Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1546635
WHEN people put a laughing emoji or a derogatory comment every time the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder is mentioned, I take a look at their profile. Most of the time, they look quite harmless. Your ordinary people next door, if you will; people you might even know. Some even dis- play photos of patron saints and talk about how religious they are. So, it makes me wonder what compels them to be so heartless and casually cruel in their reac- tions and how they can write with such hate on such a very public platform. They themselves see no dichotomy, of course, between the teachings of Christ and their entrenched political beliefs which lead to their online "banter". It also doesn't take a special unit of the cyber police to figure out that they are very diehard Labour supporters, or that the ones who insult them back by using equally derogatory language are diehard Nationalists. 40 years ago, who you voted for was something you kept to yourself, but no one shies away from declaring their political opinion on Facebook any more. We are never at a loss for con- troversy in this country and social media just seems to have exacer- bated the situation now that the hotheads have been unleashed all over Facebook. It has become ex- hausting and toxic every time one logs on, because the viciousness is so visceral it leaps off the screen. Why do we do this? The conclu- sion I come to is always the same: It seems that for certain segments of the population, this whole case stopped being about justice being served a long time ago. It is about who will "win" in the political stakes. After generations of brain- washing by political parties, it is tragic that we still cannot agree on issues, which, shorn of political allegiance, should be a no brainer. You would think that everyone would be on the same page when it comes to a murder victim, and that whoever was behind the plot to kill Daphne should be behind bars. For a moment, just leave the admittedly divisive figure of Daphne out of it and think about the case rationally. Let's say an anonymous Jane Doe had been killed; shouldn't the culprits who paid for the assassination go to jail, no matter how powerful they are? Doesn't the fact that there were those in power who mingled so nonchalantly with criminals send shivers down your spine? Shouldn't it worry every single citizen that there was a possible obstruction of justice? When people try to mock and belittle those who keep asking glaringly obvious questions about the bizarre verdict, it makes me wonder whether their hatred of the murdered journalist runs so deep that they are perversely glad that those behind it got away with it. The legitimate protest on Wednesday was likewise the target of yet another exercise in lashing out with puerile phrases like "oqogħdu hemm ja indannati" (sit there and take it you frustrat- ed lot), "għalhekk qatt ma tirbħu (that's why you never win an elec- tion). The protest attracted a wide spectrum of society and yet for many these demonstrations con- tinue to personify Daphne/PN, a faction which is accused of being out to topple the Labour govern- ment by any means possible. Those at home, bashing away at their keyboards, are the hardcore PL supporters whose main goal in life is to stick up for their party and ward off any attempts to bring it down. My party, uber alles. Somewhere along the line we have lost the ability to wrench ourselves away from the line drawn in the sand of partisan alle- giance and start thinking for our- selves. Even those who are openly left-wing and attended the protest to support what is right and de- nounce what is blatantly wrong in this country have been branded and labelled. You are either PN or PL, or nothing else. I am always reminded of the simple yet powerful phrase first coined by Dom Mintoff which stills ring loud and clear in many people's ears: 'Min mhux magħna kontra tagħna" (those who are not with us are against us). Any hope of taking a stand out of sound moral conviction has been com- pletely lost in translation because political blinkers get in the way. The murder, the trial, the acquit- tal, the protests—it is always about jeering at those who "lost" while gloating about the fact that "we won". My football team, my village feast, my political party—underly- ing them all is the same sense of schadenfreude. The thrill of satis- faction that you have humiliating your rival is the fuel which keeps too many people crowing with triumph… and that mindset is al- so what keeps propping up those who should be made to pay for how they have disgraced our seat of government and our country. Meanwhile, the new revelations which came out on Thursday af- ternoon have added another twist in the tale, and by the time this column is published we might know more about why several of the jurors were arrested and ques- tioned. Despite a police statement asking the public and the media to refrain from speculation, it hasn't stopped anyone from doing just that. This news has launched a fresh onslaught of bickering and ver- bal abuse which is both wearying and disheartening. Social media has continued to confirm what Xarabank exposed all those years ago—we are incapable of disa- greeing without becoming hostile and antagonistic towards those who don't agree with us. It has al- so shown that the loudest, rudest and most obnoxious voices, espe- cially those who have discovered Facebook reels, get the most at- tention because they use rage bait to stir the pot. Whereas pre-social media you might have your own circle of friends and relatives who agree with you, now it's very easy to congregate through sharing and tagging, until there is a whole slew of people baying for blood, em- boldened by the ease with which ugly things can be said online to people who have lost their loved ones in tragic circumstances. On- line commentary removes our ability to be humane; we are not staring into the person's face and feeling their pain when we taunt them. Should protecting the party you voted for out of blind loyalty come at the expense of human life? In this tense political climate, we are back to the age-old mantra where one is insulted and accused of always being "kontra l-gvern" simply for pointing out what is patently wrong. We have been here before, because PN support- ers pre-2013 used to say exactly the same thing if anyone dared to criticise the Nationalist govern- ment. I should know. I also don't see the point of high- lighting aggressive comments, "look what this guy told me", unless it is to gain sympathy and get more traction on your page. Will drawing attention to it make these people change their view- point? No. Will it make them nic- er? No. Will it make them stop? No. In fact, I think by giving them prominence you are simply fan- ning the flames even more, which will get us nowhere. Anyone who writes about poli- tics has been at the receiving end of insults, and as unsettling and disturbing as this can be, unfortu- nately, it comes with the territo- ry. For too many people, politics is a trigger, they just cannot see clearly. I concluded long ago that trying to reason with them is a lost cause. There is a lot to be said for the art of ignoring; we are not obliged to engage with every sin- gle comment unless we wake up every morning, grab our phones and are ready to pounce, just spoiling for a fight, which is what it often feels like. As Malta continues to grapple with the fallout of this notori- ous trial and verdict, and as we continue to lose sight of what it means to be compassionate hu- man beings, more people need to learn that the only way to ex- tinguish the vitriol is to not give it more oxygen, and to just keep on scrolling. 3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 OPINION Josanne Cassar She has worked in the field of communications and journalism for the last 30 years This is not about which side wins, it's about what Malta has lost Photo: James Bianchi/MaltaToday