Anti-M.I.A. Sp@m Games E! Online

Anti-M.I.A. sp@m has been hitting blogs and websites that write about M.I.A. as I realized this week from my posts about the Paper Planes single and the Pineapple Express soundtrack.

In the Pineapple Express post, the first commenter acts like she's turning people on to a new M.I.A.video mix:

Yeah, I love this song!I also want to check the movie, it seems pretty cool.

Found this video in a new version:

http://srilankantube.com/item/72YJRHBK94YN1B8C

It seems that she's got power($$)

Posted by: sharon | August 03, 2008 at 09:18 PM

Then another expresses concern:

That new version is worrying. I liked M.I.A before but now I'm not so sure. Is this true?

Posted by: Kim | August 05, 2008 at 05:11 AM

These comments and similar comments on the other post are followed by a rather traditional political attack on M.I.A. based on the belief that her father was a terrorist and/or a freedom fighter [that always seems to depend on which side you're on], that some of her lyrics and imagery appear to support such activities and that she has not distanced herself from terrorism in an acceptable manner.

You, dear reader, are going to have to make up your mind on that part.

Idolator points out that one of the fake messages of concern showed up in an E! Online blog post that's now circulating as a news piece so they've gamed the mass media with this one.  Guess that's why sp@mmers keep sp@mming!

But let's assume that these folks who are doing this sp@mming and who presumably are part of the forces that Sri Lankan rapper DeLon is mobilizing against M.I.A. are sincere in their struggle.

If that's the case, they've chosen to deceitfully introduce their concerns to the American public in a manner that suggests that, in their minds, the means justify the ends that they want, which I thought was part of the problem they were fighting against.

But let's not equate this rather transparent sp@m campaign with terrorist tactics.  That's too heavy handed even for me.

And let's not imagine that Delon has any similarity to American rappers who would typically use such promotional devices to further their own careers.

Let's set cynicism aside for a moment and just say, sp@m sucks.  I don't want it on my site cause I don't like liars.  This conversation is over.  Your issues are not going to be on my frontburner.

Bottom line: people are dying and suffering everywhere.  Bringing tired tactics to a new environment is just not going to work in the long run and, in the end, your own people will suffer for your deception.

Sounds overly dramatic?

People die everyday cause they can't get the attention of somebody who'll help them.  Only the delusional can't recognize that fact.

If you're serious about saving lives, don't be blasting out deception in the hope of catching attention cause then you're just another propaganda machine refusing to participate in the real conversations of the people you hope to reach.

Comments

[Sham]

i dont think many ppl care about delon's career- but if you lived in Sri Lanka and suffered the LTTE's brutality you would hate MIA as much as we do- it is not a stupid rumour but the truth that she is LTTE militant Arul pragasam's daughter-but it doesnt matter if she's born to a man like that if she chose a decent life-but imagery related to LTTE has appeared in her props and thats not funny. maybe u dont suffer so much at your southern california home, but she aids terrorists who kill our people and drag off kids to war, so she's no star to us sri lankans.

[Clyde Smith]

I haven't seen any evidence of the claims about M.I.A. and she's also made public statements about the matter.

Terrorism is a bad thing all around and it's unfortunate that your people's concerns have been overshadowed by a cynical attempt at gaining publicity.