Hong Kong: what next?

[krtek a houby]

This is the 'interesting new Canadian poster' Marty1 was whining about posters ganging up on a couple of days ago lol. They were Deadstick 1944 last time, they've now shat all over this thread twice and they'll probably be back again if they're getting a quid for every eighteen posts.

There's echoes of Deadstick, but am also reminded of mrjoshua who claimed he was posting from the Philippines but it seemed it was actually an Australian account. Anyway, I agree witht bimble that it's strange and fascinating & probably deserves a thread all of its own. Thanks to Rimbaud for quickly outing our "Canadian" chum.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The US has, but these days online, it sometimes feels that every American is trolling (that's a huge generalisation, of course, and just from personal experience of spending too much time online!) and Israel has hasbara.

But regarding China, it seems the aim for these internet warriors is to spread Chinese state propaganda, irritate western media, go after dissidents and Uighurs abroad and attack any perceived slights against China and the CCP. There's paid and unpaid "patriots", cropping up wherever discussion of Hong Kong and China is - Australian media, African media etc. There are also many journalists and media outlets that are feted by China, in order to gain favourable coverage.

The 50 cent army (wumao) can pose as basically anyone - there's reports from a few years back, of posters pretending to be Taiwanese and trying to get Californian independence a talking point!

Pro-China trolls are doing their best to stoke tensions for Taiwan by amplifying racist claims and spreading misinformation about California leaving the US

They're fucking rubbish. 2/10 China.

 

[teuchter]

Basically this entire board, including me, are British Communists, Anarchists, and Socialists.

This is news to me.

 

[moochedit]

There's echoes of Deadstick, but am also reminded of mrjoshua who claimed he was posting from the Philippines but it seemed it was actually an Australian account. Anyway, I agree witht bimble that it's strange and fascinating & probably deserves a thread all of its own. Thanks to Rimbaud for quickly outing our "Canadian" chum.

Yeah very simalar to "mrjoshua". There was another poster called "berkeley" a few years back that he also reminded me of. (Not that i'm saying they are the same person just simalar arrogant personalitites)

 

[krtek a houby]

This is news to me.

Indeed. Howeve, didn't wisht to be pedantic, as Rimbaud was informative about wumao and all that.

 

[maomao]

This is news to me.

Not even a little bit socialist?

 

[teuchter]

Not even a little bit socialist?

I don't get the impression that most people on here are really socialists. They might have thought they were when they were younger.

 

[bimble]

The scale of it - twitter saying recently they have just removed not far off 200,000 accounts that were working together as part of this PRC effort. Mostly clustered around the topic of hong kong it says.

Disclosing networks of state-linked information operations we’ve removed

Today we are disclosing 32,242 accounts to our archive of state-linked information operations — the only one of its kind in the industry.

blog.twitter.com

 

[teuchter]

The scale of it - twitter saying recently they have just removed not far off 200,000 accounts that were working together as part of this PRC effort. Mostly clustered around the topic of hong kong it says.

Disclosing networks of state-linked information operations we’ve removed

Today we are disclosing 32,242 accounts to our archive of state-linked information operations — the only one of its kind in the industry.

blog.twitter.com

Can't say I feel very comfortable with the idea of Twitter policing it though.

 

[moochedit]

Can't say I feel very comfortable with the idea of Twitter policing it though.

Why? It their site so their rules. Who else would police it?

 

[bimble]

It is all very strange, Twitter is absolutely fine with fascism as long as the people extolling its virtues are genuine believers and not being paid.

 

[teuchter]

Why? It their site so their rules. Who else would police it?

Does it need to be policed, or should people make up their own minds whether an account is promoting state (or other) propaganda? What about when Twitter decides that you or I are paid propagandists?

 

[moochedit]

Does it need to be policed, or should people make up their own minds whether an account is promoting state (or other) propaganda? What about when Twitter decides that you or I are paid propagandists?

I'd post somewhere else.

 

[NoXion]

Does it need to be policed, or should people make up their own minds whether an account is promoting state (or other) propaganda?

Twitter obviously thinks it does. Can't say that I feel any sympathy for the government shills who get booted.

