Once upon a recent morning, one of the British titles greeted me with the following headline: “Actor Frances Barber claims Uber driver said she was ‘disgustingly dressed’.”

That sentence has so many wrongs that I had to read it twice. And that, at six in the morning and with 101 cats, a dog and a supporting cast of various forms of animal life all onomatopoeia-ing for breakfast, requires great effort.

First of all, Frances who? I know that’s my fault – I don’t go to the theatre much and I only watch the kind of television that I like. A quick Google search tells me that the British actress appeared in various Shakespeare productions and in the Pet Shop Boys musical Closer to Heaven. Again, I admit my ignorance.

But just imagine reading a headline that says: “Michael James Shaw to play Hamlet”. Do you know who Michael James Shaw is? Of course you don’t. Only his dear mother, someone who has watched The Wire more than 20 times, and I (incidentally, the last two are the same person) know that he appeared as a homeless man in one episode of the fifth and final season of The Wire.

The second wrong is the Uber driver who told Barber, in no uncertain terms, that he didn’t like her wardrobe. Apparently, the offensive exchange took place after Barber remarked that it was a cold night. Why did the driver – who I don’t think was wearing a €5,000 cashmere blazer by Lutwyche and a pair of Berluti leather Oxford shoes – feel the need to be nasty? But that’s the way the world goes. We see someone wearing something we don’t like and gag with the urge to name and shame.

Following the driver’s comments, Barber got out of the cab, slammed the door and yelled. Then she went home and tweeted about it. And that unleashed a spawn of comments. A few were positive. Most signed up to the troll army of negative ones, including raving and ranting (presumably by people who never actually used Uber) about how Uber service is the pits. The vilest comment was someone telling Barber that she should be thankful that the driver didn’t rape her.

In theory, this could be a chicken and egg conundrum. What came first, stupid people or stupid comments? In practice, people who embrace jealousy, hatred, anger and other rotten eggs have always existed. It’s just that now they have all the visibility they want.

There is a moral to this story. At this time of year, the message to not drink and drive gets extra media mileage. Let’s add another one: don’t share your hate. Just keep it to yourself.

techeditor@timesofmalta.com