Human-flesh search engines — renrou sousuo yinqing — have become a
phenomenon in China: they are a form of online vigilante justice in
which
Internet users hunt down and punish people who have attracted their
wrath. The goal is to get the targets of a search fired from their
jobs, shamed in front of their neighbors, or run out of town.
In one well known case, when a video appeared in China of a woman
stomping a cat to death with the sharp point of her
high heel, the human flesh search engine tracked the kitten killer's
home to the town of Luobei and her name — Wang Jiao — was made public,
as were her phone
number and her employer. 'Wang Jiao was affected a lot,' says one
Luobei resident. 'She left town and went somewhere else.' The
kitten-killer case didn't just provide revenge; it helped turn the
human-flesh search engine into a national phenomenon. Searches have
also been directed against cheating spouses, corrupt officials,
pornography makers, Chinese citizens who are perceived as unpatriotic,
journalists who urge a moderate stance on Tibet and rich people who
try to game the Chinese system."
it has a lot to do with the perceived responsibility of the political elite.
What this means is that if you’re worried about the US fiscal
position, you should not be focused on this year’s deficit, let alone
the 0.07% of GDP in unemployment benefits Bunning tried to stop. You
should, instead, worry about when investors will lose confidence in a
country where one party insists both that raising taxes is anathema
and that trying to rein in Medicare spending means creating death
panels.
From too many years of covering politics, I have come to believe as
Axiom One that the absolute worst advice politicians ever receive
comes from journalists who fancy themselves great campaign
strategists.
