns out that when we can all talk to one another with ease, that the conversations quickly turn nasty and manipulative.  We have met the enemy, and it is Social Media...

That’s not social media though, is it? It’s people.

[tonymorel]

Perhaps it'd help if people finally stopped going on about Abu Dhabi last year. That'd be a good start. 

 

But how does telling someone what should or shouldn't matter to them help? Does that not actually fuel the toxicity?

 

If F1 is serious about moving away from being a sport and dead set on being a show, then this is what they need (sort of Deride to Survive)

[noikeee]

I blame a considerable share of the blame on both Toto and Horner. These assholes both tried to imprint a "siege mentality" kind of thing during last year's championship fight, pushing the PR line as far as they could, demonizing the opposition whenever they could, and it filtered out to the fans.

 

Now everyone is like, oh no, what have we done. Well start treating other teams as competitive adversaries instead of deadly enemies you absolute plonkers.

[potmotr]

I'm sure this will have absolutely no impact whatsoever.

 

V8 Supercars in Australia has run similar campaigns in recent years, and the toxicity is worse than ever.

 

Modern world innit.

[Raest]

I haven't decided yet what's going to kill humans first. Climate change or social media. I am leaning towards the latter these days... 

[potmotr]

There's definitely going to be a war started by social media. I guess with Ukraine you could argue it's happening already. 

 

In any case, I still thing tribalism and online/offline hate in F1 still pales in comparison to basically any football game!

[JHSingo]

You're joking right? It was so bad here before that we ended up having these 'team' threads that you see now, rather than individual topics being created. I remember a crazy Jos Verstappen fan with a nickname of 'Michael Schumacher hater'. 

 

Well, let's just take a look at what's happened in the past couple of years:

• F1, the FIA, Mercedes and Red Bull all issued statements after the events of Silverstone last year, condemning racist language directed at Lewis Hamilton
• Nicholas Latifi and Michael Masi received death threats after Abu Dhabi, Latifi hired bodyguards when he visited London
• There was the whole Nelson Piquet thing earlier this year, again, the sport putting out a statement to condemn what had happened

If that's not a worrying trend, I don't know what is. 

 

The internet has always had trolls inhabiting forms, comments sections of videos, etc. But I think for F1 to have to repeatedly issue statements so regularly condemning certain behaviour, it shows just how worse things have become. There's a clear difference between someone calling themselves "Michael Schumacher Hater" on an anonymous forum, which is pretty harmless (I doubt Schumi himself ever lost sleep over that), to actually sending racists or abusive messages directly to people within the sport via social media, don't you think? 

 

But how does telling someone what should or shouldn't matter to them help? Does that not actually fuel the toxicity?

 

Because as we've seen time and time again, people find it impossible to discuss Abu Dhabi civilly. Whenever it's brought back up, it just turns into a slanging match most of the time. 

[Squeed]

I don’t know what you have been reading here but its mainly Max, Horner and Red Bull bashing. Before that it was Vettel, Rosberg, Alonso and Schumacher that got the most bashing. Hamilton is 50/50 as he also has an big fanbase presence on this forum so more people that stick up for him.

 

It’s important to distinguish between legitimate on-topic criticism, and “bashing.” 

Everyone you have listed has provided volumes of material worthy of strong criticism at times in their careers, but fans have thin skins these days. 

[jjcale]

Thinking a little more about this .... he hasnt dealt with AD21 properly yet .... so he is part of the problem here, no?

 

AD21 was not just a failure by Masi to follow rules - it was the culmination of an effort to spice up the show to draw in more casual fans - that ended up going badly wrong (or perhaps right depending on your perspective) .... so they need to go back and look at the road that led them to AD21 if they want to address the problem of "toxic fans".

 

 

 

Also ...  doesnt he have anything better to do - Andretti cant get into F1 is a much bigger problem to me than this .... the continuing dirty air problem is bigger than this.    etc etc .

[jjcale]

 

 

Here's some toxic fans in Brazil ... what do they know about motor racing? .... bunch of casuals:   Of trophies you have seven but in the heart of the fans you have eight...

 

AD21 is never going to go away  .... you can be like Lady Macbeth all you want "Out! damned spot! out I say ..."         ...but that stain will not be washed away.  

Edited by jjcale, 08 November 2022 - 17:51.