What about when Twitter decides that you or I are paid propagandists?

Maybe I'll go through their appeals process if they have one. Otherwise why does it matter?

 

[moochedit]

If a Twitter ban REALLY bothers you there is always the sock puppet option but its not as if twitter=the internet.

 

[Sue]

Like many on here, I was unfamiliar with 'wumao' so looked it up. Looks like Urban Dictionary* has been...wumao-ed.

'A phrase that was originally meant to describe paid Chinese Communist Party proponents, but is most commonly used to mindlessly attack anyone who thinks differently from the anti-China echo chamber in any way, even if that person is stating facts.

If you try to correct the mainstream media's misinformation about China in any way, using concrete facts, you're automatically classified as a wu mao. It's a form of ad hominem used to shut down anyone who commits wrongthink and resists the mainstream media's brainwashing.

The mainstream media lied about Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and numerous other countries, and people are falling for the same tricks with regard to China. Dumbasses will probably call me a wu mao just for writing this.'

Then there's an example use about the Uighars being radical terrorists.

Urban Dictionary: Wu Mao

* Not that it's a definitive source or anything, just thought it was a bit .

 

[Streathamite]

Basically this entire board, including me, are British Communists, Anarchists, and Socialists. There are maybe 2 regular American posters.

More accurately, all those who post mainly in the politics forae fit that description.
There's plenty on k&S, suburban75 and the footie forae (to give just some examples) who aren't anywhere near that bracket

 

[Streathamite]

Does it need to be policed, or should people make up their own minds whether an account is promoting state (or other) propaganda? What about when Twitter decides that you or I are paid propagandists?

just about every social media site needs some form of moderation, or else it would be trashed within weeks, if not days

 

[krtek a houby]

just about every social media site needs some form of moderation, or else it would be trashed within weeks, if not days

Pretty sure we've all seen what happens on sites with poor moderation. Ends up like graffiti on a jacks door.

 

[Streathamite]

Pretty sure we've all seen what happens on sites with poor moderation. Ends up like graffiti on a jacks door.

yep - truly unpleasant. U75 is lucky with the mods it has, I'd say (and no, this isn't arselicking, there's been plenty of fallings out on the way).

 

[Artaxerxes]

yep - truly unpleasant. U75 is lucky witht he mods it has, I'd say 9and no, this isn't arselicking, there's been plenty of fallings out on the way).

It happens a lot on micro-blogs on Blogspot or whatever, you see they've left the comments open on something written in 2016 and a thousand "ONE WEIRD TRICK" messages end up in the comments boxes.

 

[NoXion]

Like many on here, I was unfamiliar with 'wumao' so looked it up. Looks like Urban Dictionary* has been...wumao-ed.

'A phrase that was originally meant to describe paid Chinese Communist Party proponents, but is most commonly used to mindlessly attack anyone who thinks differently from the anti-China echo chamber in any way, even if that person is stating facts.

If you try to correct the mainstream media's misinformation about China in any way, using concrete facts, you're automatically classified as a wu mao. It's a form of ad hominem used to shut down anyone who commits wrongthink and resists the mainstream media's brainwashing.

The mainstream media lied about Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and numerous other countries, and people are falling for the same tricks with regard to China. Dumbasses will probably call me a wu mao just for writing this.'

Then there's an example use about the Uighars being radical terrorists.

Urban Dictionary: Wu Mao

* Not that it's a definitive source or anything, just thought it was a bit .

The "top definition" for Wumao on Urban Dictionary is shorter and more neutral. The definition you're talking about also has more downvotes than upvotes. The Wumaos get plenty of pushback.

 

[petee]

the politics forae

'fora' is already the plural.

 

[Jay Park]

English speaking Wumao often like to claim they are from Canada, because many of them are children of the CCP who were sent to live in Canada, therefore they think they can be convincingly Canadian. I have absolutely no time for these people, the spoiled children of corrupt officials who sing patriotism at home to fool the Chinese masses into obedience while they rob them blind and meanwhile stash all their money in real estate in western countries where they send their families to live overseas. These people are the lowest of the low, from the nastiest, most ruthless, hypocritical and dishonest of families, and on the day where Chinese people realise how much they've been conned by these hypocrites there will be a long overdue and well deserved reckoning.

