A few days ago, there was a piece of news that made countless netizens feel like eating flies-
Attracted more than a billion reads of the Luo Champion event.
The course of events goes like this.
Netizen @cheering Vicky (real name Liang Ying) posted on Weibo, accusing ex-boyfriend Luo Guanjun of raping and PUA on himself, and also listing the crimes of the man making him pregnant, miscarriage, prostitution, rape of other female college students and other crimes.
As soon as this news came out, it immediately detonated public opinion.
Luo Guanyuan was also quick to respond.
From August 29 to 30, Luo Guanjun and his sister sent Microblogs to deny the rape allegations, and Luo Guanjun's father also wrote a handwritten "Letter of Redress."
Until September 3, both men and women were still in a situation of disagreement, but by the evening of the 3rd, the "reversal" that made people confused happened.
Liang Ying suddenly emptied all her Microblogs, triggering speculation and discussion among netizens.
The next day, Luo Guanjun issued a long confession, saying that he was deeply poisoned by the matter and had "died socially".
On September 5, lawyer Liang Yingtuo issued a statement saying that Luo Guanjun did not rape himself.
Subsequently, Luo Guanjun issued a statement saying that the emotional dispute between the two has been resolved, but the civil reputation infringement lawsuit will proceed normally.
At this point, this roller coaster-like reversal drama has temporarily entered the intermission stage.
At present, the matter is not yet conclusive.
But Luo Guanjun's encounter is enough to make us stunned -
Moved 3 times in half a year, changed jobs many times, was insulted by countless netizens in private messages, and the whole family phone was madly harassed...
The mouths are shoveled, and the bones are destroyed.
Public opinion can destroy a person's life so easily.
In recent years, similar reversal news has been emerging.
Luo Guanjun's experience is staggering, but it is by no means an isolated case.
There are not a few people who have been hastily convicted by public opinion.
In May this year, netizen @Kojimari posted on Weibo that his daughter, who suffered from asthma, was physically punished and threatened to beat by a teacher, causing an asthma attack, vomiting blood, and attaching a picture of a school uniform stained with blood.
As soon as this matter was exposed, netizens immediately began to attack the teacher's human flesh and attacks, and the police quickly intervened.
But just a day later, the events took a turn for the worse.
It is true that teachers physically punish students for running in circles.
But episodes such as vomiting blood and asthma attacks were made up by the netizen.
On August 30, netizens posted @BG4VHP that they saw a tourist feeding a mask to a red deer at the Beijing Wildlife Park, causing public outrage.
After investigation, it was actually the red deer himself who stuck his head into the car and took out the mask in the car and chewed it.
It is normal for news to be unavoidable.
What is really worrying is the participation of public opinion in these incidents.
News reversal is different from public opinion reversal.
The impact of the latter is much greater and much more frightening.
In "The Legend of the Beauty of Sicily", marina is trapped in a vortex of unfounded rumors just because of her beauty.
In the end, she finally became a prostitute, as the rumor said.
People's reaction was: Look! I said she was a slut!
The damage caused by rumors is immeasurable.
Source| The Beautiful Legend of Sicily
The news has been repeatedly reversed, and the truth has become more and more tortuous.
It's not that the news itself gets complicated.
Rather, it is the complete subversion of the way news is produced.
Once upon a time, private emotions were taboo in journalism.
To ensure objectivity, no preset positions and emotions of journalists can be brought into the story.
The pursuit is to try to close the facts and objectively record history.
Source| The Washington Post
But in the era of new media, network empowerment has given ordinary people the opportunity to participate in news production.
The hidden nature of the Internet allows netizens to use speech with peace of mind to put pressure on the media and even the judicial system.
The diversity of communicators dilutes the professionalism of the media.
Most of these incidents stem from the justice and morality of netizens.
Public opinion has indeed helped many people who need to defend their rights.
But the increasing mix of emotional elements into the news is not a good thing.
Source| "Desperate Live"
In the Chongqing bus crash that shocked the whole country in 2018, the crashed bus crashed into the river after hitting a car.
