713 "The Voice of April" protesting against Shanghai's closure, fist fell on cotton | Han Dagou

Beast Press: Over the past few years, all words that have a "negative" effect on national governance have not escaped the three-pronged interrogation of the propaganda machine: rumors, foreign forces, and negative social influence. These three concepts are like Sun Wukong's hair. In the face of "public opinion events" that are difficult to respond directly, just take a breath to make the machine continue to operate, or at least achieve "turn over" as soon as possible. Even in many cases, these three kinds of interrogation do not necessarily need to come from the official, they have become the premise and bottom line of many people's thinking.

These concepts may not point to any systematic and single ideology, but their significance lies in exclusion, which is actually the primary purpose of ideological work and the ideological foundation of “dynamic clearing.” "Rumors" exclude unofficial and non-authoritative information, "social influence" excludes the expression of negative emotions, and "foreign forces" exclude news that can be used to "smear" and "hand over knives." When the harmful content is "cleared" in time, the "truth" is firmly in the hands of the propaganda machine.

The "Voice of April" protesting against Shanghai's lockdown, fist fell on cotton

2022-04-26

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A relay is over.

After more than a day of vigorous retweets, a six-minute-long film titled "The Voice of April" disappeared from the Internet in mainland China. The footage of this film is a bird's-eye view of Shanghai in black and white throughout, but the most striking is the background sound, which is composed of the conversation recordings of ordinary citizens in Shanghai: the cry of a positive baby who was forcibly separated from its parents, the streets The exclamation of others when the worker killed the pet corgi, the question of the cancer patient who was banned from entering the community after chemotherapy, the mother's plea for medicine for her feverish child...

The film hit the mainland Internet mood that night. Forwarding is a faithful record of many people's personal life experience, and it is also a natural expression of empathy. After the original video was deleted, many netizens stubbornly re-uploaded it, and some even opened new accounts for the transmission of this video. But many people didn't see this collective retweet as part of their "political" life, nor did they think they were participating in a "political" discussion. Even for some people who have never made any political remarks, this is the first time they have personally faced the harshness of mainland Internet censorship.

For those familiar with censorship, however, this disappearance has become a fate. For these people, the relay relay is a moth to the fire, and they can only hope that the burned ashes will leave some traces of life. "April Voice" was a concentrated outburst of dissatisfaction, reminiscent of the collective mourning for Li Wenliang in February 2020. However, it is obvious to the naked eye that after two years, the response of the propaganda department has been much faster. This time, the film did not form a Wailing Wall. Behind the different reactions, there is a consistent line of thought -that is, in the "public opinion" of official governance, people are no longer people. Faced with such governance, how should we think?

Under the "dynamic clearing" of public opinion, the fist hit the sponge

It is not difficult to understand that all incidents, no matter how life-threatening matters, are first of all "public opinion incidents", or even just "public opinion incidents". As long as these events do not end up appearing in the public opinion report provided by the internal reference, it can be regarded as non-existent, because it has been excluded from this customized Potemkin Village.

Apart from deleting the post, the Central Propaganda Department did not respond to the video. The only response came from Hu Xijin, a "semi-official" spokesperson and former editor-in-chief of the Global Times. As always, Lao Hu dismissed the tragic and stubborn retweets of netizens as "grievances" that "need to be vented". This interpretation means that the emotions of the people are irrational, just like the "rebellion" of adolescent children to their parents.

But after these commonplace nonsense, Lao Hu ended up with a "perfect insight". Lao Hu said, "The super-scale of Chinese society is a special stabilizer. No matter how vigorous it was at the time, it is likely to be quickly turned over and replaced by new hot spots." He finally called for "the whole society should be aware of China's resilience. Confidence", "Continuously maintain dynamic stability and balance".

This time, Lao Hu ironically got it right. The governance action for "Voice of April" is a "dynamic clearing" action. The videos that have emerged and reposted are finally "accepted", and the hot searches on Weibo are also firmly controlled in On other topics that don't really matter at all. And this is just a microcosm of broader public opinion governance actions.

