Today is Positive Twitter Day! Stand by for a nauseating wave of false bonhomie… – Telegraph Blogs

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Mic Wright

Mic Wright is a journalist specialising in technology, music and popular culture. He lives in Dublin.

Today is Positive Twitter Day! Stand by for a nauseating wave of false bonhomie…

Today is Positive Twitter Day (#positivetwitter)!

Can you think of anything worse than false bonhomie? The virtual gritting of teeth to express only bland sentiments that won't upset anyone? The entire idea makes my teeth itch, especially when one of its main proponents is the normally delightfully acidic Guido Fawkes.

Positive Twitter Day, like Twibbons – the ridiculous virtual ribbons displayed by Twitter users to proclaim their support for causes – and the passing fad for turning your profile picture green in support of Iranian dissidents is irritating in the extreme. The closest real world parallel are those achingly patronising posters on the London Underground that earnestly suggest "A little civility won't hurt you".

False politeness is one of America's worst inventions. The passive aggressive, grinning automatism of its service industry has infected many British companies and it's meaningless. We can all tell genuine kindness and consideration from the trained responses designed to avoid a fuss and it's arguable that we're already too polite.

The French are frequently confused and irritated by the British habit of saying "sorry" when no apology is intended or required. In fact, Parisians are so committed to blunt and often rude behaviour that they've been known to leave visiting Japanese tourists utterly traumatised and suffering from Paris Syndrome. Am I advocating that kind of sheer bloody-minded unpleasantness? Of course not. But false friendliness is a scourge on the real thing.

It's not that there is anything inherently wrong in Sunder Katwala (@sundersays) calling for Twitter users, particularly those who are part of the often brutal political blogosphere, to be more civil to each other. The issue is that by giving it a special day, he's capitulating to the idea that rudeness and spite are just the cost of doing business the rest of the year.

Regardless, I predict that Guido alone doesn't make it past 4pm without breaking this uneasy détente. The entire Guido Fawkes brand – and it is a brand – is built on telling uncomfortable truths to that most uncomfortable of breeds, politicians. And if you feel it's unfair to single him out, don't expect anyone on the Left to be any better at resisting the chance for a dig. A successful Positive Twitter Day is a boring Twitter day. And who really wants that?

Oh, forgot to mention: it's Positive Telegraph Blogs Comments Day – what a terrific coincidence…

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