Memes, picture messages and other viral content are popular on the Internet because of the fun they sometimes bring. But at other times, they can also be used for misinformation and propaganda. And the trouble is, people often don’t question them when they should.
More than ever, the Right-Wing (or perhaps right-wing may not be entirely accurate; let’s just call them…) violence-mongers are aggressively using the Internet to spread misinformation and spread fear and violence. The most common targets of misinformation are Muslims. For example, fake videos and messages claim that sharia law has been declared in certain no-go zone in the U.S. and Europe. That viral picture of a supposed Daesh/ISIL flag in Germany was nothing more than a Muslim rally in 2012; no Daesh involved. Yet the fears have received resurgence with the recent reports of sexual assault in Germany over the New Year. The German police at this time claim that many of the assaults are by people of foreign origin, but other Germans also caution that it should never be a reason to warmonger against Muslims.
Because many people don’t bother to question the memes and similar messages, they help spread the misinformation and are made to live in fear. Such people are not only helping spread the environment of fear, but they may also display the behavior that terrorists want: to continue living in fear and in paranoia of even their neighbors. These memes and posts are troublesome not only for being based on some misinformation, but they make life harder for people in general.
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Let us look at one for analysis:
What’s wrong with this? Everything. It implies having a Christian message, but it is actually anti-Christian.
First, it claims that if angels are armed, then humans should be armed. Wrong. In Christian doctrine, angels fight demons in another realm. But that’s their battle, in their own dimension. We human Christians fight the wiles of the devil by resisting temptation, not by hurting other people.
Also, it goes against the words of Jesus Christ in which he discourages violence: “put away your sword, for he who takes up the sword will perish by it.”
Next, tolerance and understanding are part of the second great commandment, “love your fellow man as you love yourself.” In other words, you do fight evil with tolerance and understanding! Saying we should kill or threaten other people with guns instead of using tolerance and understanding is the opposite of true Christian teaching. Thus, this meme shows how certain vested interests created a twisted message that takes advantage of undiscerning minds.
This meme only wants to help sell guns by playing on the fears of potential customers. It implies that other people around you who are different from you are threats to your security. So you should arm yourself and be prepared to kill those other people. Sadly, that killing is likely to happen whether they threaten you or not. While I do accept that people should be allowed to have some weapons for self-defense, those who share the memes above tend to share another thing; that aside from Muslims, gays are implied to be the people you have to shoot. I suspect people with disabilities (e.g. autism) are also targeted. In other words, the people you should peacefully respect have become scapegoated as “threats.”
Perhaps these memes are spread by people believing the ridiculous claims that the Rothschild family owns the world, Agenda 21 is a plan to exterminate people to reduce populations, all wars are fake and just shows the Illuminati are creating, 9/11 was done by Americans rather than terrorists, and more. Seriously, I’d say the people who believe in these unproven theories don’t know what they’re doing.
It is unfortunate that the recent assaults in Germany are blamed on refugees and Muslims, and thus anti-Muslim sentiments are strengthening. Never mind that German authorities are saying even locals are probably part of the assaults. While care in taking in refugees is appropriate, saying immediately that refugees are to blame and that attacking or harming them is justified is an unthinking assumption driven by hatred.
To me, the Muslim problem is more like, only certain groups, like the Salafist and Wahhabist Muslim sect, are the ones promoting violence around the world. There are many other Muslims not agreeing with it. Yet the fake videos and memes being spread try to convince you that all Muslims are violent. This is probably for raising support for military action and for invasion of Muslim countries. Companies will jump in on this lobby, and will want to grab the oil fields seized (isn’t that what happened in Iraq?). That will make the military-industrial complex of the U.S. and related industries and countries happy.
If you’re wondering, what about the left-wing, Benign0 has already written good articles about political correctness that address that. But for me, the violence-mongerers are more serious, as they are deliberately spreading fake messages and promoting violence. They themselves might even act violently. Clearly, a propaganda machine is behind them and it only wants more war to happen. We must be careful and should always check fact-checking and debunking sites, such as Snopes and Skeptoid. Otherwise, we will only be gullible and play into the mind-control schemes of the vested interests that drive today’s politics.
I believe, as my cohorts here do, that what Filipinos embrace as their culture is what actually pulls the country down. And those who seem to be anti-dictators, who may also believe themselves to be “heroes,” are the real dictators.
Also, it goes against the words of Jesus Christ in which he discourages violence: “put away your sword, for he who takes up the sword will perish by it.”
True but not all the time:
Luke 22:35-36
35 Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”
“Nothing,” they answered.