Although since the Li Wenliang incident in 2020, people still leave messages under Li Wenliang's Weibo "Wailing Wall" at any time, but even such a person who once exchanged his own death for an unprecedented wave of Chinese people's doubts and resistance to the official, now It can no longer stop the rolling wheels of the times from rolling forward; and Li Wenliang is the only image that people can still remember in the mainland public opinion field in the past two years-the "whistle" Doctor Ai Fen has not been interviewed again. Fang Fang Fang disappeared from the minds of many, while the Red Cross was safe and sound. Wuhan survived the spring of 2020 by relying on citizens' self-organization in a state of paralysis of the government, but today, many of my friends in the dialogue regard the Wuhan government as a positive example that Shanghai should learn from. erased.

In today's China, although the goal of "dynamic clearing" of COVID-19 is still far away, memory is "dynamically cleared" and language is "silently managed". Perhaps even more bizarre is that we can no longer see which kind of clearing is more important to those in power in this country. The Chinese leadership is paranoid about the elimination of positivity, but for the elimination of public opinion, if these leaders do not pay more attention or put more effort into it, there is no doubt that they have achieved greater results.

Two years later, the public health system still does not have a proper emergency response mechanism for the health needs of citizens, but the publicity department has further improved their already mature response system in the face of "public opinion incidents".

If in the face of Li Wenliang's death, netizens' reaction was anger or despair, then the folk response triggered by "The Voice of April" was more like a prisoner who wanted to slam his head into the wall, but found that the wall had long been replaced with sponge. In 2020, when the first COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Wuhan and the government's poor performance sparked public repercussions, the propaganda department was as caught off guard as the public health department in the face of perhaps the worst crisis of government credibility since 1989. However, two years later, the public health system still does not have a proper emergency response mechanism for the health needs of citizens, but the publicity department has further improved their already mature response system in the face of "public opinion incidents".

Even those experienced with Internet censorship, many don't know what to scold. People retweeted the red exclamation mark and the 404 word composed of black and gray screenshots to express their anger, but it should be noted that there is no responsible subject in the world called 404. Some WeChat articles "explain" the reason for the deletion of the film from the level of the censorship algorithm, repeating the classic argument (even many scholars agree with this) due to the publicity system's concern about mass incidents, any content that reaches a certain scale of dissemination will be subject to criticism. Screening.

As the "self-censorship" mechanism of Internet companies is known to more people, many people's first reaction to the censorship has even become to condemn the "eunuch" beside the "Emperor" and the Internet company and the "capital" behind it, It is believed that it is these capital and algorithms, and the need for these companies to make profits, that makes the voice of ordinary people unable to "reach the sky". However, if the matter is really as simple as a certain content reaching a certain scale of dissemination, why has Xi Jinping’s eating Qingfeng buns not been censored, and why hasn’t the “fan circle expedition to Hong Kong” carnival been censored?

These helpless emotions do get one thing right: the propaganda system is a huge machine that fits neatly together, and its main operator does not show up easily, but entrusts the work to those conscientious screws in the machine. Like those street workers in Shanghai who forcibly drag people away by repeating "I'm just following orders", they mechanically wipe out people's language. But I have interviewed many Internet workers, and they never seem to be happier than the netizens who have been deleted - if not because what they do is against their own values, at least because of the huge workload and not high treatment. In this machine, no one seems to be happy—except, of course, Xi Jinping and Wang Huning.

Yes, in addition to its precision, this machine is also like a huge circus, tailor-made for its audiences - those at the national level, the deputy national level, and the provincial and ministerial level audiences. A performance that suits their taste. This kind of customization is an almost aesthetic requirement, and the language of the whole country will eventually form a huge Potemkin village (Editor's note: derived from an allusion in Tsarist Russia, referring to falsification and decoration of facades). The ultimate purpose of the existence of the city of Shanghai is to meet the aesthetic needs of leaders at the national level. The same goes for the Internet. Therefore, all imperfections must be dynamically cleared. At this point, the positive test and the offending film are of the same nature. Dynamic zeroing is not just a response to COVID, but a model of population governance.

