Since last year’s county magistrate and councilor elections in Taiwan, apart from Lai Ching-te’s refusal to enter the council for questioning and Ko Wen-je’s daily news coverage, the overall environment in Taiwan, compared to the frenzied smear campaigns and rumors spread by various groups before the elections, is like a sunny day on an island after a typhoon.
By “various groups,” I mean the politicians themselves, pro-DPP media, pro-KMT media, various online self-media, a group of netizens who consider themselves righteous but refuse to believe anything and can get excited just by their political affiliation, and the PTT gossip forum.
Note: If you’re not used to reading a lot of text, you probably want to end here. I suggest you scroll to the end and read the last two paragraphs first; you might want to come back and reread them later.
If there were a vote for smear campaigns and fabricated stories, I personally think this one accusing Xingtian Temple and Sean Lien of planning to sell Xingtian Temple’s real estate to developers after the election would definitely be in the top three.
The author of that article not only exploited the anti-blue sentiment among the pro-independence camp and manipulated the bloodthirsty and dark nature of PTT netizens, scheming to force the candidate to respond with nothing but bitterness, but also dragged the influence of well-known temples into the mess—a four-way deal.
What’s even more amazing is that the person who wrote the article doesn’t bear any legal responsibility, because it was all a dream—I even suspect he’s a highly professional writer from some think tank.
Basically, whenever the pro-independence camp releases any information unfavorable to the pro-independence camp, the pro-independence public figures themselves don’t usually react much, but a group of “people” below them will start frantically attacking, sometimes even creating more fake news to cover up their own guilty conscience. Truth and objective analysis are completely unimportant to them. They’re all like those “mama’s boys” who say, “It’s all their fault.”
Conversely, when the DPP releases any information unfavorable to the KMT, the same group ignores logic, throws aside all the critical thinking skills they’ve cultivated throughout their lives, and launches a frenzied marketing campaign. Truth and objective analysis are completely unimportant to them, again.
While the KMT also frequently engages in this kind of behavior that pleases their allies and hates their enemies, and can sometimes be quite mindless, in my observation, they generally don’t reach the point of “madness.” Some only retaliate when they’re provoked by the DPP to a certain extent (and usually, their retaliatory attacks don’t offer any useful points; they just create chaos).
As long as there are no elections, Taiwan can be very peaceful.
Crazy DPP Green Supporters
This is also why I initially supported Ko Wen-je. I believed that if Ko Wen-je became the mayor of Taipei, even if every issue remained unresolved, Taipei would become quieter.
For professional protesters, Ko Wen-je represents the resurgence of the green light (even if everyone waved their hands vigorously and refused to admit it), and these protesters would move to other areas. Or they might simply go on a rampage and get caught, like “Wo-Tsai CEO Liu Lin-wei was dismissed from his positions as CEO and representative for ‘financial mismanagement’.”
Moreover, Ko Wen-je has validated my initial theory; now, the noisiest person in Taipei is only Ko Wen-je himself (laughs).
Basically, only in DPP-controlled counties and cities are there still protests, and those issues are worth my attention, such as the Tainan railway relocation case. Their long-term struggle has not ended because of the election. For example, when Hu Chih-chiang planned to build a cable car on the snow-capped mountains, Facebook was flooded with protests. However, after Lin Chia-lung was elected mayor of Taichung, news circulated that he also planned to build a cable car, but this time only those already concerned with environmental issues were protesting; the viral marketing effect had disappeared. Similarly, the massive protests at Hau Lung-bin’s Wenlin Garden, and even more recently at the Longnao Treasure House, saw the same group of students disappear.
My question is, where exactly is the “standard”? Everything has a standard, but that standard may vary from person to person, or from who the mayor is.
So you’re telling me you don’t care about political affiliation, only right and wrong? Don’t make me laugh.
I often use an analogy to explain my views on the DPP and KMT, a common division found in all democratic countries.
The green DPP represents conflict and reform, the so-called right-wing.
The blue KMT represents peace and progress, the so-called left-wing.
After the French Revolution, the revolutionary army established the first democratic government, with the slogan “fraternity, liberty, and equality.” However, liberty and equality can never be achieved equally, because all people have varying levels of intelligence and perspectives that may be self-serving or altruistic. Forcing diverse individuals onto a scale of equality does not constitute true equality.
Therefore, the French Parliament at the time decided on a policy: if you supported equality, cared about national welfare, and accepted greater use of state power to help the weak, you sat on the left side of Parliament—the origin of the term “left wing,” similar to the Kuomintang (KMT) in the Republic of China.
If you supported liberty, opposed excessive welfare policies, and supported competition, you sat on the right side of Parliament—the origin of the term “right wing,” similar to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the Republic of China.
Thus, freedom and equality, right and left, hawks and doves, green and blue, conflict and peace become the two most fundamental values of all democracies, and the origin of all political disputes.
For example, when Chen Shui-bian was exposed for corruption, even Shih Ming-teh, a right-wing figure, led the Red Shirt Army protests. The Kuomintang (KMT) only then joined in lukewarmly, becoming a mere bystander.