After the accident, rumors began on the Internet that the female driver of the car was driving backwards and causing the accident.
Not surprisingly, the owner of the car suffered a lot of insults and curses.
Until the police reported that night, it was actually the bus that crossed the center solid line and crashed into the normal driving car.
It is not too late to settle the injustice, but the harm done by public opinion to the parties concerned is irreparable.
The exhaustion brought about by the reversal leads to a crisis of social trust.
Distorted news interferes with the public's judgment and turns the pursuit of truth into a fog.
It has also brought double chaos to the network order and social order.
Today, we are in an era of post-truth.
In this day and age, the importance of emotional expression seems to outweigh the truth itself.
Source| "Twelve Angry Men"
Simple and crude one-sided logic can quickly seize traffic and expand the impact.
To some extent, this is conducive to the voice and rights protection of those small people who are not seen by the media.
But it also makes the truth always belated.
Even rumors can be presupposed to be true without being confirmed.
The resulting harm to the parties has also become the norm.
The tragedy of 25-year-old Ruan Lingyu's choice to commit suicide because of rumors is still repeating itself 80 years later.
Source| "Ruan Lingyu"
There is an episode in "Family with Children" that impressed Piao.
Once, Xia Donghai was trapped in an elevator with a woman.
Later, the elevator door finally opened, and the woman excitedly kissed Xia Donghai, leaving a lipstick mark on his face, which caused Liu Mei's anger.
In order to prove his innocence, Xia Donghai searched for the woman by the elevator for several days.
At the same time, Liu Xing took it upon himself to help his father write a search notice -
Source| "Family with Children" (hereinafter the same)
I have to say that the effect of this search notice is immediate.
Everyone thought that Xia Donghai was dying, and the unit also set up a funeral committee for him.
He was also almost shot to death by the woman's boyfriend.
Piao once felt that such a plot was witty, but somewhat absurd.
Nowadays, it seems that it is actually quite realistic.
The point of paradox is here.
Once upon a time, the media was portrayed as "unfriendly".
"Girlfriend Friday" and "Upside Down Ace" are classic movies of the 40s and 50s.
Source| "Ace of the Upside Down"
The irony is the loss of work ethic in the media.
But, this questioning of the truth.
It has not improved with the decentralization of the right of dissemination.
The lack of rationality in the face of breaking news provides a breeding ground for rumors.
The most terrible thing in the process of rumor spreading is the so-called "confirmation bias" -
People are only willing to believe what they believe, and are therefore inclined to find evidence for the views they support.
Source| "Let the Bullets Fly"
This mentality makes the victims of rumors almost indefensible.
Two film productions from 2012 –
Search and Hunting.
Both vividly and cruelly depict how rumors destroy an innocent person all.
Chen Kaige's "Search" is about a murder case -
It's just that the murderer is rumored and searched for human flesh.
Source| Search (same below)
Ye Lanqiu (Gao Yuanyuan) is the secretary of the president of a company.
During a physical examination, she was diagnosed with advanced cancer and fell into despair.
On the bus back, she was six gods and no master, and the flight attendant asked her to give up her seat to the old man without hearing it.
When she came back to her senses, in the face of a whole truckload of people crusading against her, she patted her thigh and said in a gamble that she would sit here.
And this happened to be photographed by a trainee reporter on the bus.
Soon, the "Sunglasses Sister" incident of not giving up the seat made public opinion boil.
Moreover, netizens also put Xiao San's crime on her.
Ye Lanqiu not only had to suffer from a terminal illness, but also made her breathless.
All her information was put on the Internet by netizens, and everyone around her was involved.
Anywhere you appear, you will be chased like a street rat.
She has apologized in interviews.
However, for the sake of profit, the media did not report on this, but let public opinion continue to ferment.
In a week's time, she went from an ordinary office worker to being targeted.
On the seventh day, she meets Yang Shoucheng (Zhao Youting), who has a crush on her, to watch the last sunrise in her life.
After that, the heart dies like a dead ash.
After Ye Lanqiu's death, the truth came out, and the reporter finally decided to broadcast her previous apology video.