36 He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.
Here is the context of that. There’s a chronological order. Jesus asked the disciples to buy swords first. Then when the arrest in the garden happened, and a disciple attacked one of the arresting officials, he said “put away your sword” (which you find said in Matthew 26, but is not included in Luke 22, yet they are of the same event). Why did he ask his disciples to buy swords? To look like a criminal so he could get arrested and fulfill his duty. That’s why two swords were “enough.” He did not say this to encourage violence or to instruct his followers to be armed. You should understand the verses in the right manner so you won’t get the wrong message.
Look in the mirror.
You are simply adding to the story. The swords were not for him to carry. These were for his disciples.
And you cannot even read the verse correctly.
It was not just the swords. The purse and the bag were not needed before.
Stop following the lord of lies.
I never said Jesus was the one to carry swords. I am reading the verses correctly.
It is more the lord of lies’ intention to make us believe we should be armed and should harm our fellow man.
Here is a reference that supports my explanation.
The internet is a two edge sword. You could use it for good. Or you could use it for evil.
Use tour common sense always in reading these information in the internet. even in Blog sites.
You are lying, ChinoF.
You clearly implied it when you said this:
Why did he ask his disciples to buy swords? To look like a criminal so he could get arrested and fulfill his duty. That’s why two swords were “enough.”
The He there obviously referred to Jesus.
Stop following the lord of lies.
This is what I hate about typical pacifists using the New Testament to show that God never ever allowed violence coming from His people.
This is a big lie.
Luke 22 proves this. That is why verse 36 was preceded by 35:
35 Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”
“Nothing,” they answered.
Remember all the time Jesus commanded his disciples to go and look for a place for them. He never let his disciples bring money(purse), bags and sandals. They always go the the place He has designated for them or was provided already by the Almighty Father. For food, they never needed to buy. God would always provide. Even protection, God still provided it for them.
That is the importance of the purse, bags and sandals.
But when His time to die has come, Jesus told his disciples:
36 “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.
All those things, the bag, the purse and the sword, are for them. They need them NOW, the time when Jesus was about to be arrested.
Jesus was not telling them to live by the sword. He was telling them that they will need the sword this time, like they will need the purse and the bag.
Jesus did not need the sword to get arrested. The command for him to be arrested was already prior to that command regarding buying swords.
So if you accuse me of lying, you also accuse of lying the Answering Islam site from which I took the idea of Jesus using his disciples’ swords to look like an armed revolutionary group in order to be more easily arrested. I am not the only one who said this idea, and there are more.
Jesus said they will need the sword this time. For what? Self defense? No. It’s for the above purpose I explained. Of course, he was destined to be arrested and executed, but the swords he asked his disciples to buy were more for that purpose. If he wanted the swords for self-defense, then why did he tell the discipline who attacked an official to put away his sword, implying that he shouldn’t have used it? That makes more sense.
No it isn’t. Your explanation is nothing more than a rationalization for your stupid position.
The idiocy of your position is in verse 36 itself:
36 “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.
So Jesus also needs a purse and a bag to get arrested?
See how stupid your position now?
What stupid position? Avoid unnecessary violence? I think you assume too much.
With violence, as with so many other concerns, human nature is the problem, but human nature is also the solution.
If the might of the sword is right then we have no place in this world.
ChinoF: good article, and I’m surprised the only answers it got were from the trolls and the nitpickers. Violence is a way of life in this supposedly “Christian” country, and nobody ever seems to question it.
The violence is normally low-level: neighbor threatening neighbor over some trivial argument. It seems to me this happens for three reasons:
1) There is no law. You cannot go to the police, the barangay, or the tanod to report a crime, or even an argument, because they simply won’t be interested. People therefore take the law into their own hands out of frustration. Or, if you want a bit of extra “justice”, you go to the NPA.
2) The Pinoy views everything as a zero-sum game. If you win then I must lose. Many real-life situations have a win-win outcome, but the Pinoy refuses to even consider that possibility. “I win, you lose” is the preferred outcome. “I lose, you lose” is almost as good.
3) The government encourages it. When people are simply not allowed to provide basic needs for themselves – that is, when government agencies not only fail to provide what they’re supposed to, but actively fill their heads with lies and nonsense, prevent people from starting businesses, or harass them when they do – people get frustrated. You get an entire society simmering in resentment. Violence is directed randomly, at the nearest target.
People who are comfortable, happy, and well-fed generally don’t pick up guns and start revolutions.
This post got returned to because of the recent Orlando shooting. And the trolls… I wonder if sometimes they want to do the shooting.