It’s rare for your past self to tap you on the shoulder and say, ‘You’ve screwed up.’ But as the new year began, that’s exactly what happened to me.
It was at 3am this morning, at my father-in-law’s, weighed down by Influenza-B and thrashing around, the snores of everyone else keeping me up and reminding me what I was missing, that I had the idiotic idea to load up X on my phone’s browser.
The Rotherham child abuse story was back in the headlines. To recap: Over 1,400 children in the UK were abused between 1997 and 2013 by predominantly British-Pakistani men. Authorities—police, councillors, social workers—failed to act, reportedly out of fear of being labelled racist.
The story was old, but Elon Musk had resurfaced it, along with announcing his support for the anti-migrant party Reform UK. And because X is his platform, it all went wild. People were seething, outraged.
But instead of demanding accountability for systemic police failures and justice for the victims, the narrative—predictably for 2025—shifted to race: a clash of civilisations, ‘brown Muslims preying on white children,’ and calls to ‘send them back.’
I rolled my eyes. For years, critics argued—correctly—that too much focus was placed on identity over solutions. Now, those same critics were falling into the same trap. I wished for a compelling response to locals’ concerns about immigration and security, which often reflect deeper issues like economic anxiety, fear of change, and a collapse of trust in institutions. But I was too tired for that discussion (and anyway, we are working on offering that alternative).
So I stayed with the Rotherham case and since it was 3am (well, 3.10am now), I asked myself how representative it really was. What proportion of people who have been prosecuted for child abuse in the UK are Asian? I wondered.
One search gave me the answer: 89% are white! Rotherham was horrific, and the authorities messed up massively. But clearly it didn’t represent the majority of cases.
So I sent two quick posts on X, offering this context up to the crowd as my contribution.
And that’s when it all blew up.
Outraged X users turned on me, in public and private messages. They blasted me for being anti-white, for playing whataboutery, for justifying child abuse. They claimed that my stat was “not the own that I think it is”, because it proved that the Asian numbers were being covered up. And of course, amusingly, there was some racist stuff in there too, accusing me of supporting my “muslim brothers“. (The angry messages are continuing as I type.)
I couldn’t understand this reaction. 4am rolled around. I tried to clarify my position, but it was no use.
And then a voice from the past spoke to me—my own.
Timing is everything. In the immediate aftermath of war breaking out, or a racist attack, or any other moment when the pain is still raw, there’s only one thing to do. Denounce the aggressor’s actions and support the victims.
There will be a time and place for your nuanced, systems-based, constructive take. But choose them wisely if you want people to listen.
I had written this here in my newsletter, twice: on the reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and later on the October 7 attacks in Israel.
Yet with the Rotherham story, I had not followed my own advice: to empathise with the victims, and denounce the perpetrators. I had not mirrored the outrage that the people on X felt—yes, even if it had been stoked by anti-migrant voices, by Musk, by algorithms, by other members of the baying crowd, wide-eyed and fearful in the early morning hours. I had not met people where they were.
And as such, I hadn’t earned my audience’s permission to be heard. The story had just (re-) exploded, and discourse was still pushed out to the extremes—for or against. I had armed myself with a nuanced take, painted a target on my chest, and waded in.
And while I disagreed with the responses, they were understandable.
Maybe tomorrow would be another opportunity for the context I was offering on the Rotherham story; maybe next week. Maybe the next UK election. Maybe never.
It was sobering and humbling indeed.
So I’ve learned a few things. To pause, reflect and begin with empathy if I want to contribute when news is still raw. And to not engage with social media past bedtime.
Have a good 2025. I am going back to bed. This time with my phone in another room.
See you next time,
Mehran
PS: Writing Update
Some news. I’m writing a book, tentatively titled Burn This Book: A Field Guide To Subversive Activism. More news later this year. But it’s been exciting to see it take shape.
Recent Reads
- How Occupy Wall Street was “an academic exercise leading to a culture of performative activism”: A brutal but necessary post-mortem.
- “Every word is a choice”: A detailed look at how the BBC skews its Gaza coverage to favour Israel. The pro-Israel side has a hell of a PR operation.
- “The fault lies not in our algorithms, but in ourselves”: X alternative BlueSky ends up exhibiting the same flaws. Maybe, instead of hunting for a kinder, gentler social network (read: people who share our views), we should accept social media for the Wild West it really is.
Don’t Miss This
Two weeks ago I interviewed the lawyer, public servant and Mera25 parliamentary candidate Melanie Schweizer. Her story is a fascinating (and pretty insane) case study of what happens when you speak up for Palestinians in Germany. We need more Melanies. Watch, or podcast.
