Monday, April 14, 2008

-Newbie's Guide To Pro-China Internet Trolls-

-Newbie's Guide To Pro-China Internet Trolls- (v1.10)

Preface: This guide is a Work-In-Progress (WIP) and will be updated when possible.

CONTENTS

[1] INTRODUCTION
[2] MOTIVATIONS/AMBITIONS
[3] ChiCom TROLL TACTICS
[4] HOW TO IDENTIFY ChiCom TROLLS
[5] WHY THE INTERNET MUST FIGHT BACK AGAINST ChiCom TROLLS
[6] CLOSING COMMENTS
[7] HISTORY



[1] ~INTRODUCTION~

China.

A nation with a far-reaching history, a unique and diverse culture, beautiful locales, and a constantly growing economic superpower.

It is also a nation whose government shits on human and animal rights, establishes nation-wide censorship on all media including the Internet (The Great Firewall of China), where any critic of government policy is punished with a trip to the re-education camps, where you can't vote out the current Government as there can ONLY BE ONE, not to mention all the lead-filled low quality products, where the pollution in the air is VISIBLE and SMELLABLE, and who the fuck knows what else is going on in China but is not reported.

Worst of all however, are the Pro-China apologists who are possibly being paid by the Chinese Communist Party (hereafter refered to as the ChiCom Party) infiltrating internet forums and spreading the Pro-ChiCom Government line by upplaying China's strengths and downplaying, denying or even justifying their many weaknesses and atrocities.

These apologists are by far, most commonly found in the large media corporation news websites which offer a "comment on the article" section. Of course, the article would relate to China in some way. Pro-China apologists can also be found on internet forums although their numbers are smaller (between 1 to 5).

This guide allows you to delve considerably into the minds of such Pro-China trolls, how to identify them, and how to attack their weakly-set up (most of the time) arguments and how to defend your own.

No doubt the Pro-China trolls already follow a guide similar to this to defend China on the internet with.

A healthy debate requires the contributions of two or more sides to make all sides accountable.

This is your chance to protect freedom of speech and a censorship-free Internet before it is over-run by the millions of Chinese trolls.

[2] ~MOTIVATIONS/AMBITIONS~

What makes the Pro-China Internet Trolls Pro-China? It could be any or a combination of the following:

-Patriotism/Nationalism: Similar to the American kind, they show immense pride in supporting China, happily discarding or ignoring their country's flaws while promoting their positive aspects.

-Government Propaganda/Brainwashing: Possibly relating to the above, although brainwashing in not a necessary prerequisite for patriotism. This category is along the same lines as religion: Mass delusion. Brainwashing-afflicted Pro-China or any Religionist (Def. A person who identifies him/herself to any religion) usually set up strawmans or ad hominems to make up for their lack of rationality and logic. Unlike patriots/nationalists who can actually recognize their own faulty logic and bad arguments (but persist with it due to love of their country), the Brainwashee (person who is brainwashed by Government or religious propaganda) DO NOT EVEN REALIZE their own bad logic and poorly set up arguments. Any attempts to enlighten them on this issue will be ignored or countered with the aforementioned strawmans etc.

-Financial Benefits: Like the Russians, the ChiCom Government likes to keep a watchful eye on their citizens, both offline and online. When online, they employ well-paid police to tow the Government line, attempt to silence criticism by invoking mass posts or in the worst case scenario, remove the post/thread/website altogether. A common Chinese internet forum situation would be where Poster A would start a thread that is critical of the Government or their policies. There might even be a few posts of agreement from Poster B and Poster C. However, this will be quickly countered by voices of disapproval... from Poster D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K and L.

With current intelligence, there are several known types of Pro-China Internet Trolls:

1) Chinese people living in China.
2) Chinese people living in a non-China country (usually a democratized Western country) by moving there from China or being born there in the first place.
3) Non-Chinese people living in China, possibly for job and career motivations.

[3] ~ChiCom TROLL TACTICS~

1) Cherry Picking

Simply, bringing your attention to the good aspects of China or Chinese policy, while ignoring or diverting your attention away from the bad.

