COMMENTARY
'Nua Mek 2' stirs up a storm (of hypocrisy)
- Published: 12 Jan 2013 at 00.00
- Newspaper section: News
I disapprove, you know, of what you say but, like, I will defend to the death, baby, your right to say it, like totally, okie dokie?
Awesome. But what? Voltaire didn't say that? Panthongtae Shinawatra thought he did (and so did I in my autodidactic years) and proudly posted it on his Facebook until, Kleenex at the ready, the professional nitpicker from the Democrats - who's totally, like, the champion of free speech - Sirichoke Sopha, triumphantly reminded dear young Oak that, voila!, Voltaire didn't say it (what Voltaire actually said would skin the Democrats too, but we'll get to Candide and Pangloss later on).
Facebook philosophers of all stripes, anyhow, seem to suddenly become freedom-of-expression campaigners after the fiasco about the series Nua Mek 2 - a cross between Star Wars and The Exorcist - being pulled off the air on Channel 3 eight nights ago. National hysteria. Conspiratorial guesswork. The love of freedom spreads like ebola courtesy of two factors: first, the chance to maul the Yingluck government as being dictatorial, and second, prime-time series is a national institution worshipped through our tube-shrines on a nightly basis. Secret grief is more cruel than public calamities - now that's Voltaire but, excusez moi, he's dead wrong when it comes to Thai TV.
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