1. You are so far off balance yourself that you think that state needs to address fringe elements. State has better things to do & its machinery's time & resources would be better spent doing its actual job. Policing opinions is a rabbit hole & no good ever comes out of it.
2. ISPR trolls have done enough to muddy the waters as it is. There is absolutely no doubt that Ghafoor did a poor job in promoting a troll army. This only polarized the discourse & created unneeded backlash. It is not ISPR's job to police content. It must stick to its own function.
3. Common Pakistani is far more worried about economy and Law & Order and not any imaginary sixes that exist only in troll minds.
4. Common Pakistani posters are enough by themselves to take on the Indian trolls. We do not require the services of Pakistani ultra-nationalist trolls who are a nuisance all by themselves. We can manage the problem, thank you. Your services are not required.
5. When you focus on 'internal enemy', by way of abuse, you just act like a dog chasing its own tail. The hard thing to do is to find out what makes you think that dissenting opinions are from 'internal enemies'. It might be that you yourself are an 'internal enemy' because you: A) support unconstitutional measures B) want the state to police people's opinions C) refuse to consider issues in any depth & just use ultra-nationalist language to drown dissent (which NEVER works, BTW), D) Lust after state patronage for being a patriot, but actually being just a stray dog.
6. The power of troll only exist in his / her mind. That he / she has any value due to noise & abuse is a psychological illusion. Take Nida Kirmani's case for instance: plenty of people from center-let to the hard-right of political spectrum call her out routinely & on merit. Abuse via trolls is no only not needed, but is actually counter-productive.
7. Hard leftists & ultra-feminists need attention like oxygen. Trolls provide them oxygen. This should be enough warning about what you think is of value in a troll.
8. Most people are much smarter than you think. They do not need Mutalia-i-Pakistan history lessons, because they have all been put through it already.
Just let people handle their own opinions. Your services are not services but nuisance.
I block them. Some leftists & some ultra-nationalist loons have blocked me too when I disagreed with them. Such is life.
Leave Nida Kirmani alone. The society does not need to give her more attention. So don't be a fool & do her job for her.
Finally a balanced opinion! It is refreshing to read something one can agree with. This is my point: let people handle the leftists, commies, nationalist loons. Don't shove forced opinions.
PDF's own trolls are such a nuisance that even after being banned multiple times, they do not realize anything.
You're entire stance is hypocritical. You want people to be allowed an opinion, as long as its an opinion you're comfortable with. Otherwise it's ultra nationalist trolling.
How precious.
This is why the parody accounts are gold - people with no tolerance for differences of opinion who at the same time claim to be the champions of free speech and open thought, get so triggered by them.
1. You are so far off balance yourself that you think that state needs to address fringe elements. State has better things to do & its machinery's time & resources would be better spent doing its actual job. Policing opinions is a rabbit hole & no good ever comes out of it.
First of all, some of the people mentioned are fringe elements, others are parliamentarians charged with sedetion. Ali Wazir and his supported attacked a military checkpoint, the state has to address them, Imaan Mazari is acting out just like her mum taught her, she just needs her allowance adjusting by her parents - thats a family matter, not a state matter.
Unfortunately for us, none of these people are fringe elements, Pakistani media give them a massive audience and a platform and they are normalising their fringe views. That process of fringe views being normalised needs to be addressed, and our mainstream media is both incapable and unwilling to do it - fringe elements are their bread and butter, it doesn't matter what fringe they are on, sensationalism sells to their semi literate audience.
The state can and should address some of this, within the rules society has placed. The rest, well social media provides society itself an option to comment.
2. ISPR trolls have done enough to muddy the waters as it is. There is absolutely no doubt that Ghafoor did a poor job in promoting a troll army. This only polarized the discourse & created unneeded backlash. It is not ISPR's job to police content. It must stick to its own function.
I think like a lot of Pakistani society, people see hidden hands where they are uncomfortable with the truth. We are a polarised society, there is no secret troll army polarising society. For a troll army you'd see tell tale signs, bots created recently commenting on stuff, people commenting who'd normally never associate with such accounts, organised trends - PDF has some guys who are much better than me at analysing data and exposing this stuff. If the state were to be involved in a social media army, i'd be opposed to that, it's not it's role. There are plenty of false narratives being build on social media by states all around the world, we don't need to add to it. Each and every one is a piss poor effort than anyone with 2 brain cells can see right through.
3. Common Pakistani is far more worried about economy and Law & Order and not any imaginary sixes that exist only in troll minds.
4. Common Pakistani posters are enough by themselves to take on the Indian trolls. We do not require the services of Pakistani ultra-nationalist trolls who are a nuisance all by themselves. We can manage the problem, thank you. Your services are not required.
Who is the common Pakistani? The 50% illiterate, or the uncles who forward memes on whatsapp or those who comment on social media only to tell people to read Quran and post emojis? Maybe the crowd that communicates in urdu is common Pakistani? Those who you dismiss as ultra nationalist are Pakistani too and their views matter. Twitter is full of the young, Pakistani middle class - in a generation or two, these people are going to be the bulk of the electorate, these people will have political ambitions of their own, they are the ones who's views will matter, the donkeys who vote for dynasty politics are going to die out. You can no longer dismiss them anymore.
These people have access to platforms to express their opinions and they choose to do so on each and every subject that interests them. Nobody is sat in their room huddled up worrying about law an order, only the elite have that luxury, the rest of the country goes out regardless and does what they have to do. Where mainstream media has left fringe elements unchallenged and even given them prominent positions due to their own financial interests, social media has turned that on it's head and is challenging opinions. It's the entire point of platforms like Twitter.
If people just want self validation in echo chambers, stick to Facebook.
5. When you focus on 'internal enemy', by way of abuse, you just act like a dog chasing its own tail. The hard thing to do is to find out what makes you think that dissenting opinions are from 'internal enemies'. It might be that you yourself are an 'internal enemy' because you: A) support unconstitutional measures B) want the state to police people's opinions C) refuse to consider issues in any depth & just use ultra-nationalist language to drown dissent (which NEVER works, BTW), D) Lust after state patronage for being a patriot, but actually being just a stray dog.
You're trying very hard to be rude, and i'm not responding to it because as far as I know you're quite a bit older than me and other than this ajeeb conversation we're having every post of yours i've ever seen has been gentlemanly. I don't understand why you're so triggered and are using such broadstrokes to say the least. You have accused me of 4 different things, of which there is ample evidence against on this very forum. You only need to read my old posts to know this.
6. The power of troll only exist in his / her mind. That he / she has any value due to noise & abuse is a psychological illusion. Take Nida Kirmani's case for instance: plenty of people from center-let to the hard-right of political spectrum call her out routinely & on merit. Abuse via trolls is no only not needed, but is actually counter-productive.
I don't think it's fair to call parody accounts trolls, especially abusive trolls. They're comedy, a key cornerstone of free speech. People like Ali Gul Pir have been mocking politicians, celebs etc for years through hilarious comedy and we've all laughed along. Even on mainstream Pakistani TV shows there is plenty of parody of mainstream Pakistani politicians, hasb-e-haal for example. Why get so offended at a newcomer doing it?
Also these things do have an impact, these zealots hate listening to voices opposed to them. Nida Kirmani worked tirelessly for a week with her supporters to get the account blocked. Within a few hours another one was open. Zaid Hamid regulalry blocks anyone who opposes his nonsense. He's blocked 2 of my accounts. People don't read the news anymore, they read the headlines and the comments. They want to know what other people think about what is happening and what is being said. A comedic challenge is very effective.
