Cool It With Virtue Signalling
The uber-popular South Korean series Squid Game on Netflix got free publicity earlier this week when a spokesman for Thai police spoke out against it.
Police deputy spokesman Pol Col Kritsana Pattanacharoen is concerned that Thai youth may copy what they see in the series, which according to him, contains (light spoiler alert) physical assaults, murders and dissecting dead bodies as drowned-in-debt participants compete in the deadly games to win a cash prize of 1.2 billion baht. He fears that Thai children may emulate violent acts from the series or “imagine” that they are in the same situation as the series, which may lead them to commit crimes in the real world. He also urged Thai parents to be mindful of what their children watch online.
His message has been met with overwhelmingly negative responses from the Thai public for several reasons. Allow me to summarise what they think and present my own two satangs along the way.
While his message is well-intended, many find that it isn’t his organisation’s place to take a moral high ground on this. The reputation of Thai police of late (or from time immemorial) hasn’t been pristine as their members — of high and low ranks — have committed violent acts themselves. You know, putting a garbage bag over someone’s head and shooting rubber bullets directly at people, that sort of stuff. Unless you just came back from a three-month viphasana meditation camp, you know what I’m referring to.
Simply put, people think it’s rich that Thai police don’t want children to emulate bad examples from the series when they haven’t been role models themselves. By coming out against violent acts in fictional series, Thai police only highlight real-life violence and all kinds of unbecoming behaviour that their members have committed. Lack of self-awareness much?
Second, if Squid Game is considered questionable, then many Thai soaps and kid tales should be slapped with 18+ labels, too. A leading man forces himself onto (I’m trying to avoid the R-word here) a leading lady and faces no consequence. Two women viciously fight over one man. In Nang Sib Song tale, 12 sisters who are married to the same king are left in a cave after having their eyeballs taken out upon a request of an evil concubine with whom he is infatuated. Eleven of them deliver dead babies and they resort to filial cannibalism to survive. I developed PTSD after reading the synopsis! And don’t even get me started on violence and misogyny in Khun Chang Khun Phaen.
If the police are concerned about children watching the series, I think it’s a valid point but there’s already some threshold to prevent that. You have to pay for a Netflix subscription to watch Squid Game so it’s less likely that a kid would watch it. Netflix also allows you to create a profile with a specific maturity rating through their parental control features so parents can prevent their child(ren) from accessing content that is too mature for them.
Perhaps, this is the case of the well-intended message coming out of the wrong mouth. Or the case of virtue signalling while riding on the series’ coattails to get free press (but backfires).
One thing for certain is that if you don’t want people to watch something, just don’t say anything about it. Or else, you may end up giving it free publicity and giving yourself bad publicity.