UPSETTING THE NEIGHBOURS

There's a community website named NEIGHBOURLY  which purports to connect people in their local communities via a network of interactive on-line platforms.

This is what they say about themselves:

"About Neighbourly

 Neighbourly is a New Zealand owned company founded by a team of individuals passionate about building stronger, safer and more vibrant communities.

Neighbourly's mission is to create an easy way for neighbours to talk and share online, creating more real world connections and ultimately growing stronger, safer and friendlier communities."

All good and it is a useful service for local news, discussion, buy and sell and community messages.

There is a dark side to it however where it is a place for people to vent their fears, hatreds, biases and  bigotry in the most vitriolic way. If you want to see the underbelly of racism in this country check out NEIGHBOURLY's  'Crime and safety' pages. It can be quite shocking.

Recently when our recycle bin went missing I decided to play devil's advocate and posted a question on NEIGHBOURLY asking why anyone would want to steal a council recycle bin. The responses were interesting with many people dismissing this as a 'crime' and ignoring, like Robert does the crimes and misdemeanours of the catholic church, it as theft. I pursued this argument in the best tradition of Richard's Facebook discussions to the point of suggesting that the theft - which is what it is - is symptomatic of society's decline in values. This got a few idiots ranting. I've noticed that some people who cannot put a proper argument together resort to being abusive and threatening. It got to the point where I deleted the post and all of the comments. I doubt if I'll post anything further.

In this case, and others that I've followed NEIGHBOURLY is certainly not growing "stronger, safer and friendlier communities."