By Margaret Chan, Published The Straits Times, 30 Mar 2019
Social media moves faster than anything else out there, writes online marketing guru Neil Patel, on the destructiveness of the Internet. A moment of dumbness can go viral and turn into a nightmare of mob justice out of control.
This explains why comments on social media have to be taken seriously. Take the recent case of a young man, Mr Edmund Zhong, who posted on the Channel NewsAsia Facebook page that he wanted to throw an egg at Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam. This was after an egg-throwing incident in Australia when a teenager egged a senator for insensitive remarks in response to the Christchurch massacre.
Very quickly, another person responded to Mr Zhong with information on the minister's upcoming Meet-the-People Session. Now the two men are being investigated for the offence of inciting violence under Section 267C of the Penal Code. In a subsequent interview with the media, Mr Zhong came across as bemused, if not irritated, that the police had come to his home.
Did the police overreact? On that comment, Mr Shanmugam himself said he laughed it off.
The way I see it, the police did Mr Zhong a favour by visiting him, and nipping a potential problem in the bud.
Fact: Egging someone is not funny but criminal. Several jurisdictions have ruled it criminal to attack anyone with either an egg, pie, tomato, flour or a glitter bomb.
On March 3, a Brexiter threw an egg at British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and was jailed for 28 days. The chief magistrate, on passing sentence, noted: "An attack like this is an attack on our democratic process. This is a public servant and attacks on MPs must stop. The message must go out - this must stop."
In May 2016, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson beat up the protester who had pied him. The culprit was charged with felony assault and misdemeanour battery.
In 2010, an American woman smashed a pie into the face of Canada's then Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, and was banned from entering Canada for two years. The act was discussed in the Canadian press as an act of terrorism; a physical attack on a minister in order to get a government to change its policy.
So, if someone had indeed smashed an egg on Mr Shanmugam's head, would we laugh? I think not.
Journalist T.A. Frank, reporting in The New Republic on the 2011 pie attack on media mogul Rupert Murdoch, studied several films of such attacks, including the 2004 strike on Conservative columnist Ann Coulter at the University of Arizona, and the 1998 offence against Mr Bill Gates in Brussels.
Mr Frank concluded: "One thing they have in common is that they're not funny. And I don't just mean that I don't find them funny. Watch a few of them… Does any of them make you laugh? Does anybody in any of the videos laugh? Invariably, the response of the gathered crowd is alarm followed by disgust. A whiff of chaos, of a broken social compact, is in the air. Everyone is shaken."
Serbian activist Srdja Popovic, who co-founded the non-profit Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies that teaches protesters how to make their point without getting into trouble, said the use of humour, or "laughtivism", is particularly useful.
For example, in Finland, militaristic white nationalists conducted anti-immigrant neighbourhood patrols. Activists dressed like clowns followed the patrols around, making the intimidation look ridiculous.
But Mr Popovic makes clear that "laughtivism" is not a joke. It is an intentional act of aggression against an opponent. "If they react, they will look stupid. If they don't react, they will look weak." And Mr Popovic warns against throwing eggs or pies at anyone. The act may seem like slapstick, but it can be offensive and insulting, and backfire.
University of Colorado professor Peter McGraw explains his benign violation theory - that there can never be humour when the audience feels that the situation is unsafe.
The defence that a pie or an egg does not cause physical hurt will fall when people witness the annoyance and humiliation that is visited upon the victim. Singer Anita Bryant broke down and cried when she was pied in 1977. In 1976, Pat Moynihan was campaigning for a seat in the US Senate when he was ambushed. Moynihan, a child of Hell's Kitchen and no softie, told The New York Times that it was "a violent act" that "scared the hell out of me". After all, in the moment of the attack, who was to tell it was not an assassination attempt?
Mr Frank, investigating for The New Republic, notes that to think that it is funny to inflict such existential fear, no matter how fleetingly, upon another, is to say that mock executions are hilarious.
No wonder victims have struck back. In the recent Australian case, Queensland Senator Fraser Anning, egged earlier this month, slapped his young attacker. In 2001, Mr John Prescott, then Britain's Deputy Prime Minister, grabbed the protester who threw an egg at him by the scruff of the neck and punched him.
Nor does the buffoonery serve serious political purpose. Journalist Bryan Farrell noted with frustration that thousands of people may take to the streets risking their lives to protest, but it is such "second-class news" that grabs media attention.
An egg attack on our Minister for Home Affairs could star on the world stage because Singapore has been consistently voted as one of the safest cities in the world.
This explains why comments on social media have to be taken seriously. Take the recent case of a young man, Mr Edmund Zhong, who posted on the Channel NewsAsia Facebook page that he wanted to throw an egg at Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam. This was after an egg-throwing incident in Australia when a teenager egged a senator for insensitive remarks in response to the Christchurch massacre.