[PayasYouRace]

Not letting go of Abu Dhabi 21 is exactly the kind of toxicity we don’t need as F1 fans. Bloody hell, let it go!

[TomNokoe]

This is a product of Liberty's incessant race to the bottom, trying to grow the sport at any cost.

(This is the cost)

Edited by TomNokoe, 08 November 2022 - 15:40.

[Clrnc]

Not letting go of Abu Dhabi 21 is exactly the kind of toxicity we don’t need as F1 fans. Bloody hell, let it go!

QFT. 

 

I find some threads here way more toxic than social media. When the AD thread when, now there's a new one. 

[Primo]

Polarization is growing everywhere and the F1 toxicity is just a part of the general, global toxicity. Good luck solving that, bin Sulayem.

[P123]

Not letting go of Abu Dhabi 21 is exactly the kind of toxicity we don’t need as F1 fans. Bloody hell, let it go!

 

It's just a bit of high profile F1 drama.  A bit of F1 history, filed alongside numerous other things like spygate or crashgate, Ferrari's dodgy engine, or other contentious championship endings and FIA screw ups.  The "let it go" mantra applies to all sides I'd suggest.  Squealing "let it go" also has it's own whiff of baiting about it.

[AlexPrime]

I agree with the FIA President and support his letter.

[IrvTheSwerve]

Not letting go of Abu Dhabi 21 is exactly the kind of toxicity we don’t need as F1 fans. Bloody hell, let it go!

 

Honestly, it's starting to make my blood boil far more than AD21 ever did.

 

Just looking at a Facebook post from F1 earlier (I think it was the official channel, can't remember)...the caption was something along the lines of 'Welcoming the 7 time World Champion'. One of the most popular comments at the top then was ' *8 times World Champion'. Then there would be someone commenting for them to 'cry some more'. Then there would be comments saying that Max can't win without cheating...repeat ad nauseum. It's tiring to see - everywhere. It is literally in pretty much every single post about F1.

 

The rivalry last year was damn brilliant, but Toto, Horner and Liberty Media stirred it up so much, completed by the sh*tshow by the FIA towards the end of the season to put the spinkles on top...and this is what we have.

 

I have a feeling that this won't go away until Verstappen retires - seriously. I think that there will be significant group of Hamilton fans that will bring up the past until Verstappen finishes in the sport (not grouping ALL Hamilton fans into that). Same with the trouble at the track. We are all aware of some of the trouble coming from orange-clad fans - perhaps unfairly reported at times.

 

I think this will run for a long, long time.

Edited by IrvTheSwerve, 08 November 2022 - 16:01.

[P123]

Honestly, it's starting to make my blood boil far more than AD21 ever did.

 

Just looking at a Facebook post from F1 earlier (I think it was the official channel, can't remember)...the caption was something along the lines of 'Welcoming the 7 time World Champion'. One of the most popular comments at the top then was ' *8 times World Champion'. Then there would be someone commenting for them to 'cry some more'. Then there would be comments saying that Max can't win without cheating...repeat ad nauseum. It's tiring to see - everywhere. It is literally in pretty much every single post about F1.

 

The rivalry last year was damn brilliant, but Toto, Horner and Liberty Media stirred it up so much, completed by the sh*tshow by the FIA towards the end of the season to put the spinkles on top...and this is what we have.

 

I have a feeling that this won't go away until Verstappen retires - seriously. I think that there will be significant group of Hamilton fans that will bring up the past until Verstappen finishes in the sport (not grouping ALL Hamilton fans into that). Same with the trouble at the track. We are all aware of some of the trouble coming from orange-clad fans - perhaps unfairly reported at times.

 

I think this will run for a long, long time.

 

Facebook is garbage when it comes to anything F1 related.  You've just now found something you don't like to read?  Some things some fans do latch on to.  Like from last season alone, Silverstone, which was toxic long before AD arrived!

 

'Hamilton fans' is an interesting one, as 'they' have been referred to repeatedly and increasingly on this forum recently.  

[PayasYouRace]

It's just a bit of high profile F1 drama. A bit of F1 history, filed alongside numerous other things like spygate or crashgate, Ferrari's dodgy engine, or other contentious championship endings and FIA screw ups. The "let it go" mantra applies to all sides I'd suggest. Squealing "let it go" also has it's own whiff of baiting about it.

