Tag: intellectual bankruptcy

Should Filipino thought leaders communicate in ‘maka-masa’ style or in proper English?

July 9, 2018 benign0 30 Comments

What is the goal of the Philippines’ elite communicators and thought leaders? We are told many times by the Philippines’ so-called “social media experts” that there is a huge responsibility on our shoulders to produce and publish high-quality content that could help uplift the Philipines’ public discourse. The quality of this discourse is important because…

Culture, Education, Media

Love it or hate it: Duterte’s attack vs the Catholic Church is leading Filipinos down a DIFFERENT path

June 28, 2018 benign0 14 Comments

Scientific inquiry is advancing at an accelerated pace. Belief systems tend to be on a retreat in societies that are increasing in affluence. The latter way of life (living off beliefs) has been decisively beaten in much of the First World. But it remains entrenched in the Third World. The earlier (living off sound evidence-…

Politics, Religion, Society

FACT CHECK: Is God stupid?

June 26, 2018 benign0 44 Comments

No he isn’t. Any garden variety theoretical physicist and mathematician will know that he isn’t, because there is a vast coherence in the universe that can be described consistently by science and mathematics. Every field of science is expected to reduce to this unified framework and scientists are working towards zeroing in on its elegant…

Religion, Science

Winning an election is a skill the Philippine Opposition needs to learn again

June 22, 2018 benign0 9 Comments

The Philippine Opposition led by the Liberal Party (a.k.a. the Yellowtards) is directionless and spreading itself thin. It is raising a stink around one outrage fad after the other and not focusing on the single biggest factor to success in Philippine politics — winning an election. If one looks across much of recent history, one…

Politics

What happened to good old-fashioned conversation amongst the Philippines’ politically-passionate?

May 28, 2018May 28, 2018 benign0 3 Comments

Columnist Oscar Franklin Tan’s piece How Sen. Tito Sotto became my textmate published today on the Inquirer was a refreshing read. In it, Tan narrates how he went from being an avowed Sotto basher to someone who could respect a man who would go on to be his Senate President. Tan’s new-found respect is not…

Civics, Society

In order to unite and win, the Philippine Opposition need to MOVE ON

May 14, 2018May 14, 2018 benign0 7 Comments

It is easy to see the superficial problem with the Philippine Opposition — its inability to unite. Such an ability is important today, because they are up against a popular incumbent. But it is also easy to see how the problem with the Opposition is deeper than an inability to unite by simply asking another…

Politics

Why the idiotic “Laban” slogan still dominates Philippine Opposition rhetoric

May 8, 2018 benign0 4 Comments

Calling for a laban or “fight” is easy. You can see how easy it is by observing any schoolyard brawl. “Bakla ka raw sabi ni Totoy. Payag ka?” “Kalabitin mo sa titi”. “Siga ka ba? Di ka naman papalag.” Filipinos then grow up, leave the schoolyard, then go on to apply the same childish mentality…

Politics, Society

What way if not the Duterte Way?

April 24, 2018 benign0 4 Comments

Despite volumes of work on the subject of the increasingly-evident vacuousness of today’s Opposition, there seems to be little change in the substance underlying their “movement”. The best they have so far come up with is the rather quaint “Join the Resistance” call-to-action which they bandy around using the hashtag #JoinTheResistance. Dubbed an “online movement”,…

Politics