I Blog, Therefore I Lie. In light of recent events, where the Prime Minister of Malaysia called bloggers liars, I’d strongly have to agree with the PM. You see, we bloggers have this compulsive need to lie. If we do not lie, we die. So, we lie therefore we blog- wait…. that wasn’t what was meant was it?
No. We blog, therefore we lie. Never mind that some of us may have sources to back up our claims. Never mind that some of us have physical evidence, to back up our claims. Never mind that some of us have spent hours on research and deep delving of data to come up with articles. No, for as long as we blog, we are liars.
“Unthinking respect for the authority is the greatest enemy of Truth“, says Albert Einstein (but I’m probably a liar, since I blog, so better not quote me or Einstein on this). And because bloggers are liars, we are the greatest enemies of the Truth. And since we are the greatest enemies of Truth, it also implies we have unthinking respect for the authority.
As we have the greatest unthinking respect for the authority, I move that we bloggers take up the call of the Prime Minister. Put a tag in your blog, and admit that you are lying, because you blog.
Here are 2 tags that I made, that you might want to put in your own blog (please save image and upload it elsewhere. I didn’t pay for a lot of bandwidth)
This is the simple tag. The code to the simple tag is:<a target="_blank" href="http://blog.chewxy.com/2007/02/01/i-blog-therefore-i-lie/"><img border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/Chewxy/iblogthereforilie.gif" /></a>
This one features Rene Descartes on the tag. The code is:<a target="_blank" href="http://blog.chewxy.com/2007/02/01/i-blog-therefore-i-lie/"><img border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/Chewxy/iblogthereforilie2.gif" /></a>
Anyways, if you didn’t get the above, it was written in jest, you dolt. Bloggers are not liars (however, not all are truthful either). It was just the way the PM put it:
Lies after lies are being told, They feel they are free, they cannot be disturbed and they can say whatever they wish to say.
So what are lies? Lies are not truth, but since truth is subjective, and for a truth to pass off as a truth, all one needs to do is to convince people enough, that it is the truth, so what are lies? Here, Ktemoc gives an extremely good analogy using the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes.
Are these claims against the Prime Minister lies? Undoubtedly, if the government wish to label it as lies, the majority of the population would buy it. It would be simple. Just put all the documents under OSA (such as these), and anyone who dares to question faces jail time.
Without bloggers, issues like the Yacht (of which caused Rockybru his problems, since he did an exposé on it) or the plane would not get known. Similarly, without Sharon Watkins, nobody would have known of Enron’s insider trading; without Deep Throat, Watergate wouldn’t have broke out.
Bloggers nowadays are like Deep Throat of the 70s by bringing to public attention the issues that are missed (either deliberately or unwittingly) by the mainstream, government controlled media. Naturally, if the PM decides to call these lies, does that mean he condones what Enron did? I likened it to Enron as a more drastic example of unlawful activities, because the Watergate scandal is very subjective to view.
Here, a note must be added: There are some bloggers who do their homework, and some who do not. By virtue of economics, those bloggers who do not do their homeworks, and spew juicy gossip which can sooner or later be proven wrong, will not be as popular as those who did their homework and research. Many articles I’ve read online by local bloggers are pretty well written and have well checked sources. There are those who don’t check out their sources, of course, but they don’t last long.
The social power of blogs is a powerful one. Being in an open economy (har har…), the people will decide, whether or not something is working; whether or not something is good for them. Before blogs, there was an information asymetry, where the general populace is ignorant. But blogs restore some amount of information symmetry to the people. This empowers people. And it is this power that the government is beginning to fear.
Which begs the question: Why the fear?
Was it necessary for AAB to go all defensive? Open truth and facts are transparent, and there isn’t a need to defend them. Look at it from the most basic economic point of view: What incentives does he have to go all defensive?
Apparently plenty, ranging from the yacht (the Cobra Sultan) to a multimillion dollar jet that recently became uncovered.
Everybody lies. Bloggers are liars (though Lucia disagrees), but not all bloggers post lies on their blogs. Take a count, and find the percentage of people lying on one single issue. Blogs are mostly comprised of personal opinions. Does that mean that whatsoever personal opinions that do not conform to the government’s views are lies. That would mean that one more of our fundamental liberties is being taken away - our freedom of speech.
