The DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s latest campaign advertisement “Follow the Children” has been intensely exposed on Facebook fan pages and cable television advertisements (seriously so dense, hard to imagine how much ad budget was spent).
Tsai Ing-wen extensively used the phrase “Follow the children, because they know what true future really is” in the advertisement, this kind of psychological suggestion that exalts youth while disparaging age has been consistent since the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement. I can only say that Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP have planted considerable roots in young students’ hearts.
Yet young students still believe that reposting other people’s articles counts as critical thinking.
The DPP used to divide society along provincial lines between native and mainland-origin people, and regional lines between south and north. Now they’re further dividing society along age lines between young people and “non” young people.
During a medical ethics class at school, a professor once said patients should not be called patients, elders should not be called elderly—this is a basic value of respecting others, and the kind of attitude humans should possess.
The cleverest brainwashing method is continuously disparaging you, suppressing you, making you lose confidence in yourself, and then everything I say, you will worship me like a god.
It’s easy to notice how many netizens’ way of speaking has become only able to use “old people” and “us young people” to speak populism, without being able to rationally discuss the essence of issues.
Eloquent words may stir hearts, but cannot hide the personality traits of Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP collective.
January 6, 2016 Addition: Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP’s campaign video same-series second installment has again been massively broadcast on television commercials. Not to mention how much advertising budget Tsai Ing-wen has invested (though she previously criticized Eric Chu’s internet advertising budget), the advertisement uses the same age-based value distinctions between young and old people, which is really not right.
Below is the original advertisement text:
This is Taiwan’s this moment, this moment, has stalled. Salaries, have stalled. fairness and justice, have stalled. Confidence, has stalled. But at this very moment, we finally see each other more clearly. We are in rural areas, we are in cities. We are walking, we are running. We wait for children to get out of school, we rush about for our livelihoods. This moment is sacred, party divisions no longer divide us. (Editor’s note: For someone like Tsai Ing-wen who has navigated between the KMT and DPP, and given that Su Jhen-chang spent three years guarding Tsai’s door for the DPP, this line is indeed somewhat in bad taste.) Only if we hold hands can I definitely change something. This moment, we decide not to stop at this moment. Follow the children, because they know what true future really is. Only if we hold hands, can we definitely change something. Fair weather, head held high. Follow the children, we can definitely change something.