However, these are nothing more than making up for her already cold corpse.
The film "The Hunt", directed by Danish director Thomas Winterberg and starring "Uncle" Medes Mikkelsen.
Although it did not lead to the tragedy of holding a grudge against Huang Quan.
But it makes people feel a kind of coldness from their bones.
Lucas (Mads Mikkelson) is a nursery teacher who is loved by children.
Source| "The Hunt" (hereinafter the same)
In particular, a little girl named Clara had a deep admiration for Lucas.
Clara develops strange feelings for Lucas, not only showing affection, but even kissing him.
Lucas politely refused.
She was also told that kissing was an adult act.
And his sense of morality brought disaster—
Out of some sort of psychology, Clara fabricated the lie that Lucas had sexually assaulted herself.
What this lie meant, she probably didn't even know.
But Lucas's life collapsed.
Losing his job, being despised, being detained for investigation, and the safety of himself and his family are threatened.
Go to the supermarket and you will be beaten.
The family's dog was also brutally killed by strangers.
Even more frightening.
Clara actually confessed that she was lying after identifying Lucas.
And said more than once.
However, everyone believes that this is the child's psychological avoidance of painful memories.
That is to say, Lucas fell into an abyss without any room for justification.
From the moment Clara decided to lie, he was forever crucified.
At the end of the film, Lucas reconciles with Clara's father on Christmas Eve.
He seems to have slowly gained the trust of the residents again, and many people came to his son's coming-of-age ceremony.
But while he was hunting in the forest, someone fired a shot at him.
We couldn't see who the shooter was, only a vague figure with a backlight —
Ta is not one person, but anyone.
In this huge lie with no room for reversal, Lucas was destined to spend the rest of his life in the gaze of the muzzle of the gun.
Liberals have advocated a free market of opinion.
They believe that different perspectives debate and compete with each other in the same space in favor of the truth.
But the truth is that the violence of the majority, where a strong view prevails over all other voices, is the norm.
Sentimentality and bias have led to more and more frequent face punches.
A netizen on Weibo took stock of the reversal news in recent years.
After reading the comments section, I found out how much news has been reversed, but I still believe it.
The search for the truth seems to have lost its meaning, and as a result, many people no longer believe it.
And become a reasonable guest who always hangs "waiting for reversal" on the side of the mouth.
Waiting for a reversal reflects the anxiety and dazedness in the chaotic public opinion environment.
And after the chaotic reversal drama, all that remains is doubt, emptiness and chaos.
What is disturbing is that in the era of public opinion reversal, there are more hidden worries.
News that is not objective may be shaping a qualitative thinking -
An either-or mentality that emphasizes opposites.
Examine some of the "reversal news" that has received a lot of attention in recent years.
It seems that some core concepts can always be extracted -
Couples, couples, teachers and students, doctors and patients, male and female drivers...
Abound.
This is a typical adversarial narrative framework.
There are confrontations and contradictions, so that it is easy for the audience to enter and achieve the strongest communication effect.
The parties in the news are mechanically divided into positive and negative parties, creating a conflict.
The moment you see the news, people unconsciously begin to take sides.
The Luo Champion incident is also a typical one.
After seeing words like "rape" and "ex-boyfriend", especially titles with such a strong sense of conflict.
Many people did not hesitate to stand on the side of the woman.
Billy Wilder's classic film The Prosecution Witness demonstrates the use of adversarial narrative .
The defendant, Wall (Tyrone Bowa), is suspected of killing a rich woman.
Source| Prosecution Witness (ibid.)
And he has the exception of the confession of his wife, Kristen (Marlene Dietrich).
There is no evidence to clear the suspicions.
Meanwhile, Christine testified in court that her husband had indeed killed someone.
When Wall is almost convicted, Christine reveals the secret of her infidelity.
The jury unanimously found Christine perjury and acquitted Wall.
And it is not until the end of the film that the truth is revealed.
Christine has always been loyal to Wall, and her series of operations are actually to save Wall.
To be prosecuted for perjury is nothing more than a few years in jail.
And once Wall is found guilty, it will be the death penalty.
