On Tuesday afternoon, I found myself scrolling Twitter – as one does (even if it invokes a sense of despair) – and could not help but feel disgusted by how so many speak of their peers. Social media has always brought out antisocial tendencies in some people, and it’s a well-studied psychological phenomenon. Except I’m not sure it’s just a phenomenon anymore. While most people in the real world are relatively nice and prosocial, over the last few years we have seen grievance politics bleed into the real world – with dangerous consequences

In the wake of the Southport murders, in which three poor little girls had their lives stolen from them, we saw how communities clashed with one another. People were whipped up by opportunists and hate merchants, many took to the streets and looted shops, attacked police officers, Mosques were vandalised – and people tried to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers. Every society faces moments where people are angry, where social cohesion is fracturing, and where people weaponize discontent for their own benefit. But this is growing out of control.

Just before I started writing this I saw a tweet from Nick Timothy, the Tory MP for West Suffolk and Shadow Justice Secretary. He attached to this tweet a video of Muslims praying in Trafalgar Square, including Sadiq Khan, and unapologetically called it an “act of domination and division”. This rhetoric isn’t just confined to the darkest corners where the far-right mingle, but it is being espoused by Members of Parliament, and being fuelled by bots, trolls, and agitators. While this may seem hyperbolic to some, I fear that this poses a grave threat to all of us, and it’s worth taking seriously.

I don’t care about whether a badger is put on a bank note, and nor should our party’s leader. We should not give oxygen to petty, transient squabbles published in tabloids, but we seriously need to consider how we address this breakdown in social cohesion. It is simply not enough to abstractly call out Reform’s divisive politics, and it does not stand up for those being affected by the culture war politics of today. We should have no fear in holding people like Nick Timothy MP to account, nor should we sit by and let outrage merchants tarnish social cohesion for profit.

As I said, most people are thoroughly decent – but culture wars operate in a way that hijacks discontent, weaponises it, and turns it away from those responsible and towards “easy targets”. Muslims, transgender people, asylum seekers, I could go on and on. It’s a business model now. If it bleeds it leads, and if the lines become prevalent enough they become more salient to people.

Some might say that certain broadcasters are pouring fuel on the fire, and while I am a firm believer in press freedom it’s wrong to ignore those concerns. One example comes to mind: Patrick Christys posted an image of Athika Ahmed, who is 23 years old and a women’s health advocate from Wales, mocking her appearance. This contributed to a far-reaching pile-on, which includes remarks from the likes of Steve Miller, Dave Atherton, and James Goddard – a far-right activist who was convicted for harassing Anna Soubry, calling her a “Nazi”. No action was taken against Christys for his role in that.

So while I understand that HQ cannot and should not spend every waking moment fighting keyboard warriors, I have to ask: are we actually doing anything at all to call this stuff out? I don’t think it is right that we just watch it unfold, especially where the consequences can be so detrimental to individuals, communities, and society as a whole. People have a right to live in peace and free from harassment, nobody should be afraid to walk the streets because of their ethnicity or religion, and that is worth protecting – even if some rattled political commentator calls Ed Davey a clown on Twitter.

* Jack Carter is the Co-Accessibility, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer of the Young Liberals, a Computing student with an interest in social and economic policy, mental health, and digital fields.