Those things you list, the majority of fans have let go of. They’re just stuff that happened in the past, and we carry on.

There’s no reason to assume I wasn’t covering all sides in my statement.

[monolulu]

Honestly, it's starting to make my blood boil far more than AD21 ever did.

 

Just looking at a Facebook post from F1 earlier (I think it was the official channel, can't remember)...the caption was something along the lines of 'Welcoming the 7 time World Champion'. One of the most popular comments at the top then was ' *8 times World Champion'. Then there would be someone commenting for them to 'cry some more'. Then there would be comments saying that Max can't win without cheating...repeat ad nauseum. It's tiring to see - everywhere. It is literally in pretty much every single post about F1.

 

The rivalry last year was damn brilliant, but Toto, Horner and Liberty Media stirred it up so much, completed by the sh*tshow by the FIA towards the end of the season to put the spinkles on top...and this is what we have.

 

I have a feeling that this won't go away until Verstappen retires - seriously. I think that there will be significant group of Hamilton fans that will bring up the past until Verstappen finishes in the sport (not grouping ALL Hamilton fans into that). Same with the trouble at the track. We are all aware of some of the trouble coming from orange-clad fans - perhaps unfairly reported at times.

 

I think this will run for a long, long time.

Can I suggest that you don’t read the comments & replies on social media posts. Also the comments following articles on all formula 1 sites. I find it helps!

[smitten]

Not letting go of Abu Dhabi 21 is exactly the kind of toxicity we don’t need as F1 fans. Bloody hell, let it go!

I don't see "not letting go" of AD21 as toxic in itself, but how it's presented in discussions certainly can be.  And it has no need to be brought into every conversation, just like Silverstone '21 or Adelaide '94 don't need to be in every conversation.  But AD 21 was (in my opinion) one of F1's more egregious wrongs, and it was not yet 12 months ago. 

 

I would counter, therefore, that there are a number of posters who still feel aggrieved (rightly or wrongly!) at AD 21, yet try not to bring it into every conversation (I like to hope I'm one that tries that); but being continually told that we should just "let it go" sometimes looks like an attempt to shut down discourse and brush it under the carpet.  Again, I recognise opinions differ, but I believe that having an opinion some people don't agree with or want to hear is not necessarily toxic; toxicity is in presentation.

[cpbell]

Perhaps it'd help if people finally stopped going on about Abu Dhabi last year. That'd be a good start. 

 

F1 seems to becoming as tribalistic as football (a sport I've always disliked, in part due to the stupidity and hooliganism of many fans), which is very sad. It seems many 'fans' can't enjoy the sport unless their favourite driver is winning. I'v

I feel the same way.

[Gareth]

Perhaps it'd help if people finally stopped going on about Abu Dhabi last year. That'd be a good start. 

Any time you want to stop, feel free 

 

I mean, you brought it up in this thread, and it's literally your sig, so feels a bit weird for you to be all holier than thou about mentioning it, but YMMV I guess.

[JimmyClark]

 

 

I have a feeling that this won't go away until Verstappen retires - seriously. I think that there will be significant group of Hamilton fans that will bring up the past until Verstappen finishes in the sport (not grouping ALL Hamilton fans into that). Same with the trouble at the track. We are all aware of some of the trouble coming from orange-clad fans - perhaps unfairly reported at times.

 

I think this will run for a long, long time.

 

To be brutally honest, I think a lot of it might calm down after Hamilton retires, as a lot of the worst of the social media angst seems to be when another driver has the temerity to challenge him (see the venom that flew about towards Alonso, Rosberg, Vettel and Verstappen at various points, and now George Russell), whereas this year it was all a lot calmer in terms of the WDC when it seemed to be Leclerc v Verstappen early on. But obviously there's linguistic bias there, as I will only notice British posts rather than those written in Dutch/Italian/Spanish/etc, so that's probably why I notice it for one fanbase more than others. 

 

Twitter algorithms don't help either - my newsfeed is actively putting controversial opions from random fan accounts I don't follow as 'suggested tweets' - no matter how much I click 'I'm not interested', I still get them every day. Now, I don't have inclination get wound up on social media, but you can bet your bottom dollar that other people are more than happy to wade into those threads and it just spirals. Twitter gets more engagement, ergo more ad clicks, and so doesn't really have any interest in disincentivising it.  Presumably other social media uses the same strategy. 