See it?
Throughout the film, Wall's side has never provided valid evidence.
Christine's cleverness lies in bringing the contradiction of whether or not to commit a crime to the contradiction of husband and wife.
In most people's minds, either-or is an important model of judgment.
If the woman is at fault, then the man is not guilty.
What seems reasonable in the context is actually ridiculous.
In social news, the public often unconsciously looks for the "wrong" side to attribute to reconcile cognitive imbalances.
As the French scholar Gustav Le Pen pointed out, groups always amplify their emotions. From this, it will only be moved by extreme emotions.
Source| "Star Detective"
Last month, someone on Weibo uploaded a recording of a conversation between Mr. Bao and Mr. Li.
The content of the dialogue between the two sides has led many people to believe that the woman is not actually a perfect victim.
Many people turned to support Bao Yuming.
The same is true of the Luo Champion incident.
Earlier, people carried out crazy insults and harassment of men.
And now, another brain has begun to crusade against the woman.
Although it can be understood as the reaction brought about by Liang Ying's fooling public opinion.
However, for the public, it is somewhat from blind to another blind meaning.
Either-or thinking makes people pay too much attention to contradiction and confrontation itself.
It is difficult to form an impartial judgment.
Throughout the course of the incident, people were always angry.
It makes it difficult to stop and think more.
This kind of antagonistic thinking is also reflected in the intensification of gender contradictions in the Luo Champion incident.
The issue of "rape" is closely related to women's rights.
But after ushering in the "reversal", Piao saw the picture he did not want to see-
While some netizens attacked Liang Ying, they also began to smear the feminist movement, and the argument of "pastoral female fist" also emerged in an endless stream.
This once again plunges the event into a binary opposition.
The terrible thing about the "female fist" argument is that.
It not only exacerbates the antagonism between men and women, but also creates a rift in the female group.
Many women themselves believe that "pastoral female fist" does not belong to "feminism".
But feminism is feminism.
Where do so many definitions come from?
People always like to defend the flawlessness of the group, and when they find that there is indeed an individual who has a problem, they kick it out, as if this can continue to be right and flawless.
But the truth is that this is not necessary.
On the one hand, the feminist movement needs to mobilize the masses, and the majority of people cannot understand the obscure feminist theory.
On the other hand, social movements are bound to have ineffective roles and ineffective actions, even negative effects.
The invalid part is also a historical stage in which feminism cannot be erased.
Feminist scholar Camille Paglia argues that there is a great problem with feminism, which focuses on attacking men.
The source | Claire Fox
However, the use of the "female fist" rhetoric to denigrate women's rights is also somewhat sinister.
If women themselves accept this statement.
What will be brought about will be the self-severance of the female group, and even the division and disintegration.
Because, such a broad definition, almost any feminist idea can be crammed into it.
How can we be sure that after cutting the table with the "female fist", we will not be included in it again?
As the feminist scholar De Beauvoir put it, unity may be more important than struggle in battle.
The source | Questionnaire (1973-1981)
Why oppose inciting antagonism?
For, in the midst of such meaningless oppositions, the meaning of the event itself is dissolved.
It even makes us forget that what we originally expected was "fairness and justice".
Without rationality, these news also lose their human side.
Source| Newsroom
We can't help but ask questions.
What is the audience in these times of poverty?
If you insist on speaking out for injustice, you may add to the rumors.
But if everyone waits and sees, will it lead to the absence of justice?
In Piao's view, what kind of attitude to choose does not seem to be the key.
Most importantly, we should look at contradictions with the most objective and fair vision possible.
In the book "The Truth" by Kovac and Rosenstier, the principles for judging the authenticity of news are summarized.
Source| The Truth: How to Know What to Believe in the Age of Information Overload
The core is nothing more than -
Listen to the testimony of all parties and spend more time considering.
We must always have a critical eye.
In the midst of chaos, he has the ability to think independently and analyze dialectically.
Justice does not mean black and white.
Even in the law, there is no absolute justice.
Therefore, do not make a decision too quickly.
Less conclusiveness, perhaps less punches in the face and reversals.