The biggest trolls are hiding in plain sight
Re: “Has Have Your Say fallen into the hands of Russian trolls?”, Have Your Say, April 20.
Who are the Russian trolls?
Are they associates or sycophants of Vladimir Putin, whom the mainstream media have branded as a dictator?
When every night highly popular American television programmes like “The Late Show” make fun of Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with the Russians, viewers may eventually come to believe that Putin and perhaps Russians in general are all akin to hungry polar bears seeking Americans to snack on.
In an interview with USA Today published on April 16, James Comey, who was fired as FBI director by Trump, said in a slip of the tongue that “the president won’t criticise Putin, even in private … he [Trump] said, essentially, we are the same kind of killers that Putin’s thugs are”. Trump might be arrogant and conceited, but he may also be speaking the truth here.
The reality is there are no real “good guys” or “bad guys” in today’s complicated world affairs, where politics and national interests often overshadow common sense.
But absent the good and the bad, we can try to identify the “ugly” ones among the mainstream media who irresponsibly or selectively proclaim others as “bad” without any proof. These are the real trolls.
Yingwai Suchaovanich