It is not difficult to understand that all incidents, no matter how life-threatening matters, are first of all "public opinion incidents", or even just "public opinion incidents". As long as these events do not end up appearing in the public opinion report provided by the internal reference, it can be regarded as non-existent, because it has been excluded from this customized Potemkin Village. Amid all the chaos in Shanghai in 2022, the first personnel change of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee was the appointment of a new Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee. The subtext of this appointment seems to be the grim message from the Trisolarans to Earthlings in "The Three-Body Problem": The Lord doesn't care. The meaning of everyone's existence is only as a prop when the leader inspects Potiangkin Village. In Shanghai, people exist as props; on the Internet, people exist as data nodes.

"Turn over" as soon as possible

In addition to Lao Hu, there are actually many questions and objections to "The Voice of April" from the people. A statement I saw called the video "the BBC's hell filter" and he/she didn't retweet it because he/she was "too familiar with this color revolution routine". Many people questioned the "behind the scenes" of the film, believing that the film was "adding fuel to the fire", "amplifying the problem", and "inciting emotions"; some people also questioned that this type of film replaces the "big picture" with "fragmented" dissatisfaction . Of course, there are also people who have brought up the cliché of "you do what you do", accusing such films of failing to provide useful suggestions and only "speaking slanderous words", and "China does not rely on them to fight the epidemic."

The amount of these comments made me realize that this view is not necessarily mainstream on social media, but it is by no means rare. They are the model citizens of Potemkin, and their presence means that propaganda and censorship of this massive machine not only has the screws to do its job, but also the lube that voluntarily clings to the machine. These slick remarks are constantly exchanged between the official and the public, realizing the inner cycle of discourse.

These people are not necessarily the majority, but in the Chinese context, it doesn't make sense to argue about who is the majority. What matters is not which people are in greater numbers, but which voices are allowed to emerge and accumulate enough influence to occupy a place in the power system and put pressure on others. Debating who is the majority is not only an oversimplified way of classifying statistics, but also only a means for quantitative researchers to conduct polls in countries with one person, one vote. Elsewhere, the meaning of the word "majority" is merely an abstraction conjured up by leaders in their speeches, an excuse to seek legitimacy for a fait accompli, to pretend that their dominance represents the will of the people, is " People's Choice" and "History's Choice".

Over the past few years, all words that have a "negative" effect on national governance have not escaped the three-pronged interrogation of the propaganda machine: rumors, foreign forces, and negative social influence. These three concepts are like Sun Wukong's hair. In the face of "public opinion events" that are difficult to respond directly, just take a breath to make the machine continue to operate, or at least achieve "turn over" as soon as possible. Even in many cases, these three kinds of interrogation do not necessarily need to come from the official, they have become the premise and bottom line of many people's thinking.

These concepts may not point to any systematic and single ideology, but their significance lies in exclusion, which is actually the primary purpose of ideological work and the ideological foundation of “dynamic clearing.” "Rumors" exclude unofficial and non-authoritative information, "social influence" excludes the expression of negative emotions, and "foreign forces" exclude news that can be used to "smear" and "hand over knives." When the harmful content is "cleared" in time, the "truth" is firmly in the hands of the propaganda machine.

The purpose of these accusations is only to expel all the content that does not conform to the quiet and peaceful imagination of the years from the field of public opinion. In other words, these people agreed with the idea of equating the public opinion field with the Potemkin village. Everything we say is not to express our own needs and emotions, but to present a silent and perfect backwater to the audience.

