Substack diary no.156: Monday, 18th. May 2026

I found myself yesterday researching a 15th. century monk who spread lies and misinformation across Europe that resulted in widespread persecution and thousands of horrific deaths. His deranged thinking was amplified by new technology – the printing press – and his book became, over 200 years, the second-best seller after the Bible. I was inspired to research this mad monk after listening again to an excellent BBC podcast from 2022 – The Coming Storm.

The parallels with the present day are obvious. The lies and misinformation have not changed and are just as dangerous now as they were then, only now we have social media to spread and amplify them, far more rapidly and to places that books do not reach. For me, the most dangerous social media platform is YouTube. Some people seem drawn to moving images and, no matter how preposterous they are, in believing video created by a deranged 21st. century equivalent of our monk to be The Truth. As a result, hate and fear are widespread – and persecutions and death follow.

But in the past reason prevailed. Somehow we survived the 15th. century ‘social media’ storm. The days of pointing a finger at someone whose hairstyle you didn’t approve of and of persuading a mob to kill that person were largely consigned to history. How did we achieve that? And can we do it again?

Today I shall start to write up my thoughts on the monk of this diary entry, which should keep me busy for the rest of this week! To be continued…