"Values are like fingerprints. Nobody's are the same but you leave them all over everything you do." Elvis Presley.
Politics has always been a dirty game, but at least there are shreds of decency, a certain level of moral standards, and red lines that most intelligent and mentally functional politicians and commentators won’t step over.
If you can’t carry your argument without resorting to the moral gutter, you are unfit to be a politician, let alone a mere social-media slave commentator only really interested in clicks and views.
That said, the latest furore over Wang Zhi-an’s comments on The Night Show about Chen Jun-han Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) had taken the bar even lower to the disgust of any right thinking people.
It is the equivalent of throwing paint over someone on a train to get a reaction and clicks and views. YouTube is full of this kind of childish stupidity which reduces us all to the level unfit to compare to our planet's animals.
Wang’s assertion Chen was only rolled out by the DPP to win the sympathy vote is as naive as it is ridiculous and to add the insult of a fit person mimicking someone with involuntary muscle spasms in front of a television audience demonstrates a mind devoid of decency and an individual who is morally bankrupt.
I guess to Wang, Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest theoretical physicists of our generation deserves similar ridicule, or wheelchair bound US 26th President Teddy Roosevelt despite his Nobel Prize and other achievements. Hawking had late onset Motor Neurone Disease and Roosevelt late onset Poliomyelitis. But Wang seems fine to ridicule such people despite him being only an upstart with a tiny internet voice.
The comparison is indeed, stark.
If ridiculing those stricken with disease gives some kind of perverse pleasure and makes you happy then I hope you sleep soundly at night, but please don't act surprised when those with higher morals decry you and point out that you are a disgusting human being not to be taken seriously.
Those outraged by Wang’s antics are more in tune with Western thinking. Talk that The Night Show is ‘American style’ as wide of the mark as it is possible to be. Subtile and humorous satire it certainly is not and making fun of someone’s physical disability would be roundly attacked by all in places like the US and the UK.
Please make no mistake, if Wang says this is how it is in the west he is lying and just doesn’t understand despite having lived there. The young man is either a dimwit, or, more likely, simply being outrageous for attention. Personally, I think it is a bit of both.
Wang’s behaviour is simply to gain attention and clicks and views just as internet pranksters are forced to do. It’s pathetic and sad they simply don’t have the intellect to gain an audience via good argument.
But more depressing is the fact that quite a few, and young people at that, are saying there was nothing wrong with what he said and did.
I can just about understand that someone desperate for clicks and views can stoop so low to gain notoriety as they aren’t smart enough to do it any other way. But for others to support such exploits is a sad statement on how society is, and indicates the erosion of morals in the people around you on this island.
Taiwan cannot allow this kind of disgusting behaviour to pass unnoticed and I’m glad it has become headline news. The TPP supporters posting messages saying all this OK are misguided, and will rightly be proved wrong by the majority voice of right minded people.
They are also showing themselves up for what they really are. Unfeeling, unsympathetic, ignorant hangers on to what is - to all intents and purposes - a cult. Their comments show them for what they are. Slavish drones unable to think or analyse things for themselves. It’s sad.
Wang is Chinese. So his behaviour is no real surprise as his brain has been thoroughly washed. China’s young have no faith and no respect for others built into their psyche from birth. I lived in India for six years before living in China for four years and the major difference between the two is the lack of faith in China. Indians grow up to respect other people, from my observations Chinese children grow up thinking they are Princes and Princesses and behave accordingly.
Wang is a classic example of such an offspring. Zero humility, massive ego.
The mainlander Wang is such a child. He is a clicks and views kid, devoid of critical thinking skills and is only seeking notoriety. He is insignificant and after this, we will never hear from him again despite his swaggering about getting a Japanese or US passport.
The worrying thing is people here are supporting his views and I’m concerned that others are being influenced by this evil and click-based fool. They are clearly not smart enough to know they are being played.
I would encourage all those who waded in on social media to reflect how they would feel if their brother, sister, mother, father, uncle, auntie, grandad or grandma were similarly disabled? How would they feel if someone went on national television and made fun of them and everyone laughed along?
A final word about the unprofessionalism of the presenters. Guys, listen to what you guests say and don’t just laugh along with them like unthinking robots. Run your interviews, take control, and most importantly, listen to what people say and do. Clapping like a bunch of seals seeking fish at feeding time is a poor look and you really need to learn your trade.
This is the vile side of politics and creeping degradation of decency is a slippery slope. Shrug off making fun of disabled people today, tomorrow you may see the wholesale hatred of other sections of society.
This is a worrying reminder of how common decency can fall out of society under the direction of politicians seeking more influence and power. Read the history books and it’s easy to find out what happens... if this happens.
A slippery slope, the thin end of the wedge, call it what you will…please God, Taiwan does not go down this route.
Tinkerty Tonk...