2) Contradiction

3) Sympathy Seeking/Emotional Language

A frequent tactic used by big media, also utilized by a ChiCom troll.

A recent example is the Olympic Torch run around the world. Protestors took it upon themselves to interfere with the run and attempt to snuff out the lit torch. At one point, one of the torch-holders was a disabled girl.

ChiCom used this situation for good effect:

The "heartless" and "violent" "rioting" (not protesting) "hooligans" (ad hominem) "attacked" (this can be argued, but you are clutching at straws if you call this an attack) the "brave" and "courageous" little "disabled" (shamelessly mentioning that the girl IS disabled as if we didn't know already) girl who "proudly protected" (no she did not) the torch using her "delicate small body" (yes, that is actually a direct quote).

Don't expect the ChiCom Trolls to have the same level of sympathy for Tibetans or anyone the Chinese police chooses to attack (attack as in the real definition of the word this time).

4) Learn From Them

5) Nonsensical Comparison

Tying in with the "Everyone is as bad as the ChiCom Government" tactic, this is where the ChiCom troll, in an attempt to explain the ChiCom Party's motives or actions, will try to draw comparisons and use analogies.

The problem is that these comparisons and analogies are so completely out-of-this-world, absurd and possibly completely unrelated with the issue at hand when closely examined.

An example:

“Tibetan religious extremists don't deserve to have any political power. No-one is stopping them (or could) from practising their religious nonsense inside their own heads. But when they want to translate it into political influence they have been and will continue to be met with great force. And a damn good thing, too!

How would we in Australia react to a proposal by Catholics to allow pre-pubescent boys into all-male monasteries?”


-A Pro-China troll comparing religious Tibetans with Catholics who a taste for innocent young altar-boys. What the fuck?

Another example:

http://plus4chan.org/boards/n/src/120822043185.png (source: http://www.anti-cnn.com/forum/ an anti-Western media forum. Warning: Censorship exists. Anti-China posts, even reasonable well-thought ones are deleted with extreme prejudice, although there is some time lag)
-A Pro-China troll comparing… do I even need to explain this? In case the link is dead, the ChiCom troll is attempting to compare the actions of the Chinese Government/Media, the Chinese populace, and what information the ChiCom Govt thinks is suitable to allow the Chinese populace to see, with the parents of the “traditional Asian family” (Chinese Govt/media) and the children of the parents (Chinese populace).

This is an extremely stupid comparison in many ways. In fact, the troll self-owned him/herself: In drawing up that ridiculous comparison, he/she is effectively saying the Chinese Communist Government TREATS THE CHINESE POPULACE LIKE CHILDREN.

Yet another example:

-The protestors trying to douse the Olympic torch being “no different” from Muslim terrorists using a place to collide with the World Trade Center.

6) Questioning a question

A form of avoidance.

7) Changing/Ignoring Subject

Certainly not unique to ChiCom trolls. When you can respond to a ChiCom troll's argument very successfully to the point of obliteration, the ChiCom troll, trying to not look like a failure, will simply not acknowledge it, and instead just change the subject or even refrain from posting another comment and disappear from the forum thread until it is safe to do so again.

8) Insult

There are just insults you’d expect in a typical schoolyard but instead of being called a libfag (liberal) or republicunt (republican), you’d more likely be called a selfish westerner, racist, dirty capitalist, etc.

9) Everyone is as bad as the ChiCom Party

Usually it goes like this:

Person: "China is bad at issue x" (where x can be such issues as pollution and human rights)
ChiCom Troll: "But [insert country here] is just as bad at issue x as China"
Person: "That may be the case, but it still doesn't excuse China's handling of the matters"
ChiCOm Troll: "China is doing the best it can at issue x, I suggest [insert country here] fix up their own problems first before criticizing China"
Person: "[insert country here] IS trying to fix issue x also, and it's certainly doing much more than China, which is close to nothing"
ChiCom Troll: "China is doing the best it can at issue x and I trust there will be positive results in the future"

Also called the "Two wrongs don't make a right" fallacy.

