It turns out we couldn’t hash-tag this problem away. As with all things, we got some tremendous team sport…

It turns out we couldn’t hash-tag this problem away. As with all things, we got some tremendous team sport out of it, as we rallied behind our hash-tags. But the problem? Still there. /1 https://t.co/EOQy0HG8AM https://t.co/Mkl1jhHlh2

Hash-tag (kiddult) society identifies a problem. People rally around the problem, with hash-tags. They form teams. Often opposed to other teams mobilising around the problem, with different hash-tags. /2

# MeToo vs # NotAllMen, for example. # ZeroCovid vs # SmilesareBack. Etc. When you look the teams proliferate around every issue. They thrash it out for a while, even a long while. They hit the streets and the column inches in national media. /3

Sometimes this leads to wider action of some kind. Some teams claim victory, others blame the ref, others disappear. You could say this is democracy in action. /4

Except, as we see with domestic violence and Covid, if the actions don’t reflect actual causes, little actually changes. The victory is a momentary victory for one team. Reality doesn’t care about any of them. /5

If I have a leaking tap in my garden, and invent # Leakytaps, then march in the streets demanding leaky taps be a thing of the past? In today’s world I will certainly get a counter # group, like # Livewithleakytaps. /6

And my # Leakytaps group may prevail. Victory! But my tap is still leaking. /7

How would I fix the tap? Two ways. First, understand why taps leak. Then, fix it. No teams required. /8

Knowledge. Then action. This is why the Brits, following the Chinese, invented public/civil services. To bring expertise to problems. And then to fix them. /9

Social media world has no conception of that basic process at all. It will just continuously turn all problems into team sports. /10

We love team sports. We’re less good at recognising it’s increasingly *all we do*. So, how do we fix domestic violence? /11

I’m wary to even get into these debates because you’re immediately shunted into one of the teams. I’m not on any of the teams. But I do wonder if we focus enough on the D in DV, as well as the V. /12

Wherever debate and action goes from this point, I will bet it will be just more team sports. Little analysis, little action. Plenty of performative symbolism, by the different teams. /end