Moreover, those who were adept at fighting back then are now among the loudest critics of Ma Ying-jeou. Some people are inherently driven to satisfy themselves through conflict. Rather than the slow and orderly path of the rule of law, they prefer everything to be based on their own standards and core values, regardless of the clever or despicable means used, all solely to achieve their own ends. This style of behavior is absolutely diametrically opposed to the KMT’s character (the most classic example being Ma Ying-jeou’s often-criticized mild-manneredness).
If the situation were reversed, and if Ma Ying-jeou were accused of corruption today, the DPP would have been the first to send tour buses from central and southern Taiwan to surround the Presidential Office Building.
However, you can’t criticize people for being too moderate simply because they are peace-loving and good at rational thinking and inherently averse to conflict and excessive enthusiasm. That’s putting the cart before the horse.
It’s not the times that determine people’s madness, but people’s madness that determines the times.
Therefore, even now, all the accusations against Ma Ying-jeou are just talk; the DPP has no evidence whatsoever. For example, Ko Wen-je’s previously loudly proclaimed five major corruption cases now seem like mere scratches on the surface. For instance, Chou Yu-kou’s accusation that Ma Ying-jeou accepted bribes was recently rejected by the prosecutor’s office due to lack of evidence. But this strategy of “first come, first served” is exceptionally effective for Taiwanese people, and the number of such people is increasing.
Conversely, the one who recently revealed that Chen Shui-bian received billions of NT dollars in donations from construction companies was also the DPP’s own spokesperson, Hsu Chia-ching. However, regardless of whether they are blue or green, most people haven’t overreacted to this news. So, where is the standard? Where is the KMT’s bottom line of moderation and weakness? (The only truly combative figure in the blue camp is probably Chiu Yi.)
You can find evidence, but nobody believes you; you don’t need evidence, just shouting, and the pro-green supporters in the audience cheer.
Pro-green supporters love this, like children lying on the ground clamoring for candy. Reason and logic are completely unimportant; they are simply bloodthirsty. And coincidentally, in zombie movies, these bloodthirsty zombies are always so annoying—unkillable, numerous, and constantly groaning.
But I believe that as a human being, a wise human being, if you lose even the basic ability to judge right and wrong, and the ability to investigate the truth, you have no right to call yourself a Homo sapiens. This characteristic can be clearly seen in whether a person’s speech is an attack on others or a discussion of the essence of the event.
Or, you can just look at the frenzy of the visitor comments on Tsai Ing-wen and Hung Hsiu-chu’s official Facebook accounts, and you’ll get a glimpse of the situation.
Even monkeys only fight over food or the title of “king of the mountain,” and only the two monkeys vying for it. Have you ever seen the other monkeys below join in the fighting?
Taiwanese people, though smarter than monkeys, are even less intelligent than monkeys.
These past few days, since Hung Hsiu-chu has almost certainly secured her position as the KMT’s 2016 presidential candidate, the attacks from pro-DPP figures have noticeably intensified.
For example, on PTT (Taiwanese online forum), in an effort to downplay Hung Hsiu-chu’s past image as a “fiery little pepper” and avoid being associated with “fiery little pepper stir-fried with water spinach,” some expert netizens have come up with a rather incongruous negative image for her: “Hsiao-fu’s mom.”
People who deliberately make such image connections likely have personality recognition difficulties, because the two are completely different personalities. These people are merely superficially trying to make connections based on external appearances.
Speaking of external appearances, if we’re going to say Hung Hsiu-chu is Hsiao-fu’s mom, shouldn’t we also mention “Mei-huan’s mom”?
In my opinion, the KMT (Kuomintang) specifically created the “Meihuan’s Mom” image to counter the “Xiaofu’s Mom” claim; otherwise, this image wouldn’t have only recently become popular. Even so, I still strongly dislike making such stereotypical negative connections about anyone, because it’s utterly brainless.
Why do some people always like to hurt others without ever considering that they themselves will suffer the same retaliation?
Why do some people always like to hurt others without ever considering that they themselves will suffer the same retaliation?
Why do some people always like to hurt others without ever considering that they themselves will suffer the same retaliation?
Because it’s important, I’ll say it three times.
For example, the Hung Hsiu-chu entry on Wikipedia has been edited over a hundred times in three days, most of which are meaningless online arguments. There are also individuals like Aaa11aa111 who frantically delete posts or modify fabricated content (and the most impressive thing about these people is that they even answer their own questions by saying that it must be pro-KMT individuals trying to frame them—it’s all these people saying it).
Judging from the initial disputes, Taiwan will definitely be embroiled in noise and smear campaigns for at least another six months, with a large amount of rumors and slander circulating on PTT gossip forums. PTT gossip forums are now practically the breeding ground for all irresponsible articles in Taiwan; this is the greatest value gossip forums have left for Taiwanese people: irresponsible daydreaming.
Note: Why did I write this? Because it’s a universal template. In the future, I want to show all my fanatical supporters how extreme and malicious their current thinking is, regardless of political affiliation. Anyone whose words deviate from the fundamental values of humanity will be asked to take note.
As for whether Code Red, mentioned in the title, actually carried out this action, that’s something I made up myself; only God knows for sure.