More typical examples:

Person: “China’s human rights history is quite bad.”
ChiCom Troll: “AMERICA’S HUMAN RIGHTS HISTORY IS BAD TOO.” (not a direct quote obviously, but might as well be)

Person: “China’s media is biased and does not present the full facts of the situation.”
ChiCom Troll: “AMERICAN AND ALL FOREIGN MEDIA IS BIASED, RACIST, AND FULL OF LIES AND DISTORTIONS OF FACTS.”

Person: “China’s nationwide censorship keeps the people uninformed.”
ChiCom Troll: “AMERICA HAS CENSORSHIP TOO.”

This is by far, the most commonly used rhetoric by the ChiCom troll. Keep this in point in mind next time you read an article that is critical of China and allows reader comments, or even the YouTube comment section. You’ll be surprised at the ChiCom troll’s persistence on using this line of defense.

10) Multiple Forum IDs

As mentioned before, it is possible for Pro-ChiCom trolls to create multiple identities/user accounts to try to make him/herself look more credible by faking support.

11) Western Bias Claim

Let us use a recent example: The pre-2008 Beijing Olympic Games Tibetan riots.

Sequence of Events
-Tibetans in Tibet start rioting/protesting.
-ChiCom Government kicks out all foreign journalists and media.
-Internet user claims that Tibetan protesters were shot and possibly killed by Chinese police.
-ChiCom troll asks internet user to provide proof.
-Internet user quotes and links to online articles and media.
-ChiCom troll claims that Western media is biased against the Chinese, so that's why they were kicked out of Tibet.
-ChiCom troll then claims that the Tibetan protesters are crazy violent people... by quoting from and linking to www.xinhuanet.com, the official Pro-ChiCom Party news website.

Also, ChiCom Trolls, not liking the bias and lies in Western media (CNN, BBC etc), would make the suggestion that WE visit China to see the truth. Due to their lack of logic and rationality, this is exactly what journalists do (or should do) and that is visit foreign countries to report on international news. Only problem is that the journalists are BARRED from entering (and booted out in the case of Tibet) or heavily restricted on what they're allowed to report.

12) Double Standards

Where different standards are applied to groups of people in similar situations.

Consider the two examples:

-The invasion of Tibet by China without the Tibetan’s consent. While exploiting Tibet’s resources, the Tibetans are discriminated against.
-The invasion of China by Japan without the Tibetan’s consent. While exploiting China’s resources, the Chinese are discriminated against.

A reasonable person would suggest that both situations are deplorable, and it should be up to Tibet (or China in the second example) to decide their OWN future.

A pro-China troll would of course suggest that the invasion of Tibet is justified, that the invasion of Tibet was for the Tibetan’s own good because they are stupid and uneducated etc.

Of course, this same troll would express immense outrage at Japan for their atrocities and seeks apologies, vengeance, etc. Who knows, the invasion of China by Japan could have been for China’s own good (I’m using the Pro-China troll’s line of defense), but you won’t get anywhere on this point due to the ChiCom troll’s double standards.

13) Racist

Ties in with claims of bias among Western media. A ChiCom troll would claim that people are anti-China simply because they are racist. While no doubt there are some racists (there are 3 constants in life: death, taxes and racists), that still doesn't justify China's stances and actions.

In fact, this is merely an example of "ad hominem fallacy": where the ChiCom troll attacks the person instead of the person's argument.

14) Might is Right

Where China's actions are justified because they are an economic superpower and can do whatever they want because the rest of the world can't do anything about it.

Needless to say, this is not a proper justification. Otherwise, China would be completely comfortable with present-day Japan performing another Nanking Rape.

15) Repetition

The hope that by spamming a statement endlessly, it can become truth.

http://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=Tibet+and+Taiwan+WAS,IS,and+ALWAYS+WILL+BE+a+part+of+China

Enough said.

I should also add that this exact search term is also constantly being copied and pasted onto forum posts. And it’s obviously a copy-and-paste job DUE TO THE LACK OF SPACING AFTER THE COMMAS WHEN THERE SHOULD BE.

