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In 2020, a special year that plunged the world into a serious epidemic crisis, a Weibo article titled "The state of the U.S. power system is worrying" set off a heated discussion in cyberspace.
The article was written by "Meishan Essay on Sword Chen Ping Expert", who expressed his disbelief and indignation at the large-scale power outage that shocked the Chinese people by the United States' involvement in catastrophic extreme weather.
As a veteran expert and scholar, he wrote thousands of words of in-depth analysis with a rigorous attitude, calling on China to take this as a warning, be highly vigilant against possible extreme weather disasters, and prepare for early warnings and emergency plans in advance.
However, when I delved into the comment section of netizens below this Weibo, I found that the atmosphere was extremely tense and intense. "Professor Chen, isn't the luxury villa you showed on Weibo bought by accumulating wealth by criticizing the United States?" "Professor Chen, since you think that the United States is inferior to China in every way, why do you choose to live there and endure all kinds of troubles?" "You may criticize the United States only out of professional needs, but deep down you still yearn for the American way of life!" These remarks are full of ridicule and doubt, and it seems that there are deep doubts and dissatisfaction with the position and motives of this "expert".
To explore how Chen Ping's mask of "patriot" was debunked, we must start with his personal experience. Chen Ping was born into a family of intellectuals, and he showed extraordinary learning talents from an early age.
After graduating from high school, he was fortunate to have the opportunity to study in the United States with his excellent academic performance. Although this study abroad career was full of twists and turns, it also gave Chen Ping the opportunity to witness the many dark sides of American society.
After returning from his studies, Chen Ping was hired to teach at Peking University with his outstanding academic achievements. In a seemingly unremarkable lecture, he shared with the students what he saw and heard during his time in the United States.
Chen Ping told the students that the most shocking thing about his time in the United States was the impoverished homeless people who could be found everywhere on the streets, and even more so when night fell, they were filled with outlaws armed with murder weapons, who targeted Asian students.
During that time, Chen Ping was robbed many times, leaving a lingering shadow on his American life.
While seeking help from the police has become a reluctance for many people, the authorities are often powerless in the face of the threat of violent crime, and may even invite retaliation from the perpetrators, leaving people in a more passive position.
Therefore, it is undoubtedly a prudent safety strategy to minimize activities outside the home at night while living in the United States.
At that time, many young people were full of beautiful visions of the United States, hoping that one day they would be able to experience first-hand the "free" way of life advocated by the United States. However, when Chen Ping deeply analyzed the current situation and expressed his views, it was like pouring cold water on these idealistic young people, completely shattering their blind worship of the so-called "ideal country".
Unexpectedly, Chen Ping's seemingly insipid exposition has aroused great attention and enthusiastic response from the majority of students. He suddenly realized that as long as he could belittle and criticize the United States, he would be able to win the applause and support of the broad masses of the people, and this vanity greatly satisfied his endless pursuit of fame and fortune in his heart.
Since then, he has embarked on his own path as a "patriot".
Once he saw that criticism of the United States could easily attract the public's attention and gain support, Chen Ping began to attack and denigrate the United States in all directions.
In order to cater to the psychological needs of the masses, he has made bitter criticisms of the United States in various public settings, pointing the spearhead of attacks at all levels of the United States.
As soon as this kind of remarks, which distorted the facts to the extreme, were published, they immediately caused an uproar in all circles of society, and public opinion condemned them as "baseless lies." However, what is surprising is that it is precisely this kind of absurd remarks that has caused Chen Ping's exposure in the public eye to rise dramatically.
The public is obsessed with him and sees him as an "anti-American fighter". Major media outlets rushed to invite this "expert" to speak and share his unique insights on the United States. And Chen Ping eagerly seized this opportunity, and "made a big fuss" in various programs, showing more and more arrogance and rudeness.
In this way, with his "anti-American" banner held high, the voice of support for him has also grown. On social networking platforms, he has earned more than a million loyal fans. However, behind the scenes, he is also happy with this pursuit of vanity and fame, and the greedy desire in his heart gradually erodes his reason.
This action of Chen Ping and his family members obviously constitutes a strong contrast and contradiction with the image of "people who love the motherland" created in the eyes of the public, and there is no doubt that it has a major impact on Chen Ping's credibility!
When this shocking secret was revealed, the first wave of reaction from netizens was questioning and anger. They have raised all kinds of questions and accusations on the Internet:
"Mr. Chen Ping, you love our great motherland so much, why did you choose to move to an overseas country?"
"You keep preaching about America's ills, but why do you buy a luxury home there?"
"Have you been deceiving others in the name of patriotism?"
Doubts spread like a plague on the Internet, bringing with them an unprecedented sense of betrayal and anger. People have condemned all of Chen Ping's "patriotic" behaviors, believing that they are just a means for him to earn money, and that he lacks a moral bottom line and a sense of right and wrong.