In the real field of public opinion, "rumor" refers to remarks that have not been officially confirmed. Of all the cases of rumors, perhaps the most famous is the punishment of "rumor-making" against doctors in Wuhan, including Li Wenliang. And recently, before the closure of Shanghai, any information about "Shanghai will be closed soon" was called a rumor, even if the rumor was confirmed days or even a day later. Yet even this blatant contradiction is not enough to make many people aware of these desires and sins.

Not only is the power to define "rumours" firmly monopolized, but there is also no shortage of defenders of this monopoly power among the people. Of course, it is understandable that in the Internet age, the spread of "false news" is indeed easier than ever, especially when officials frequently portray the public opinion field as "rumors flying all over the sky", which aggravates people's panic about rumors. People do long for a simple standard to tell themselves what to believe. The famous Detective Conan said, "There is only one truth." This sentence has an unspoken meaning, that is, apart from the speaker of this truth, there can never be another speaker of the truth. Obviously, in China, only the state can occupy the position of truth-speaker, because only the state has the power to match this position.

"Rumours are flying" is a very interesting expression. This expression concretized rumors as a kind of floating garbage, polluting the environment of public opinion. In a report, Chinese officials described rumors and other "bad information" as "smog" in "cyberspace", a source of pollution that must be removed to create a "clean" environment. This expression also lays the foundation for a wider range of "clearing", because as long as the content is opposed to the "clear and healthy" public opinion environment, even if the truth is stated, it can be cleared in order to control the "smog".

Therefore, "causing panic", "adding fuel to the fire", and "inciting emotions" are also common accusations against various negative public opinions. The accusations do not refute the veracity of the remarks, but rather their "social impact". By this standard, negative emotions are easily excluded from a "clear and healthy" environment. In the China Eastern Airlines crash a month ago, the media's interviews with the families of the victims were attacked by a large number of readers. These attacks accuse the reports of spreading negative emotions, "malicious sensationalism", and "hype" the dead to earn "traffic", and are "human-blooded buns". Even netizens who posted on social media to mourn their dead relatives suffered similar attacks.

During Shanghai's lockdown, similar attacks were heard, targeting citizens who posted messages for help. As a journalist friend of mine said, the purpose of these accusations is to expel from the field of public opinion everything that is not in line with the peaceful imagination of the years. In other words, these people agreed with the idea of equating the public opinion field with the Potemkin village. Everything we say is not to express our own needs and emotions, but to present a silent and perfect backwater to the audience.

Since the stage of "precise prevention and control" in Shanghai, the voices accusing Shanghai of not closing the city are "comprador privileges" have never stopped. After the closure of the city, some people even thought that the tragic situation in Shanghai was a "colonizer" (that is, the colonizer) city suffering the consequences. Today, "dynamic clearing" has been raised to the level of "civilization struggle" or even "national capital" by some official media and self-media.

Perhaps it is inexplicable why some people identify with those spectators on the Diaoyutai. On the one hand, perhaps trying to keep an indifferent distance from other people's misfortunes is also a way to maintain one's "mental health"; on the other hand, in recent years, the "big picture" has almost become an epidemic, making People are blinded unconsciously. More and more people who speak out on the Internet have begun to empathize with those in power, rather than ordinary people who are related to their own destiny. It is under such circumstances that the words "handing knives" and "smearing" spread.

Compared with Wuhan and the accusation of "handing knives" from the other side, the public opinion attack on Shanghai is also mixed with a sense of "clash of civilizations". As a port for communication between China and the "West", Shanghai itself is regarded by many as the spokesperson of "foreign forces". Since the stage of "precise prevention and control" in Shanghai, the voices accusing Shanghai of not closing the city are "comprador privileges" have never stopped. After the closure of the city, some people even thought that the tragic situation in Shanghai was a "colonizer" (that is, the colonizer) city suffering the consequences. Today, "dynamic clearing" has been raised to the level of "civilization struggle" or even "national capital" by some official media and self-media. Soon after the "Voice of April" appeared, some people couldn't wait to associate it with "foreign forces", "behind the scenes", and even "color revolutions". These articles don't care about the real records of daily life, and they have completely detached from the needs of citizens' lives. The "conflict of civilization" is actually just a battle of face, and many people seem to think that the face of the country is greater than the life and death of the people around them.

