A child is more than a symbol

In Minnesota, a mother caught on film after slurring a Somali child is now facing three counts of disorderly conduct. Footage of the incident sparked a viral meme war when it began circulating in April. For one political tribe, Shiloh Hendrix was enshrined as a heroic mother standing up to invasive migrants. For the opposite tribe, she was a trailer trash villainess. Money poured into a fundraiser for Hendrix when she declared a need to relocate for her family’s safety. This itself became politicized, naturally.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, another intense video confrontation has turned into the end of summer’s viral internet flashpoint. This time, the heroes (or villains, depending on your tribe), are a pair of young sisters, Lola and Ruby Moir. They are backing away from the foreign-accented man behind the camera, who dares Lola to brandish a hidden weapon. She then pulls out not one but two—a knife and a hatchet. Lola hurls the word “kid-bashers” at the man and someone else off-camera. With a hand to her head as if she’s been struck, Ruby accuses someone of “battering” her, pleading with them to stop following and leave 12-year-old Lola alone. 

As with Hendrix, the internet turned fierce little Lola into a meme overnight. Her face was adorned with blue and white warpaint, her knife and ax turned into an iconic symbol of Scottish rebellion against foreign marauders. The footage was amplified by everyone from Elon Musk to British alt-right firebrand Tommy Robinson.

But of course, a counter-narrative was brewing. The Daily Mail ran an interview portraying the immigrant as an upstanding young “family man” who was blindsided on a walk to the shop with his wife. Multiple outlets ran with this new narrative, even right of center British papers like spiked and Unherd. Yet the CCTV footage he claimed could vindicate him has not materialized. Meanwhile, a young woman claiming to be the girls’ friend has posted her own alleged witness account, and a document is circulating that has the appearance of an authentic hospital report for Ruby’s head injury. Still more evidence is allegedly forthcoming on the girls’ side. People have also dug into the man’s social media history, surfacing images where he apes a gangster aesthetic, as well as a Facebook comment where he allegedly admits that his sister did commit assault (though he still defends her).

There are a few lessons we can draw from these disparate, yet in some ways similar cases. First, truth matters, but it can take time to emerge. We may naturally lean more to one side than the other, but we should seek out as much data as possible. The world will not die for lack of our hot takes. In the rush to write such takes, some journalists can’t even be bothered to report the available facts correctly. Writing against Lola in spiked, deputy editor Fraser Myers makes a basic attribution error in quoting the girls’ dialogue. On the other side, numerous people have liked and circulated a clickbait arrest video purportedly of Lola but actually of a young pro-Palestinian German protestor (ironically).

Second, people should not be reduced to symbols. Shiloh and Lola are flawed, image-bearing humans, not props in a culture war. Pundits on both sides will naturally rush to push their respective narratives of a hot discourse before it grows cold. There is nothing wrong with ultimately choosing one side or another, but Christians should resist seeing any person as a means to any end, especially when their backgrounds make them vulnerable. Young Lola and her sister appear to be the same two sisters who went missing this summer, for unclear reasons. There is no doubt deep brokenness behind their story. Any conclusions should be drawn soberly, not gleefully, as if they are players in a video game.

Finally, we must always keep in mind that the internet is not the world, and the world is not the internet. In the digital age, the local has become global. What would have been small, forgotten stories now constantly thrust themselves upon us, demanding our attention. For the very online, particularly for those of us whose job requires that we remain up to date on current events, the temptation to scroll endlessly is strong. The sublime, the grotesque, and the ridiculous now live side by side on our screens. This is not how we were built to process information. The more we overload our eyes, brains, and spirits with whatever the algorithm is pressing upon our attention today, the more numb and weary we become. And the more of one particular sort of story we consume, the greater our risk of turning it into an unhealthy fixation.

Discernment; compassion; moderation. For the good of our own souls, we are called to practice these virtues. This is not to preach cheap “both-sidesism,” or the avoidance of rendering a verdict when warranted. It is simply a reminder of how to exist in the digital age while Christian.