Very quickly, another person responded to Mr Zhong with information on the minister's upcoming Meet-the-People Session. Now the two men are being investigated for the offence of inciting violence under Section 267C of the Penal Code. In a subsequent interview with the media, Mr Zhong came across as bemused, if not irritated, that the police had come to his home.
Did the police overreact? On that comment, Mr Shanmugam himself said he laughed it off.
The way I see it, the police did Mr Zhong a favour by visiting him, and nipping a potential problem in the bud.
Fact: Egging someone is not funny but criminal. Several jurisdictions have ruled it criminal to attack anyone with either an egg, pie, tomato, flour or a glitter bomb.
On March 3, a Brexiter threw an egg at British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and was jailed for 28 days. The chief magistrate, on passing sentence, noted: "An attack like this is an attack on our democratic process. This is a public servant and attacks on MPs must stop. The message must go out - this must stop."
In May 2016, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson beat up the protester who had pied him. The culprit was charged with felony assault and misdemeanour battery.
In 2010, an American woman smashed a pie into the face of Canada's then Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, and was banned from entering Canada for two years. The act was discussed in the Canadian press as an act of terrorism; a physical attack on a minister in order to get a government to change its policy.
So, if someone had indeed smashed an egg on Mr Shanmugam's head, would we laugh? I think not.
Journalist T.A. Frank, reporting in The New Republic on the 2011 pie attack on media mogul Rupert Murdoch, studied several films of such attacks, including the 2004 strike on Conservative columnist Ann Coulter at the University of Arizona, and the 1998 offence against Mr Bill Gates in Brussels.
Mr Frank concluded: "One thing they have in common is that they're not funny. And I don't just mean that I don't find them funny. Watch a few of them… Does any of them make you laugh? Does anybody in any of the videos laugh? Invariably, the response of the gathered crowd is alarm followed by disgust. A whiff of chaos, of a broken social compact, is in the air. Everyone is shaken."
Serbian activist Srdja Popovic, who co-founded the non-profit Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies that teaches protesters how to make their point without getting into trouble, said the use of humour, or "laughtivism", is particularly useful.
For example, in Finland, militaristic white nationalists conducted anti-immigrant neighbourhood patrols. Activists dressed like clowns followed the patrols around, making the intimidation look ridiculous.
But Mr Popovic makes clear that "laughtivism" is not a joke. It is an intentional act of aggression against an opponent. "If they react, they will look stupid. If they don't react, they will look weak." And Mr Popovic warns against throwing eggs or pies at anyone. The act may seem like slapstick, but it can be offensive and insulting, and backfire.
University of Colorado professor Peter McGraw explains his benign violation theory - that there can never be humour when the audience feels that the situation is unsafe.
The defence that a pie or an egg does not cause physical hurt will fall when people witness the annoyance and humiliation that is visited upon the victim. Singer Anita Bryant broke down and cried when she was pied in 1977. In 1976, Pat Moynihan was campaigning for a seat in the US Senate when he was ambushed. Moynihan, a child of Hell's Kitchen and no softie, told The New York Times that it was "a violent act" that "scared the hell out of me". After all, in the moment of the attack, who was to tell it was not an assassination attempt?
Mr Frank, investigating for The New Republic, notes that to think that it is funny to inflict such existential fear, no matter how fleetingly, upon another, is to say that mock executions are hilarious.
No wonder victims have struck back. In the recent Australian case, Queensland Senator Fraser Anning, egged earlier this month, slapped his young attacker. In 2001, Mr John Prescott, then Britain's Deputy Prime Minister, grabbed the protester who threw an egg at him by the scruff of the neck and punched him.
Nor does the buffoonery serve serious political purpose. Journalist Bryan Farrell noted with frustration that thousands of people may take to the streets risking their lives to protest, but it is such "second-class news" that grabs media attention.
An egg attack on our Minister for Home Affairs could star on the world stage because Singapore has been consistently voted as one of the safest cities in the world.
Already, even before a single egg has been thrown, we have unfortunate memes: eggs labelled as weapons, piles of eggs tagged as stockpiles of Malaysian ammunition, and Mr Shanmugam pictured in a ridiculous army helmet.
Call me old-fashioned, but this Pioneer Generation citizen doesn't think it is a joke if idiocy causes people to laugh at Singapore.
Margaret Chan is a cultural anthropologist who recently retired as associate professor at the Singapore Management University where she taught heritage studies, religion, theatre and the arts.
Call me old-fashioned, but this Pioneer Generation citizen doesn't think it is a joke if idiocy causes people to laugh at Singapore.
Margaret Chan is a cultural anthropologist who recently retired as associate professor at the Singapore Management University where she taught heritage studies, religion, theatre and the arts.
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