It's More Complicated Than the Headline | public shaming, an eclipse and Count Binface

This week runs from the heavy to the daft. We start with the emergency alert and the wildfire risk behind it, which leads Peter into the Concept of the Week. Then the hard part: the death of Professor Jason Arday, the Cambridge academic who faced a sustained campaign of online abuse, and what public shaming actually does to a person. We talk proportionality, the presumption of innocence that social media has quietly erased, and why a pile-on so often says more about the people holding the torches than the person they are aimed at. After that we lighten up, with why a partial eclipse left Peter cold while eclipse-chasers cross the planet for the full thing, and Count Binface giving Nigel Farage a run for his money in Clacton.This episode discusses a recent death, online abuse and mental health. Please take care if that is difficult for you.CONCEPT OF THE WEEKINUS, from the philosopher J.L. Mackie, which is a formal way of saying that causes are almost always more tangled than they look. A fire needs a spark, but the spark could have been a match, a lighter or a dropped cigarette, and no single one of them is the whole story. It is a useful lens for everything from why a wildfire took hold to why the far right gains ground: there is rarely one simple cause, however much a headline wants there to be.THE TRIPLE TWait a second before you respond. It sounds almost too obvious to say, but most of the harm we do, and most of the nonsense we spread, comes from reacting to a headline as though we already know the whole story. There is nearly always a backstory, a complication, a perspective you have not heard. So let investigations run their course, let the facts arrive, and above all do not send the tweet. It will almost certainly be wrong.| IF YOU HAVE BEEN AFFECTED If you have been affected by any of the issues discussed on our podcast, please contact your doctor, local support services, or your emergency services if in crisis. If you are in the UK, this website will signpost you to other mental health services: https://www.meandmymind.nhs.uk/getting-help/mental-health-websites/ | LIKED THIS ONE? Please leave us a review wherever you are listening. It takes a minute and genuinely helps others find the show. Got a question, a comment, or a topic you would like us to put on the couch? Write to us at [email protected]. New episodes land every Tuesday.Website  https://www.experiencepodco.comSpotify  https://open.spotify.com/show/033Qpocb5a1TC3KNyN7YptApple  https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/experience/id6791528666 |  Full show notes and transcript: https://www.experiencepodco.com/episodes/ep5-its-more-complicated-than-the-headline.htmlConcept of the Week explained, INUS conditions: https://www.experiencepodco.com/concepts/inus-conditions.html