Is this another indication that we are slowly losing our freedom of speech, even online? The trends are worrying, and the signs are there. Can we stop it (in time)?
Oh yes we can. Start proclaiming you blog, therefore you lie. Let us spread mistruth! (oh, please tell me if you’re actually going to use the buttons)
Cool?
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I suppose Pak Lah don’t lie to us? Afterall he’s the religious teacher. But what of kahiry?
if pak lah din lie to us and can prove it then i salute him
Erin : Yea. I’d definitely agree that Khairy is testament enough that AAB is easily influenced (if that is what you mean)
C’mon people… 48 views and still only one comment? Would it be probable that everyone agreed with me?
no no, i most definitely do not think that all bloggers don’t lie. not at all.
my posts on bloggers are not liars is associated with what our dear PM accused us of only. other than that… i won’t know bloggers are liars or not. haha.
of course it is true everybody lies at one time or another. hey i do it myself lots of time but not on my blog. er… ok lah maybe did lie on blog but only on personal matters (so thank god i rarely write on personal matters. lol)… surely not when i’m talking serious matters esp. pertaining to politics and the gomen.
The thing is, I think AAB is trying to point out that bloggers are writing about non-facts. Or, “truth”s
Unfortunately for the govt and AAB, these facts do check out, because they’re mostly in public domain.
Interesting observation: 100+ views to this post already, and so few comments. Comment-to-view is really disproportionate.
Oi people, this post won’t get you charged under OSA or ISA…
eh chewxy … nice write up … hahaha
Well written.
You should let all bloggers use the tags, so that anybody wanting to sue us can see the tag and go “oh, he admits he’s lying” and then we can all get off scott free.
Sigh… it’s just the sign of the times when bloggers are painted as a portion of society which spread lies and rumours. It’s just self-defense. Let’s face it, as rulers (and pencils) its not easy to deal with the rakyat, especially when they have so many wants and needs. So the easiest way out? Say everything that is said against them is false. Heresay. Mere lies!!!
To me, stuff about yatches and jets are interesting, but wouldn’t really make me go “HOLYYYY SHYT, SO THAT’s WHATS HAPPENING TO OUR MONEY”, so i tend to read those reports, snigger, and consequently forget about them. However, to the majority of the populace, such reports probably spread Alarm and Despondency, and thus they feel that these reports must be stopped at all costs. Besides, the votes might stop coming in, eh? The suing and the black-naming is just the first step. Soon we’ll have the ISA at our backs.
But they have as much power to stop these “rumours with a source” as a sick mosquito has against a blowtorch. As chewxy says, “these facts do check out, because they’re mostly in public domain”.
I STRONGLY object to the fact that bloggers are being painted as liars. However, since we’ve already been painted as the black sheep of society, and our hit counters don’t seem to be affected much, let’s all embrace those tags and protect ourselves from the law and crazy, one-eyed bastards at the same time.
We can write something well researched, have our fans/netizens read it, and when noise is made you can always point to the tag, “I Blog, Therefore I Lie”. *poof* goes the lawsuit! And the best part it, millions of people would already have read our post.
Remember, when the blogging stops, the lying will too.
(i’m going to use the tag… chewxy you should host it on photobucket and start a revolution in blogger society!)
But i admit i’m kind of a pussy online. I do not fully embrace this freedom of speech for fear of repercussions. And these repercussions, more often than not, are too great for a mere 19-year old casual blogger/student to deal with.
Let’s hope JeffOoi/rockyBru KO’s NST.
Hashie, if we put a label “I’m a liar”, it does not mean we can get away scot free, but it will place Doubt on the prosecutor, because a single question would arise from the judge to the prosecutor: Why do you believe him when he clearly stated he was lying?
And I’ve inserted the codes for a photobucket version
[…] As you can see, I’m a little frustrated over these nonsensical statement politicians make. Some time ago, I posted I Blog, Therefore I Lie. Well… apparently the ministers cannot let the issue rest. Many have speculated what Tengku Adnan would do - creative suggestions ranging from the “I’ve been Misquoted!!!” to “That was my twin brother”. […]
[…] Courtesy of Antworten/Chewxy […]
Nice written …
I used your button in my blog bout this case …