On Wednesday last week, a regrettable incident happened on the Taichung MRT Green Line, causing one death. The woman who died was Providence University Department of Law instructor Lin Shu-ya (林淑雅), who had devoted herself to social movements, including the campaign to abolish the death penalty.
Her grieving mother said that she wished she could have died instead of her daughter, making headlines in some media in the run-up to Mother’s Day on Sunday.
However, because Lin had supported the abolition of the death penalty, her mother’s statement, with its implication of “a life for a life,” was over-emphasized, with some opponents of abolishing the death penalty making a big deal of it on social media.
Some news Web sites had a lot of comments along these lines, as if Lin were a villain who had caused the deaths of many others, rather than a campaigner devoted to human rights protections.
The television drama series Copycat Killer (模仿犯) has introduced many Taiwanese unfamiliar with mystery novels to the name Miyuki Miyabe — the author of the novel on which the series is based.
My favorite books by Miyabe are the Saburo Sugimura series, later made into a Japanese TV drama with Kotaro Koizumi playing the role of Sugimura, the main character.
The second novel in the series, Nameless Poison, refers to a poison that is hard to identify. This kind of poison comes from people, and some are more toxic than others.
In the novels, Sugimura believes that humans used to be afraid of wild beasts, but after trapping wild beasts and naming them, humans changed their formless fear into a visible one that was easier to cope with.
However, poison that comes from people remains nameless, which makes it harder to handle.
Those who oppose the abolition of the death penalty and posted comments mocking Lin brought to mind this nameless poison. Is it a collective malice?
What is it that can suddenly turn ordinary white-collar workers, neighbors and loving parents into vicious, illogical, poisonous snakes that bite anything that moves?
Some people believe it is online anonymity, while others say it is social polarization. Either way, they are only partly right.
The poison that Miyabe wrote about existed long before the Internet and online groups. It lies hidden in the human heart, always looking for a chance to spew out.
When you join a group on social media or a messaging platform, it is hard to avoid coming across a few of these toxic people.
The only way to avoid getting poisoned is to block them on the platform or avoid them. Considering their toxicity, avoid engaging with them. Any attempt at rational communication would only provoke them. There are better things to do.
We must remember that we are all toxic, and we should try to leave the poison in our hearts and not pour it out on social media.
Unfortunately, there are some people out there who cannot resist trying to poison others. Keep clear of such people.
Chang Yueh-han holds a doctorate in journalism and communications from Shih Hsin University.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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