In Praise of the King: 1.7M Social Media Comments In Thailand 104
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Prachatai.com: "Thailand's Rangers Task Force 45, in response to Army policy, has put its troops to the task of promoting and protecting the monarchy in cyber space, claiming to have posted 1.69 million comments on webboards and social media during a 4-month period of last year ... According to the video clip, the Army Chief has approved the establishment of an army internet network to promote and protect the monarchy by monitoring websites and webboards which have content alluding to the monarchy and countering them by posting comments which worship the institution. ...The unit's military operations personnel provide the troops with information, or what to post, and set them targets for the number of posts they must complete."
Praise to the monarch! (Score:5, Funny)
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And the millions of semi-attractive prostitutes his reign has [youtube.com] produced! [youtube.com]
FTFY [telegraph.co.uk]
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"Man who go through turnstile sideways is going to Bangkok!"
Trollin... (Score:2)
Like a king.
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Kings started out as dictators. Then they managed to convince people that god had granted them and their children the right to be dictators, and the suckers lapped it up.
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Even with god's approval, a king is a dictator. The only exception is with powerful feudal lords, where the king is more like a puppet dictator - he holds the power but if doesn't do what he's told the crown will change heads. Nothing wrong with it, even a bad king is better than a dozen lords fighting each other all the time.
The king of Thailand has no more power than the queen of England - people, for whatever reasons, like him but he doesn't make any real decision. He isn't even that much of a bad guy. T
Re:Hmm (Score:5, Insightful)
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Really, so you haven't spent enough time there to figure out that the prime minister is a woman. Lemme guess, english expat looking for cheap hookers? Incidentally your knowledge of what the king has and hasn't done is just as weak. Bhumibol ain't no kind of nice guy.
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Yingluck Shinawatra [wikipedia.org] is not just a woman, but a really attractive one. She's an even bigger PMILF than Yulia Tymoshenko was, but lets face it, the bar fine for a head of government is way out of my pricerange.
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Really, so you haven't spent enough time there to figure out that the prime minister is a woman.
The PM is a Shinawatra, sister of deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra. She also wasn't elected, rather installed after a series of "protests" removed the elected government (Abhisit).
You have to be pretty stupid not to be able to put two and two together and figure out that Thaksin is pulling the strings, especially since she called for a pardon for Thaksin 2 weeks after getting into office.
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He may be pulling some strings from afar but his influence is waning considerably.
However, you would have to be pretty stupid not to know that the current PM was elected: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_general_election,_2011 [wikipedia.org] and that this isn't exactly the government Thais want. It was the democrat party, that was in power before the election, who got there with administrative maneuvers.
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They'd care that you did it more if you were powerful.
And yet, if I did it in an anglo country, no harm, no foul.
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Thailand is a dictatorship only in as much as the people want it to be. I've spent a lot of time there, and aside from some really rediculous laws concerned with disrespecting his likeness (which are more institutional rather than by his command) the Thai monarchy is hardly what I would call dictatorial. If you go spit on the King's picture in a resturaunt they'll call the police, but its not becuase the King himself decreed it or would give a shit, its just on the books. The PM (currently some guy named Shinawatra, which is like "Smith" in Anglo countries) hold way more power.
The government in Thailand is dictatorial for all intents and purposes.
However the King of Thailand has as much real power as the Queen of England, as you pointed out the Shinawatra family alone holds much more power and they are not the only powerful family in Bangkok. Pretty much the entire country is run by these families who tend to own most of the companies in Thailand.
Thailand is pretty much a non-functioning democracy (if the wrong person is elected, there will be a coup) but the King is not pa
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I agree with your characterization of a non-functioning democracy but, you're wrong that the king is simply a figurehead. The monarchy wields considerable power and influence with the government and private sector through the privy counsel. He's the 4th richest man in the world, personally, even without full disclosure of his wealth. The assets belong to the monarchy (him), they are not property of the country in trust to the monarchy, there's no comparison. The military answers to the monarchy and the mona
in the US (Score:2, Insightful)
we have Media Matters Action Network, NBC, NPR, the Washington Post, the AP, and the New York Times for this.
Re:in the US (Score:4, Insightful)
we have Media Matters Action Network, NBC, NPR, the Washington Post, the AP, and the New York Times for this.
It's like people have forgotten what a real state run press is like. This is not insightful just one of the obligatory cynical remarks which abound here. Besides, several of the places you posted have extensive critical commentaries about recent revelations.
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What people have forgotten is that there was never any such thing as a free press. Newspapers got started off by people trying to promote their own viewpoint and nothing has changed since. Even the blogosphere is more free than the press ever were.
Welcome to the new 50 Cent party. (Score:4, Informative)
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...50 Cent Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party [wikipedia.org]
Seriously? You gotta wonder about a political system petty enough to have something like this.
