Sore losers
It appears that Weibo's nationalist shitheads don't take kindly to China's Olympic athletes unpatriotically losing out on gold. From behind their keyboards and keypads, they fulminate and humiliate their fellow countrymen and ‑women for failing at something that they could never achieve themselves. And the athletes, like dumfux, accept it.
China's mixed doubles table tennis team made a tearful apology at the Tokyo Olympics last week - for winning a silver medal. "I feel like I've failed the team... I'm sorry everyone," Liu Shiwen said, bowing in apology, tears welling in her eyes. Her partner, Xu Xin, added: "The whole country was looking forward to this final. I think the entire Chinese team cannot accept this result."
What does he mean, the team cannot accept the result? They don't have any choice. The fact that the pair lost to Japan makes the pill that much more bitter for the Chinese, and that much more delicious to those of us (me) who rejoice in their displeasure. The Weibo warriors were none too happy, claiming that the pair had failed the nation
, or that the referee was biased towards Japan. Deep, deep joy.
"The so-called 'little pinks', or youngsters with strong nationalist feelings, have a disproportionate voice online," said Dr Jonathan Hassid, a political science expert at Iowa State University. [snip] Dr Schneider and other experts noted however, that these angry reactionary nationalists most likely do not represent the Chinese majority. Dr Hassid said: "If the only voices consistently allowed are the loudest nationalists, we should not be surprised that their voices can dominate online discussion far out of proportion to their actual numbers."
Oh, that sounds uncannily like the baying hounds on Twitter. Opinionated tossers with a disproportionately loud voice echoed through social media. How rare! (rolleyes)
BBC News acknowledges Waiyee Yip for reporting. But, since her name wasn't given at the head of the article, I've attributed the direct quotes to our trusty old friend, the droid.
As an aside, I'm finding that more of the BBC News items that I read currently are actually attributed to a named reporter or correspondent, rather than ol' droidy. And it's interesting to see how many subject reporters the BBC has on staff.