16) Internal Affairs

Where the ChiCom troll claims an issue (such as Tibet) is an internal affair: it only concerns China and Tibet. America and any other country need not apply. A common justification would be that the rest of the world aren't informed about the issue enough and so, are biased and shouldn't be listened to. "It is not our business so we should BUTT OUT" In an era of global markets/trade, politics, and culture/society and the way all those link together, this point is quickly fading into irrelevance.

Of course, the fact that the media and the internet is censored heavily by the Chinese government, and the fact that the Chinese government is very careful in what news comes in and out of the country, doesn't really help us (Chinese and non-Chinese people) from getting more informed about their "internal affairs."

17) Hypocrisy

As in pretty much every internet debate ever, there will always be hypocrites. ChiCom trolls are one of the worst. Some examples include:

-Claiming to care about human rights while supplying weapons to war-torn Sudan in exchange for resources

-After criticizing China on past atrocities, pro-China will use the “You shouldn’t judge present-day China based on Past-China atrocities” defense. However, when the issue is about anything anti-Japan (which is one of the few things that unites the Chinese: their hatred of the Japanese, past, present and future) ChiCom trolls will then judge present-day Japan by past-Japan atrocities (Nanking Rape etc) while using their usual descriptive ad hominems (evil, ruthless, despicable, etc).

[4] ~HOW TO IDENTIFY ChiCom TROLLS~

Obviously, the best place to look are in news articles with anonymous comment post sections of any news website (local or international) in which the article relates to China in some way, most likely negative. ChiCom Trolls are also very common on YouTube in the comments area. The video of course, would usually relate to China, Japan (nothing unites the Chinese people more than their hatred of the Japanese), Tibet etc.

Sometimes the ChiCom Troll provides a Chinese name (EG. Yang, Zhao, Zhang etc) to go along with their posts. This is a good thing and makes it easier for you. At this point you can just read their posts to determine whether their comments are logical, reasonable and/or fair. Or whether their comments are illogical, too obviously biased and/or aggressive to other viewpoints. If it is the latter, then it's ChiCom Troll argument-destroying time.

What if the ChiCom Troll is anonymous or even has a Western name (EG. Jane and John Smith)?

The first thing to do is to become a spelling/grammar nazi. That's right. Pretend to be an English teacher and analyze their English skills. In the "~MOTIVATIONS/AMBITIONS~" section of this guide, I listed several types of ChiCom trolls. In this case, you should concern yourself with "Chinese people living in China" and "Chinese people living/born in non-China countries".

First, Chinese people living in China. These internet Chinese learned English as their second language. So obviously, their English skills aren't going to be perfect so there will be a fair bit of spelling/grammar mistakes. But, you say, these might not be posts made by Chinese people, they could be Spanish, African, German, even an American with bad English etc people!
That is a fair point. But when those posts start discussing Chairman Mao's policies and China's 1000+ years history in-depth and in great detail, who would care enough to study/know so much about such a thing? Chinese people. Sure, a British person can go to university and study China's history, but to then go on and surf websites on the internet to defend China against all negative views, the chances would be extremely low. Not impossible, just very low probability. It is reasonable to just assume that the person defending China on the internet is a Chinese person. Not that it makes a difference who is defending China. As a responsible citizen of the Internet, you should be finding faults in their illogical arguments on whatever the issue is (not just China) and exposing them.

The next is Chinese people born/living in a non-China country. Since they learned English as their first language, they are less likely to make the same spelling/grammar mistakes as their mainland friends. Even if it's not their first language, they would still be better due to simply living in a majority English-speaking country. HOWEVER, there are still small, subtle and consistent hints in their command of the English language that can reveal them to be Chinese. As they are juggling two (or more) languages (Chinese and English), they can still make some mistakes. A couple of examples:

Correct English: "I am interested to hear what you have to say on this issue"
Foreign ChiCom Troll: "I am interesting to hear what you have to say on this issue"

Note how "interested" becomes "interesting". This could be a one-time mistake by a, for example, white American. But if this occurs several times, then there's a good chance they could be Chinese. If the post message sounds like a very informative summary on anything about China, then you might as well assume the poster is Chinese. Why would a white American care about which dynasties owned which land in olden-day China?

