It also makes it easier to dehumanize people in-case of a conflict.
Scary social media videos about those foreign lands is just another tool to dissuade people from wanting to expand their experiences. If you research into some of this global industry, you'll see a lot of the influencers are spokes from central hubs of propaganda sources that shockingly are financed by the same people.
Trump and Musk are constantly targeting London and Khan on social media, but sure, it's the Russians driving this.
It doesn't matter if your enemy also wants to promote this. If you follow this line of thought, you have to support the government of China censoring the Tiananmen Square massacre. Because their enemies in the West have for decades been talking about it.
I agree that social problems should be exposed. One such social problem is widespread, entirely fabricated stories of crime and violence, accepted uncritically by people who don’t live in the supposedly affected areas, driving division and political discourse that lead to real-world harm.
There is an enormous amount of evidence that this propaganda, mainly spread through social media, is a product of a foreign government strategy to interfere in the internal politics of “enemy” nations. If this is true, it should be exposed and shut down.
Frankly if that's not an example of Stockholm syndrome I don't know what is.
It's so far from the nicest city on the country. It's entirely held up by "drip down" wealth from the banks and tourism which to paraphrase Chinese airways "avoid certain areas".
The episode is titled “London Has Fallen (E356)” and was released on Jan 26 of this year. Worth a listen.
For people who make their entire personalities about what their grandpa did in the War, they're sure seem hellbent on acting exactly like the people he did it to.
Farage is still breathing, compared to Mosley, and both have traded on fear of "the other" .. which others vary.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/apr/03/marks-spenc...
> I keep hearing crime is falling, especially in London - something none of us believe and very few people working in retail would see. In fact, we see the absolute opposite in our High Streets and in our stores, where our colleagues are on the receiving end of abuse and violence in their workplace every day.
> It is becoming more brazen, more organised and more aggressive.
> Across the UK, there were around 5.5 million incidents of shoplifting last year, and that excludes the vast number that go unreported. Every day, more than 1,600 retail workers face violence or abuse. This is not isolated. It is systemic and it is getting worse, not better.
Petty crime chips away at society by eroding trust, it needs to be punished Singapore style.
Many areas look exactly like the Middle East, with 0 native English representation.
I don’t see how these videos are lies.
London is minority native British and entire country will be minority native by 2045.
WRT knife crime, the most damning clips that hurt the reputation of the UK come from UK media itself, clips like this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pnAwKLXjguw
Or this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z3R6m24LU3A
Idris Elba (famous guy) on the BBC, talking about how “not all knives need to have a point on them”.
It’s an obvious question: if knife crime is not a problem why is government media talking so much about banning pointy knives?
This amused me because living in LA/California, I get the same style unhinged comments completely disconnected from the reality of what is happening here. We certainly have our share of problems, but you'd think we're Somalia the way certain people talk. I had a friend from Arkansas visit last summer and it definitely reset his world view a bit.
I assume this is all just deflection. It is more politically convenient to talk about bad roads or the homeless problem in California, than to address that your state's schools are in the bottom 20% of the nation.
Arbortheus•1h ago
The situation is even improving, UK homicide rates are at the lowest level in 50 years [1].
Not to mention that the USA has an entire category of gun crime which is a non-issue in the UK.
I swear to you, London is not an unsafe city.
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgk86rr0vxyo
badgersnake•1h ago
hnlmorg•49m ago
Though if you happen to tell truths, or even just satire, against certain wealthy people, then you can expect the full fury of those hurt.
dominotw•1h ago
Is it the same with knife crime?
turkey99•59m ago
There isn’t really any location. Its socioeconomic. It’s young black men 16-24 who disproportionately end up dying to knife crime.
sourcegrift•57m ago
mothballed•49m ago
For instance, I was caught between a knife fight on a train, because in one hood some of the culture is it's unacceptable to play another culture's music too loud. A Hispanic guy was playing hispanic music quite loud on the train, as soon as it entered a black neighborhood a black guy informed him it was "his hood" and asked him to stop, which then escalated to both pulling out knives.
I have now learned there are certain socio-economic enclaves where culture has dictated that I must not play my music too loud or I will be stabbed to death.
frereubu•33m ago
mothballed•33m ago
frereubu•11m ago
badgersnake•58m ago
cucumber3732842•54m ago
As long as you don't make activities outside of the law a non-negligible source of your income or run with the crowd that does you're fine, and not just for murder or whatever, theft and all sorts of the boring "area under the curve" crime is concentrated around these people too.
jeffbee•47m ago
doubled112•44m ago
People don't usually bring trouble to themselves for no reason. Don't give them a reason.
mothballed•42m ago
rob_c•1h ago
You don't see cockney anything anywhere there anymore compared to (and as much as you see any transitional regional identify left in) other British cities.
Homicide is on the drop in London but that's not 100% because it's safer. A huge amount is focused on deaths rather than attacks so don't fool yourself that just because they didn't die that nothing happened.
> crime which is a non-issue in the UK.
Nope. Not even close to true. Yes we don't have school shooters. Yes we don't have people exacting "justice" with a loaded barrel. But we do have gun crime and guns are used a LOT as intimidation. I wish I didn't grow up in an area where I know that to be true.
Trying to pretend there's not a problem is wonderful. And in that case I can point you to some very reasonably priced areas which must be perfectly safe and have no social cohesion issues at all regardless of where you're from...
badgersnake•56m ago
That’s more to do with cost of living. Rents and house prices are insane.
lazyasciiart•53m ago
None of the people I've known who moved out of London did so because of crime or safety. They almost invariably moved because they could pay for a tiny place in the city and commute for over an hour each way or they could pay the same for a larger place outside the city and commute the same length of time on the train.
hnlmorg•45m ago
nxm•36m ago
frereubu•31m ago
alexriddle•52m ago
What is more of an issue is more antisocial crime such as street robbery or shoplifting. These crimes are much more likely to be snatch and grab, with no violence involved. They still have an impact on the victims but they're not making the city significantly more violent.
[1] https://www.london.gov.uk/london-records-fewest-homicides-ye...
orf•47m ago
Yes, jellied eels disappearing is because everyone has fled London due to crime. No other reason.
jjgreen•50m ago
tracker1•49m ago
Havoc•29m ago
defrost•26m ago
Love it, hate it, it's a different mindset to the US approach and ultimatelty falls back on judges using "reasonable behaviour" of common citizens on ominbuses as a yardstick.
technothrasher•33m ago
themaninthedark•9m ago
I was visiting last fall with the family, left the car in the NJ side when taking the ferry to the Statue. They took the train to the hotel and I went to retrieve the car, got a front stage view of a guy using a chain to beat up a security guard at a shopping mall.
Guy had been peeing on the vehicles, guard told him to stop. He took offense at this, got a length of chain and started kicking the door so the guard would tell him to stop. As soon as he came out guy started hitting him over the head with the chain.
Police took a good 15 to 20 minutes to respond, didn't seem interested in looking for the guy. The guard wasn't interested in pressing charges.
Guy was probably homeless and definitely needed mental health but he had the capacity to plan out and execute a violent attack that could have been deadly.
roughly•28m ago
sixothree•20m ago
It was eye opening to me just how deeply brainwashed these people are. This wasn't just him parsing news events, it was his world view being shaped with the opinion that these are awful, dangerous, unsafe places, ridden with crime and poverty.
TitaRusell•10m ago
Europe represents democracy and rule of law- something right wing fascists and Christian fundamentalists despise.
Make no mistake we are involved in an ideological war against the US.