Nevertheless, despite having the privilege of living in a foreign country, they still choose to live in a Wechat bubble so have only the most superficial understanding of the local political culture. I know many highly intelligent and talented Chinese people who have worked 14 hours a day 7 days a week in a vain effort to save money to get the opportunity to study abroad, while these privileged mediocrities get it handed to them by 贪官(corrupt official) daddy, and the opportunity is totally wasted on them due to their intellectual inadequacies and xenophobic, parochial mentality. As a result they aren't very effective propagandists but have outsized egos due to the unearned privileges that they enjoy thanks to their corrupt and criminal families.

They are incredibly unimpressive people and a deep embarrassment to their country.

Fortunately, they are so useless that they will spell the end of CCP rule. The earlier generations of rulers were tough and hardy people with physical courage and a sense of commitment. The new generation of spoiled entitled brats who think they are superior because they have been given opportunities most hard working Chinese could only dream of will be the end of the CCP, and people like this filling up the ranks of the Chinese government is a big part of why they suddenly appear to be so incompetent. Even the re-emergence of one man rule is only made possible by the emergence of a lazy and selfish political base who only think of their career and won't rock the boat. The Deng, Jiang, or even Hu era of the CCP wouldn't have accepted the return to one man dictatorship like meek little sheep as this generation has - it is telling that most of the party insiders who have spoke out against Xi are a bit older. They are from a generation who didn't inherit all their political status from their parents, so are made of sterner stuff and have a bit more integrity.

out-fucking-standing analysis. Thank you.

 

[Shechemite]

I always wondered if Magnus was a wumao

 

[krtek a houby]

I always wondered if Magnus was a wumao

 

[Jay Park]

You see it took this one a while to get off the mark about their obsession with the British meddling into China. Think the silly sod didn’t want to upset us, as how he probably saw it and with most of us being Brits (sorry - Irish too) he thought we would be offended by historical facts; you know like his lot often seem to be.

 

[Yossarian]

There's an old Chinese saying I learned last week - "calling a deer a horse."

Around 200BC, a powerful chancellor called Zhao Gao supposedly tested the loyalty of courtiers by presenting the young emperor with a deer and saying it was a swift horse. When the emperor said it was clearly a deer, Zhao Gao asked the courtiers around him to back him up and say it was a horse. Most of them, realising Zhao Gao's power, assured the emperor that it was a horse. A few maintained that the animal was a deer, and Zhao Gao secretly had them executed.

So as this blogger explains, "Calling a deer a horse” is used to describe a situation where “black” is called “white” and vice versa for the purpose of manipulating people to advance one’s evil agenda."

The saying has been used a lot in recent days following the arrests of two pro-democracy legislators who were beaten in the notorious July 21 attack at Yuen Long MTR Station, where a mob of dozens of people dressed in white attacked people returning from a protest and police failed to answer emergency calls for more than half an hour. Prosecutors are now claiming that it was a clash "between two evenly matched rivals" and the pro-democracy lawmakers "aggravated" the incident. apparently just by existing.

Even with the totalitarian security law, there has been some pushback against this, with horse/deer graffiti appearing around the city.

In other HK news, courts have been handing down plenty of harsh sentences to people involved in protests last year - one man who was found with a rolling pin in his backpack was sentenced to 15 months for possessing an offensive weapon. The court was apparently unswayed by his argument that he was on his way to his job. In a bakery.

 

[Jay Park]

When I was there in 2010, me and a few Burmese lads went to knock back some Jonnie Walker’s on a park adjacent to our digs. Police came eventually and ID’d the others without even bothering the white boy. I saw then the nefandous attitude that the ‘Royal HK Po Po’ had toward anyone they saw as ‘undesirable’. Made me raging, these lads were probably from better stock than I (in an antiquated sense of course) and yet were humiliated unnecessarily. This is an area of mass migration but these pigs had been through, what: 13 years of propaganda.

 

[Streathamite]

'fora' is already the plural.

alright clever clogs, is years since I studied latin!