Overnight, Chen Ping's heroic image in the hearts of many fans collapsed instantly, and was replaced by an indescribable disappointment and indignation. He was disparaged as a "downright duplicitous", "greedy and cunning opportunist".
It is a pity that "experts" like Chen Ping, who use their status and discourse power to cater to the psychological needs of the public and obtain personal interests, do not exist in isolation.
For example, Zhang Weiwei, a professor at Fudan University, once tried his best to tout the rapid development of China's economy in various programs, and even made astonishing remarks comparing the boxed life of Chinese migrant workers with the American middle class, which aroused widespread concern from all walks of life.
He has repeatedly openly stated that he wants to "save the United States from tyranny" and belittle the United States to the level of a "third world country."
These exaggerated remarks and distorted facts are undoubtedly deliberately misleading the public and causing people to have a wrong understanding.
In addition to scholars such as Chen Ping and Zhang Weiwei, even the documentary "Under the Dome" shot by Chai Jing, a well-known Chinese female journalist, has been questioned and criticized by many people.
Although the original intention of the documentary was to arouse public awareness of the problem of air pollution and protect our common home environment, Chai Jing's position is clearly biased in terms of specific content.
Not to mention the heated discussion on carbon emissions, Ms. Chai, who behaves like a public figure, surprisingly fully supports Freon emission standards for developed countries, all of which have the advantage of being developed countries, and shows that the intention to explicitly or implicitly deprive developing countries of more emission rights is vividly expressed.
Some netizens even sharply accused Ms. Chai of deliberately exaggerating big data and pointing the finger directly at China's industrialization process in this self-proclaimed documentary with environmental significance, which exuded a strong anti-China sentiment.
There is no doubt that whether it is Mr. Chen Ping, Professor Zhang Weiwei, or Ms. Chai and other public figures, they are essentially borrowing the banner of "patriotism" to practice "anti-China" facts. They may be motivated by personal interests, or they may have been influenced and assimilated by Western ideology, which has led them to make statements that are difficult to stand on.
With the advent of the new media era, we have been able to easily obtain massive amounts of information from various sources, however, at the same time, we are also faced with more lies and misinformation.
Under the guise of "knowledge popularization", some ill-intentioned self-media people and individual bloggers maliciously slander and degrade the country's image behind their backs, bringing serious misdirection to the younger generation.
In the past, we were passively receptive to information from authoritative media, but now we have more choice. However, this autonomy is a "double-edged sword", and it is very important to distinguish the truth from the false in the vast sea of information and cultivate one's own rational thinking ability.
We must pay sufficient attention to this issue and earnestly improve the discernment and critical thinking level of all citizens. Only by keeping a clear head and having independent judgment can we identify the lies and pitfalls in the face of complex information, and not be confused and misled by the words of people with intentions.
We are living in an unprecedented information age, where ideas converge and merge, and where correct ideas coexist with false statements. This is undoubtedly a "double-edged sword", which not only provides us with a lot of convenience in revealing the truth, but also makes us more vulnerable to the erosion of false perceptions.
Looking back at history, it is not difficult for us to find a shocking fact: those lies and exaggerated statements that have been circulating for centuries and have been demagogic have often spread unscrupulously when a nation is plunged into a period of disaster and war.
During the years of World War II, Nazi Germany, with its extreme idea of "eradicating the Jews and rebuilding racial purity", deeply deceived the rational judgment of the entire German nation and caused countless heart-wrenching tragic events.
In China, a country far from the East, whenever it is invaded by foreign peoples, there are always some despicable supporters and supporters like lost dogs, who use various pretexts to invoke foreign aggression in an attempt to deceive and weaken the people's fighting spirit and awakening consciousness, and plunge the country into a deep crisis.
However, in today's era of peace and stability, rational thinking and independent judgment are particularly precious and indispensable. We live in a social environment that respects civilization and protects human rights, and we should doubly cherish this hard-won achievement of peace.
Patriotism is by no means merely a matter of words, but should also be embodied in the actual actions of every citizen towards the motherland and the nation. We should examine the country's development process and challenges with a rational eye, deeply understand our own historical position, and avoid being misled by those so-called "pseudo-patriotic" remarks and falling victim to confusion.
At the same time, each of us also needs to improve our self-discernment, maintain independent thinking and judgment, and not be confused by any exaggeration or distortion of facts. Only in this way can we navigate the tide of the era of information explosion with ease and contribute our rational strength to the prosperity and strength of the country and the nation.
All in all, rational patriotism is a noble quality that every citizen should possess, and it is also the cornerstone of the prosperity of the country. Let us work together, cherish the current era of peace, gain insight into the world from a rational perspective, and defend the dignity of the country and the nation with the power of independent thinking.