I'm gonna be candid for a moment. It is hard being online right now with the ongoing xenophobic campaign against my country, Argentina.
I've lost decades long online friendships over this, because these people preferred to align themselves with a trend than to think critically for a moment. Many others are going through the same thing. Many are reporting that they are being kicked out of discord groups for being from Argentina after they tried to talk to mods about xenophobic comments and things done to them in said groups.
Online, celebrities like Samuel L. Jackson, Halsey, Zara Larsson, further push the anti-Argentina propaganda. There are multiple articles by USA media supporting the xenophobia and instigating it further.
In real life places, there are now multiple reports of Argentine women commenting they're being harassed while walking out and about wearing an Argentina t-shirt. A woman was physically assaulted when an Egypt fan kicked her. There are people calling ICE on Argentina fans. Around New York shops are not letting in people wearing the Argentina t-shirt.
The real life effect of racist, xenophobic propaganda is this. People are getting hurt. On TikTok, Twitter and Instagram online activists are basically asking for people to hurt Argentina fans and tourists with the constant hate and misinformation they keep posting.
I don't have much else to say. Tumblr isn't safe either. If I try to bring up this topic, the knee-jerk reaction of many is to not believe this is what's happening. It sucks.
