A beauty salon called "Killer Russians"

has been unwittingly caught up in the war between the Ukraine and Russia.

The salon itself is located in the city in which I live. The owner apparently named it after some sort of "eyelash extensions" of a Russian variety and "killer" was apparently some sort of slang for "good".  

All that sounds very odd to me but it is obviously what the owner thought was a good idea at the time. Now she is the target of people who simply aren't thinking. The volume of business has dropped dramatically. She employs two Ukrainians but is being told she is "siding with the Russians". There have been death threats and more. 

The owner is going to change the name and more. It will cost her about $10,000 to do this according to the newspaper report. I wonder if she can do it without going out of business. Any business like that is still struggling to recover from the pandemic restrictions - indeed, we still have some restrictions. Of course there is a small possibility that the present publicity will cause an upturn in her business... although the location doesn't suggest that is likely.

I think/hope that had I passed the shop recently I would simply have thought, "That's an unfortunate name right now". I certainly would not have vandalised the place, uttered death threats or made vile comments on social media. 

It is too easy to make assumptions. It is too easy not to do the necessary research. It is too easy not to think at all. 

In the case of the shop name the consequences are unfortunate but they are likely to be limited.  That is not always the case. Over the past week there has been a political "story" here that has been repeated many times. It is not correct but even the main media outlets have repeated it. Undoubtedly they first did it because nobody bothered to find out if it was correct. When the error was pointed out some of them repeated it anyway - because it suited them to do it. They did not want to be caught in the wrong. The incorrect version suits their agenda.

In some, perhaps many, ways the vast flow of "information" we can now access is leaving us less well informed. "Opinion" has all too often become more important than facts.

I need facts.