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I, for one, welcome our new 50 Cent Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party [wikipedia.org] Overlords (Thailand Branch).
Ironically, the Red Chinese appear to be hiring private 'social marketing contractors' to espouse the virtues of the Glorious Communist Party, while the Thais are using public-sector employees for the purpose...
(Incidentally, has anyone ever come out looking less foolish by using sock puppets?)
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I, for one, welcome our new 50 Cent Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party [wikipedia.org] Overlords (Thailand Branch).
Surely that would be the "Ha Sip Satang" party.
Remake every war movie now! (Score:2)
Retweeting Private Ryan.
And yet that made sense to someone in their military.
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Retweeting Private Ryan.
And yet that made sense to someone in their military.
If I were in their military, I'd seriously consider trying to get a heroic assignment with the Rangers Task Force 45, Fightin' Keyboards Company, if it meant getting to spend my tour trolling the internet rather than any of the numerous dirty, dangerous, and/or tedious assignments that soldiers tend to get stuck with. Maybe even get a mild carpal tunnel injury from defending the king too hard, and have to accept an honorable discharge, wounded serving king and country!
I'd roll my eyes the whole time, of cou
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I don't know but I've been told
4th platoon got Rick Rolled
Am I right or wrong? (you're right!)
Are we going strong? (we're strong!)
It's his country (Score:2)
I guess they can do what he wants.
It's one thing to require the troops to sing the king's praises. It's another to criminalize people who might justly criticize the king. From what I (might mis)remember, he's a popular king. But that doesn't mean every Thai likes him.
Stuff like this makes me wary of him though.
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It is more in the military's interests to promote the king than the king himself. The military wants to marginalized democratic (read money) influence in national politics. The king isn't that long for this earth...
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The king also doesn't really have any political power, so whether lèse-majesté laws will be enforced or not isn't even his decision. He reportedly is not too keen on them, and even made a speech in 2005 indirectly criticizing them. The speech argued that saying the king couldn't be criticized would imply the king is infallible and not a human, which isn't the case.
But the king is just a symbol used as convenient by the people who actually do have power, so the lèse-majesté laws aren't re
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No, you're wrong. The monarchy is very powerful. http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3841957&cid=43965861 [slashdot.org]
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It is more in the military's interests to promote the king than the king himself. The military wants to marginalized democratic (read money) influence in national politics. The king isn't that long for this earth...
The Thai military already has a huge role in the nations politics.
Thailand is a "democracy" that has had one prime minister complete their entire term in 50 years. Many were deposed via military intervention.
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But their only moral standing is their support of the monarchy. Without that, all they have is guns. It works either way, but the latter gives cause for their power to be challenged.
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But their only moral standing is their support of the monarchy. Without that, all they have is guns. It works either way, but the latter gives cause for their power to be challenged.
You haven't been to Thailand have you?
The Thai military have, in the past openly deposed a government supported by the King. The King had his statements retroactively changed.
They dont need legitimacy, they have it already. The majority of the country doesn't care who rules as long as they can go about their daily lives. This is because the majority of the country is very poor. "Moral Standing" falls under "First World Problems". No-one is really going to fight them for 500 Baht (which is the going ra
CIA helped build up the cult of monarchy (Score:2, Informative)
in the US (Score:3, Insightful)
we just get audited by the IRS.
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we just get audited by the IRS.
And get your email and phonecalls monitored by the rest of the alphabet soup agencies.
Or get legally droned if your government states that they consider you to be engaged in combat with them.
Or get legally held indefintaly without a trial or a charge if you fit the criteria they themselves come up with.
Also you jail most people in the world; in historical perspective only Nazi-Germany and USSR had more prisoners in proportion to population. That should be telling.
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Also you jail most people in the world; in historical perspective only Nazi-Germany and USSR had more prisoners in proportion to population. That should be telling.
This is the US of A! We won't stop til we're #1!
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Hey, by the standards of US anti-communist puppets, the guy is practically a saint... Moderate levels of political repression, limited extrajudicial killings, no genocides!
Re:CIA helped build up the cult of monarchy (Score:5, Informative)
The Wikipedia article you link says the laws against insulting the king date back to 1908, long before American involvement. It goes on to say that they didn't start really enforcing the law heavily until 2006, long after any cold war meddling.
But you brilliantly wove the a couple truths together to create a magnificent lie: that the US is responsible for Thailand's laws against criticizing the monarch. Well done. I'd wager, by your current +5 Informative score, that quite a few people fell for it. It really goes to show that any lie can be believed, if only you throw in a couple unrelated hyperlinks to make it look official.
And it certainly helps if it's anti-American, since people just love to have a big scary villain to rage against.
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As a US citizen residing in Thailand for the last 7-years I'd like to say, very well said and thank you!