 

If F1 is serious about stopping this, they really need to tell teams to reign in their social media posts that masquarade as terrible banter (it only serves to wind people up more), and generally stop engaging until fans realise that if they want the levels of access they have now into the sport, they should bloody well show some respect for those who work in it. We shouldn't forget, not so long ago in the era of Bernie, that F1 social media was pretty much banned, certainly where any kind of video access into the inner sanctum was concerned. 

 

At the very least I still find everybody I meet in person at race tracks very friendly, and its nowhere near the point of football fans who still have to be physically separated from each other in many countries. Yes there are reports we've seen in the hooliganism thread, but when each race weekend has an attendance of 300k+, and now pretty much every time someone breathes it can go on social media, I still find it a very insignifiant part of the 'core' fanbase, which does lead me to believe much of what we see online is from fair weather fans, or those just wanting to cause an argument. 

Edited by JimmyClark, 08 November 2022 - 16:51.

[ensign14]

"Man who throws lighted match in store of dynamite complains about how loud the explosion is"

[jjcale]

I don't see "not letting go" of AD21 as toxic in itself, but how it's presented in discussions certainly can be.  And it has no need to be brought into every conversation, just like Silverstone '21 or Adelaide '94 don't need to be in every conversation.  But AD 21 was (in my opinion) one of F1's more egregious wrongs, and it was not yet 12 months ago. 

 

I would counter, therefore, that there are a number of posters who still feel aggrieved (rightly or wrongly!) at AD 21, yet try not to bring it into every conversation (I like to hope I'm one that tries that); but being continually told that we should just "let it go" sometimes looks like an attempt to shut down discourse and brush it under the carpet.  Again, I recognise opinions differ, but I believe that having an opinion some people don't agree with or want to hear is not necessarily toxic; toxicity is in presentation.

 

One would have thought that the obvious solution for the forum would have been to leave open the AD21 thread - let folks spin their wheels in there - and those not interested dont need to go in there .... and then rule AD21 off topic in other threads and rigorously police that.

 

The idea that folks are going to "get over" AD21 is not realistic .... and I've been saying that since day one..... does no one remember 1994?

Edited by jjcale, 08 November 2022 - 16:50.

[Risil]

I agree with the FIA President and support his letter.

 
He is right that various figures in the sport including FIA personnel have received terrible abuse, but I felt the letter was short on clear ideas to do something about it.
 
I mean, "enter[ing] into dialogue with social media platforms to play their part", what does this mean!

[cpbell]

We used to have opinions about things, some discussions about facts, maybe acknowledge that somebody else is right based on the evidence. 
Now it is more defend your own position until eternity, reacting to everyone and everything who or what doesn't agree. It is not F1 specific, it is with everything. It is even happening in our firefighting squad where we are all trained to follow procedures. You should be able to pull 6 people from 24 at random and know that everyone (within limits) follows the same procedure. Instead we now get people who argue about every petty detail they disagree with, act wrong on it and defend their actions until they are kicked from the team because they endanger others. At the kindergarten and schools parents make a habit about discussing every detail with the workers who are ff-ing trained for the job. At work people start to do their own thing instead of following the technical outlines and tell the boss not to bitch about it. They bitch at sport trainers about stuff for effin 10th class kid level, because the kids are all the new Ronaldo/Hamilton/Federer. The others are always playing unfair. The others always have unfair facts/answers/explanations. Me me me me. Some people are now always wrong because they presumedly belong to the wrong team/group/fashion style/politic-side, so they must be biased in the view of the other and are therefore wrong by default. Facts, rules, history can always be explained in a different way. Hearsay are the new facts and because person A belongs to the 'right' group, his words must be true, despite the real facts. FFS even when the police pulls people over for speeding it has become so friggin hard to acknowledge that you got caught. No, instead an argument starts about not endangering anyone, it is always me, it was just 10km to fast, the rules are stupid. I just read an article about some idiot who was doing 70 km/h to fast and argues that the cyclist whom he killed is somehow responsible for the accident. You nowadays get excluded by some because you listen to the "wrong" artists, or because your sane arguments about some local situation is to much in line with some politician. 
Maybe there is too much freedom of speech, but I think it is more a total lack of respect for other people and to much self righteousness. 

"The Death of Expertise" by Tom Nicholls goes into these exact tendencies.