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Finding the EDL rally in London heartbreaking. 150,000 people - and many more online - who clearly care deeply about their country and want to do what they see as the right thing. Having their illiteracies exploited by shameless grifters promising simple solutions to complex problems. It's tragic

For transparency, I should say that this wasn't my first reaction to this rally. My first reaction was one of anger. Especially at comments online like "this is the safest London has been in years" and "the government are lying to you, there's clearly 8x that number there".

But getting angry at these people is not the way that we get out of the political dichotomy the country is falling into. You have to look at the underlying issues and why these people feel this way and why they are choosing to make their feelings known in this manner.

It's the same with climate skeptics. The people posting illiterate comments online are not the people that you should be angry at. The people you should be angry at are those manipulating illiterate people into acting this way, and of course the people paying them to do that.