Another example:

Correct English: "Tibet has always been part of China"
Foreign ChiCom Troll: "Tibet has always been part of China"

Notice the lack of "s" in always. A common mistake, ChiCom Trolls will often forget (or did not know) that some words need an "s" at the end.

Correct English: "The police used excessive force against the protestors"
Foreign ChiCom Troll: "The police did not uses excessive force against the protestors"

A combination of the first two examples: a failure to use the suffix "-ed" properly as well as failing to know when to add an "s".

Correct English: "China has made a lot of progress on this matter"
Foreign ChiCom Troll: "China has made a lot of progresses on this matter"

Another boring example (I did say they were subtle): Foreign ChiCom Trolls have some difficulties with plurals and when or when not to apply them.

To sum up, we're not so much concerned with a ChiCom troll's spelling ability. What you should do is read their post in your head. Does it sound weird, stilted and awkward? Then you might be dealing with a ChiCom Troll.

[5] -WHY THE INTERNET MUST FIGHT BACK AGAINST ChiCom TROLLS~

We fight back against extremist Muslims on the internet because we disapprove of their women-oppressing culture, excessive pushing of moral values to the point of not being able to do anything fun, their violent reactions to anything that is remotely offensive, and the big one, Sharia Law which covers the aforementioned and more backwards traditions.

We fight back against religion in general on the internet (including recently, scientology), because we disapprove of the above, as well as the pushing of fictional fairy tales (The Bible and creationism) into the classroom, their insistence of having an imaginary friend (god) instead of making friends will real life humans, their flawed concept of being a kind and caring person to gain access to heaven (which is also fiction) instead of being a kind and caring person for the sake of being kind and caring, not to mention constantly being in the way of science.

We fight back against America on the internet because we disapprove of their foreign policy which puts its finger in every country, their circus of a democracy when in reality, it is a corporatocracy where the highest "donating" private companies have more say in the political process than the average citizen, and we disapprove of their constant hypocritical trumpeting of "freedom" and "democracy" when America's foreign policy history proves otherwise.

Similarly we must fight back against Pro-Chinese Communist Party goons and China in general. This is the main reason why:

-The suppression of dissenting opinions and freedom of speech-

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

We hold dear to our hearts, the concept of freedom of speech. That of course includes allowing people to voice opinions that OPPOSE us. Even from ChiCom trolls. The ChiCom government effectively locks down one side of the argument and even punish them for it. This also links to mass-censorship or a Chinese Government monopoly on information. I have yet to hear any Pro-China troll offer a sufficient reason to justify censorship and the suppression of freedom of speech. If information is hard to acquire, then how can one be informed? If criticizing the Government or forming an opposition party is illegal, then what exactly can be done to make the current government accountable for their actions?

No. Answer this question instead: Why is censorship/lack of freedom of speech ever preferable to the opposite?

[6] ~CLOSING COMMENTS~

Do not take this document as an anti-China/Chinese tirade. I value my freedom of speech, to be able to criticize (or even praise) the government and not be taken away for reeducation or getting arrested. I value my ability to access information without censorship in place to stop me from getting what I need. I value my Internet, the last bastion of democracy in its truest sense. And I certainly recognize that Chinese people also value those exact same fundamental rights.

I despise the people who would, should they ever come into power, erode the above rights. And I despise the people who support them. If those people are the Chinese Communist Party, then I despise them. If you are Chinese (or anyone for that matter) and you support the removal or restricting of freedom of speech, access to information, and internet/media censorship, THEN I DESPISE YOU. (If you're Chinese, Muslim or American though, then I double-despise you)

[7] HISTORY

23 April 2008 (v1.2) – 1 example added to “5) Nonsensical Comparison” and “12) Double Standards”.
14 April 2008-2 (v1.1) – 2 examples of “5) Nonsensical Comparison” added and the “12) Double Standards” troll tactic was elaborated upon.
14 April 2008 (v1.0) – The guide is completed and uploaded.


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Written by "Invisible Sky Magician"
invisibleskymagician@googlemail.com
http://godism.blogspot.com/

Feel free to distribute this document to anyone and anywhere.