Claiming genocide in the new art of war
Today’s wars may still be fought on the battlefield, but very often, it is won or lost in the digital domain. Take the war in Gaza for instance. Israel may have won it on the ground, but the condemnation that it is receiving may make someone who has just joined the conversation think that it was Israel who started the war. There’s a simple explanation or this. The attack on Israel by Hamas on 7 October 2023 happened over just one day. Israel’s retaliation has been sustained over 2 years. Images of Israeli suffering have not been advertised on a daily basis because Israelis are not proud of them, especially when there are pro-Palestinian groups all over the world celebrating the attacks on Israelis and the taking of hostages. On the other hand, images of Palestinian suffering have been repeatedly advertised, so much so that it’s easy to forget that it was Hamas that started the war. The cynics were right. Perception is indeed more “convincing” than reality.
So what would the pro-Palestinian folks consider to be a reasonable response from Israel after that deadly terrorist attack that killed more than a thousand people? Strangely many people don’t seem to realise that there were numerous other attacks that took place before this. A Palestinian suicide bomber runs into a school bus and 12 school Israeli children get killed. That’s a terrorist attack. What could Israel do? Attack a Palestinian school bus and kill 12 Palestinian school children? That would also constitute a terrorist attack but it’s not something that Israel will do. They set up blockades. They set up security checkpoints. They send in their F16s to bomb terrorist hideouts. Yet, many people have labelled Israel as a “terrorist” state for doing things that any conventional army would do. So what are these folks labelling as terrorism? Anybody who wins a war and inflicts catastrophic damage on the enemy is a terrorist committing an act of genocide?
But the new art of war is not about fighter jets and missiles. It’s not even about drones. It’s about trolls that gather like flies around bullshit. They don’t need to be responsible for all the nonsense that they say. No matter how outrageous, illogical or unbelievable, you’re almost certain to get views and likes as long as what you say sounds woke, righteous and sympathetic. In the past, everyone cheered for David when he has won over Goliath. On social media today, it’s not difficult to mke David look like the bad guy if one keeps harping on how Goliath and his family have been suffering because of David’s victory over him.
Homophily means loving the same thing. It enables humans to form societies by sharing customs and beliefs. That’s how we get clubs, enclaves, communities, countries. For thousands of years, humans have argued, debated and fought over their differences. Peacefully or otherwise, new groups can be formed, old ones can get absorbed. The emergence of new groups does not necessarily increase the chances of confrontation. World War 2 came only a little more than 20 years after World War 1. There were fewer than 100 countries back then. We’ve not had a world war after the end of World War 2 in 1945 even though there are some 200 countries now. The arrival of the online world changes everything. On social media these days, cults are created faster than you can say “flat earth”. As I’m writing this, I saw a new post on Facebook. Someone with a Westerner’s name was sharing a piece of news about a staff on Singapore Airlines being fired for taking bottled water from an executive lounge in a hotel without asking for permission. Here’s the response from “Mark Turner”. He calls it Singapore’s superiority complex. Going through his previous posts, he’s obviously a Chinese propagandist.
As the woman who was dismissed came from China, the poster claimed that SIA was using her actions as an excuse to get rid of people from China. Does that sound logical to you? Would a company like SIA took the trouble to sign a contract with this woman from China and then find an excuse to fire her on her first day of work? Why not reject her from the start? The company has mentioned in its statement that it cannot reveal confidential information on the woman’s dismissal. Yet, the pro-China people commenting on the episode took everything the “victim” said as the whole truth. Some Singaporeans say that we’re xenophobic. Some even say that SIA is anti-China and was acting on the behest of the White House. It’s annoying, but how do you fight such homolity/stupidity? Buzzwords like “discrimination”, “fascism”, “apartheid”, “genocide” and “Trump” get the self-righteous, virtue signalling folks all fired up. Someone like “Mark Turner” is able to draw like-minded people who are disillusioned with the existing world order. To them, the facts don’t matter anymore. It’s irresistibly sexy to be anti-semitic, anti-West. Russians, Iranians, Palestinians, the CCP are the new good guys. What about the genocide going on in Sudan? Sorry, not sexy. No convenient target like Israel or America.
That’s not all. Look at the hordes of Cambodian trolls spreading fake news about Thailand placing landmines and getting their soldiers to step on them to incriminate Cambodia. The trouble is, when something goes viral, it doesn’t matter if it’s untrue because people will believe. Thailand may have military superiority but it is struggling to justify putting an end to the ceasefire. The sheer numbers of these trolls with their wild assertions and denials is simply mind-boggling. Social media is so flooded with their nonsense that as long as they repeat their lies often enough, they actually gain supporters over time. Fortunately for Thailand, Cambodia has not been as badly beaten as Gaza. The woke just call it bullying; not genocide. The Jewish community’s problem is a lot more serious.
While the IDF may have won the war in Gaza, they have clearly lost the propaganda war. Protests The new art of war milks sympathy from the suffering of the losers. Retaliation against a failed genocide against them is now being taken as an act of genocide. Pro-Palestinian communities all over the world are wreaking havoc, especially in the Western world which has made itself vulnerable because of left wing, liberal ideology. Don’t ever let such nonsense creep into Singapore.