Good use of money (Score:1)
I'd hate to see the money funding that going to, for instance, HIV/AIDS awareness so that maybe some day Thailand won't have the highest HIV infection rate in Asia. Good job, King Ramalamading-dong!
get on board....Soul Train (Score:1)
He sure does (Score:2)
Too bad he won't end like all bad monarchs deserve.
Obama's paid twitter followers (Score:1, Offtopic)
70% of Obama's twitter followers are fake and paid for.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/fashion/twitter-followers-for-sale.html?_r=0 [nytimes.com]
Re:Parent Score +1 ON topic (Score:1)
70% of Obama's twitter followers are fake and paid for.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/fashion/twitter-followers-for-sale.html?_r=0 [nytimes.com]
Parent Score +1 ON topic. "And ida been able to get away with my Obama astroturfing... if it weren't for those meddling kids." Must! suppress! dissent! for! Obama!
KingBot (Score:1)
Meh. Hire some Russian dudes to write a KingBot and install it on compromised workstations. They'll praise the crap out of your ruler. 1.7 million? Chicken feed.
Obligatory (Score:5, Insightful)
I fart in king Bhumibol's general direction. His mother was a binturong and his father smelt of durians.
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And here is my obligatory answer to this type of comment.
In Soviet times, you can tell what period by the context:
Reagan meets Brezhnev and calls him to freedom of speech:
- In my country, people can go in front of Kremlin and shout "Reagan is an idiot".
Brezhnev replies,
- Well, this is allowed in my country too: you can go in front of Kremlin and shout "Reagan is an idiot".
The point here is that you are shouting "The King is an idiot" in front of your computer anonymously.
Nothing new (Score:1)
The Thais are just copying the last Obama campaign.
If their Army has so little to do... (Score:2)
maybe they can come help us in Afghanistan.
Everybody does it, all NATO countries atleast (Score:2)
Astroturfing Is Still Alive! (Score:2)
Nothing like some good old-fashioned astroturfing!
Be careful to judge too quickly... (Score:2)
Let's take a step back for a second and just accept that other countries have different cultures and in the case of Thailand, the monarchy is actually very respected by a large portion of the population because the king, unlike many other monarchs, is not only quite well educated but really did a lot for his country and his people. Not only has Thailand never been a Western colony, they only started to open more towards the West and Western culture at around the turn of the 20th century. To top that off, "d
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So tell us genius, if the king is so popular and harmless, why does he need an entire branch of the military to look after his online reputation?
Whoops.
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So tell us genius, if the king is so popular and harmless, why does he need an entire branch of the military to look after his online reputation?
What makes you think the King ordered this?
If you bothered to read the GP's post, "genius" you'd have figured out that the King's image is used more by the political powerbrokers like Thaksin Shinawatra than the King himself. They use the King's image to curry favour with the people (well, the King is highly respected, unlike the Shinawatra's).
The King of Thailand has no real power, he couldn't order the military to do anything. At the very worst, this is just a bit of hero worship from an overzealous
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The best post I've read in this thread, finally someone who understands Thailand. US expat, 7-year resident of Thailand.
This is a terrible thing (Score:2)
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No I was just mocking the tendency of anyone who criticizes Israel being called an antisemite. I was pointing out that a person who said exactly the same thing about the Israeli policy, as people are saying about the Thai policy, would be called antisemitic.
The problem with saying "I'm an anti-Zionist, not an anti-Semite" is that it plays into the narrative that there are these bad guy anti-Semites out there, and every time someone criticizes Israel they have to prove that they are not one of them.
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propaganda or spam? (Score:2)
GREAT use of the military, I approve (Score:3)
MUCH better than what the US used its military for most of the time since WWII.
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I was going to post a comment about how wasteful this is but, I guess you've got a point when compared to the waste in the US military and yes, they are not out and about in the world war mongering.
Choice (Score:1)
Any of you are welcome to come and take a look.
All Glory to the Hypnotoad (Score:1)
All Glory to the Hypnotoad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHU2RlSCdxU [youtube.com]
Re:Somebody has to do it... (Score:5, Funny)
You can do that?!? Wow, I guess their economy really does rely heavily on prostitution.
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The Thai king is a douchebag and a giant piece of dogshit, and he sucks balls.
The Thai king has repeatedly voiced his displeasure at the cases of people being prosecuted for speaking their mind. His only failing is that he hasn't been more forceful with those elements of the government who keep on persecuting those who do.
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Then why doesn't he do something about it, being the king and all?
Because, like many other contemporary monarchs, he is head of state not head of government; he is kept around only because he has no real power.
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Except one power he does have (that completely negates your point here) is the royal pardon.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/9391118/Thai-king-pardons-US-car-salesman-over-royal-insult.html [telegraph.co.uk]
But apparently he only does that for American citizens when highly pressured by the US state department, and not for his own citizens...
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pacifism is compliance
Re: The Monarchy In Thailand (Score:2)
Yeah he is a total saint. If he had any reasonable morals he would do something. Which he doesn't.