This news from Channel News Asia triggered my post for today...
The Star Wars has stormtroopers and Malaysia (only Malaysia) has cybertroopers. In actual fact, the term stormtrooper was used since World War I:
Image Source
But I guess a lot of us are more familiar with the Star Wars version of Stormtrooper.
When I searched the definition of Cybertrooper in Dictionary.com, no result was shown:
Google, on the other hand, showed the following results:
Looks like the term cybertrooper is associated to Malaysian context only...
Now, back to the news "Malaysian politicians gear up for online battle ahead of GE14", like most Malaysians, I am hopeful for a fair and clean election. With so many "news" getting viral via the social media channels and Whatsapp, it is very worrying that the naive Malaysians may get the inaccurate "information", which will impact their votes.
What do you think about these cybertroopers? Personally, I am strongly against them, regardless of which side they are working for. The main reason is, they are paid to provoke emotional sentiments online and they 'attack' with vulgar words - well, I guess that's what is needed to trigger a person emotionally, right? On the other side of the coin, these cybertroopers are professionals trying to earn extra money. So, should we say that they are just following orders, just doing their job? Thus, maybe just like the brainwashed stormtroopers?
Comparing the two, I would give more respect or hope to the stormtroopers. They were brainwashed, had no choice after being fed with propaganda to be efficient killers. As for the cybertroopers, they made the choice to do what they do... I can't seem to understand why would someone stoop so low and use those vulgar words publicly... Whether it is posted with a fake or anonymous account, you still know who you are, right? At the end of the day, it is still you who posted those comments...
So, fellow Malaysians, please do verify any forwarded news / messages that you receive. Don't get provoked unnecessarily... Validate the person who posted the information and visit more neutral websites to get better picture. We don't need to get trolled and spend your precious energy by replying to / entertaining them.
What say you? Cybertrooper = Stormtrooper?