5 ms·

Nah, it's the 50 cent party. They get alerted on anything China related on Social Media and swarm in to push a pro-Chinese agenda. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w

by Apes 8y ago

Nah, it's the 50 cent party. They get alerted on anything China related on Social Media and swarm in to push a pro-Chinese agenda. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party

gdy 8y ago
This is offensive. A comment about radicalization is made by an account more than 6 years old and having karma over 17000. Labeling everyone who you disagree with as a paid propagandist is bad for public discourse.
- PavlovsCat 8y ago
  Offensive? Someone who is older than twelve is suggesting that UK, France and Germany stop "playing nice" with Muslims. And they weren't called a shill, read it again, read what is actually written. As far as I'm concerned, it would have been more charitable than to assume they're older than 12 and really mean what they wrote. I mean, where do you from there, right? A shill can quit their job at least. As a German, the idea that we should put a whole religion in camps so beyond the pale, I think it's mainly bad for public discourse that this discussion was flagged. People should have their comments dissected until the cows come home, instead of not really having to own up to their words. This coy short flashing of this unwashed, ugly underbelly, that's the problem, that people who say A don't have to say B is the problem. They should have to sleep in the beds they declare fit for others. It's pretty rich to bring up being offended, or radicalization for that matter, while people happily normalize putting a whole religion in concentration camps.
  - gdy 8y ago
    "they weren't called a shill" Really? What else can "It's the 50 cent party" mean? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party
    - PavlovsCat 8y ago
      Yes, really. There was a specifc reference to that comment but also the thread in general, which didn't mention shills, and a reply which didn't reference that comment, but the thread in general. The way stories critical of some, uhm, vaguely important developments in China regularly get flagged off the front page, while utter fluff about China winning some "race" or other being on the front page every second day is quite something. I don't know what the karma threshold is for flagging stories, but it sure isn't 17000. Of course, as that article notes: > David Wertime of Foreign Policy argued that the narrative where a large army of paid Internet commentators are behind China's poor public dialogue with its critics is "Orwellian, yet strangely comforting". Rather, many of the Chinese netizens spreading nationalist sentiment online are not paid, but often mean what they say. Either way, shill or useful idiot [1] or just independent nonthinker; it's still poor dialogue, as a result of poor reasoning and/or underdeveloped empathy, in defense of abominable practices -- and if someone can shrug off people being put into camps, they can shrug off being called names. Again, this didn't even happen here, but even if it had happened.. not that I find that constructive, of course it's also destructive and poor, talking about how "the shills are out" is totally useless and more toxic than shitty arguments I can at least disagree with -- but I still reject your claim that that'd be "offensive". Maybe for you, my priorities are vastly different. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot
      - gdy 8y ago
        "Yes, really. There was a specifc reference to that comment but also the thread in general, which didn't mention shills, and a reply which didn't reference that comment, but the thread in general." I have no idea what you are talking about - the comment I was replying to made a statement that many other comments including the one about radicalization are the product of the 50 Cents Party. It's the only way it was talking about other comments. Perhaps, your statement about 'poor reasoning' and 'poor dialog' applies to you as well and your sense of superiority is unwarranted.
  - gdy 8y ago
    'As a German' Are you aware that the Latvians that used to happily help Nazies to round up Jews, today are forbidding Russians that live in their country to be taught in Russian? [0] Does it concern you that your country and the rest of the EU look the other way? Since Latvia became independent, the Russian population in it dropped from 900000 to less than 500000. The same happened to other ethnicities like Belorussians and Ukrainians.[1] This slow motion ethnic cleansing happens right in the EU and nobody cares. So, please, spare me of this talk from the hights of your moral high ground. [0] https://www.euronews.com/2018/07/20/children-go-native-as-latvian-schools-say-ne-to-russian https://www.euronews.com/2018/07/20/children-go-native-as-la... [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Latvia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Latvia

by Apes 8y ago

gdy 8y ago

This is offensive. A comment about radicalization is made by an account more than 6 years old and having karma over 17000. Labeling everyone who you disagree with as a paid propagandist is bad for public discourse.

PavlovsCat 8y ago
Offensive? Someone who is older than twelve is suggesting that UK, France and Germany stop "playing nice" with Muslims. And they weren't called a shill, read it again, read what is actually written. As far as I'm concerned, it would have been more charitable than to assume they're older than 12 and really mean what they wrote. I mean, where do you from there, right? A shill can quit their job at least. As a German, the idea that we should put a whole religion in camps so beyond the pale, I think it's mainly bad for public discourse that this discussion was flagged. People should have their comments dissected until the cows come home, instead of not really having to own up to their words. This coy short flashing of this unwashed, ugly underbelly, that's the problem, that people who say A don't have to say B is the problem. They should have to sleep in the beds they declare fit for others. It's pretty rich to bring up being offended, or radicalization for that matter, while people happily normalize putting a whole religion in concentration camps.
- gdy 8y ago
  "they weren't called a shill" Really? What else can "It's the 50 cent party" mean? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party
  - PavlovsCat 8y ago
    Yes, really. There was a specifc reference to that comment but also the thread in general, which didn't mention shills, and a reply which didn't reference that comment, but the thread in general. The way stories critical of some, uhm, vaguely important developments in China regularly get flagged off the front page, while utter fluff about China winning some "race" or other being on the front page every second day is quite something. I don't know what the karma threshold is for flagging stories, but it sure isn't 17000. Of course, as that article notes: > David Wertime of Foreign Policy argued that the narrative where a large army of paid Internet commentators are behind China's poor public dialogue with its critics is "Orwellian, yet strangely comforting". Rather, many of the Chinese netizens spreading nationalist sentiment online are not paid, but often mean what they say. Either way, shill or useful idiot [1] or just independent nonthinker; it's still poor dialogue, as a result of poor reasoning and/or underdeveloped empathy, in defense of abominable practices -- and if someone can shrug off people being put into camps, they can shrug off being called names. Again, this didn't even happen here, but even if it had happened.. not that I find that constructive, of course it's also destructive and poor, talking about how "the shills are out" is totally useless and more toxic than shitty arguments I can at least disagree with -- but I still reject your claim that that'd be "offensive". Maybe for you, my priorities are vastly different. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot
    - gdy 8y ago
      "Yes, really. There was a specifc reference to that comment but also the thread in general, which didn't mention shills, and a reply which didn't reference that comment, but the thread in general." I have no idea what you are talking about - the comment I was replying to made a statement that many other comments including the one about radicalization are the product of the 50 Cents Party. It's the only way it was talking about other comments. Perhaps, your statement about 'poor reasoning' and 'poor dialog' applies to you as well and your sense of superiority is unwarranted.
- gdy 8y ago
  'As a German' Are you aware that the Latvians that used to happily help Nazies to round up Jews, today are forbidding Russians that live in their country to be taught in Russian? [0] Does it concern you that your country and the rest of the EU look the other way? Since Latvia became independent, the Russian population in it dropped from 900000 to less than 500000. The same happened to other ethnicities like Belorussians and Ukrainians.[1] This slow motion ethnic cleansing happens right in the EU and nobody cares. So, please, spare me of this talk from the hights of your moral high ground. [0] https://www.euronews.com/2018/07/20/children-go-native-as-latvian-schools-say-ne-to-russian https://www.euronews.com/2018/07/20/children-go-native-as-la... [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Latvia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Latvia