In 2020, what Li Wenliang said was repeatedly mentioned: "A healthy society should not have only one voice." But the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has never felt this way. According to the guiding ideology of the central government, the health of society is far more refined and stricter than the health of the human body. There is an absolute and "scientific" standard for this kind of health, and it cannot tolerate any pathological changes or "sub-health". So, sorry, a healthy society can only have one voice, because there can only be one healthy standard, everything outside this standard is unhealthy, and all unhealthy voices need to be cleared.

The unity of optimism and pessimism

In the face of the public opinion field, especially the protests in the online public opinion field, there are two views. One believes that constant forwarding can eventually touch the button of social reform in some way; the other believes that since zero is the fate of all languages, everything that happens on the Internet is meaningless.

For a long time, in the face of the public opinion field, especially the protests in the online public opinion field, there have been two views. One believes that constant forwarding can eventually touch the button of social reform in some way; the other believes that since zero is the fate of all languages, everything that happens on the Internet is meaningless.

In the early 2000s, when the Internet was just emerging, "onlookers changing China" once became people's hope. With the passage of time, today's people still regard forwarding as a kind of resistance, but the meaning of resistance has become "memory is the only thing we can do". Optimism and pessimism have actually been unified when remembering to be the only resistance.

But to make matters worse, remembering has also become extremely difficult. It seems that all speeches face the fate of "dynamic clearing". They appear, disappear, and then, as Lao Hu said, "turn over the chapter", there is no follow-up. And there is no doubt that many of the people who participated in the forwarding will be ready to return to a state of tranquility once the lockdown is over, just as many people who have experienced the lockdown in Wuhan have already done so. Even some of them will continue to warn others to "don't believe rumors and don't spread rumors" and be alert to foreign forces the next time a similar situation occurs.

There is no doubt that the pessimism is justified. If there are still people who regard reposting and "onlookers" on the Internet as a kind of political action, this kind of political action is no longer effective. The Chinese government may be a mess in all other aspects, but only "public opinion governance" will never relax, and will always establish a control mechanism that changes with each passing day, because the Chinese government has actually regarded propaganda work as the foundation of state governance. , all problems are propaganda problems, public opinion problems. Perhaps it is a bit extreme to say that as long as the Potemkin Village in the propaganda can be built, the shanty towns and low-end population in reality can be regarded as non-existent. Whack-a-mole-style online protests, by themselves, will not affect the general trend of the regime's "stability and improvement".

At the same time, however, those ordinary people who are experiencing the times, they can of course be seen as the basis for the regime to rule, but it is they who keep language and voice from dying completely. They don't see these retweets as political action, so it may not constitute a lasting and effective resistance. But it is precisely because they do not see these retweets as political actions that they continue to make their voices heard.

Many ordinary people who feel helpless in the face of life just want to make life a life and make themselves a person, not just a manipulated prop and a monitored data node. They know the truth about their lives and don't want the right to interpret that truth to be taken away by people who only focus on falsehoods. For them, making these voices is less a struggle than a choice. Of course, many of them will return to the quiet times, but in the face of official efforts to monopolize the "truth", there will always be those who want to recapture their own truth.

For them, making these voices is less a struggle than a choice. Of course, many of them will return to the quiet times, but in the face of official efforts to monopolize the "truth", there will always be those who want to recapture their own truth.

"Dynamic zeroing" will always be dynamic, which is a huge misfortune because there's always someone suffering; but also a little bit of luck, because stagnant water doesn't die outright. As Lenin once said, "Under socialism, antagonism disappears, but contradiction always exists". The voices of April are gone, and whether or not the months to come will be all silent depends both on our efforts to reclaim the truth and on whether we can find some way to use it.