The vitriolic attacks of several pro-administration social media personalities against a blogger not on their team is jaw-dropping in their meanness and cruelty.
Allan Troy “Sass” Sasot, Rey Joseph “RJ” Nieto, and Lorraine Badoy (currently an assistant secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development) took shots at the character and physical appearance of Jover Laurio, the writer behind Pinoy Ako Blog (PAB).
Badoy was particularly contemptuous, saying Jover’s “ugliness is extraordinary, the dirt in her pusod is extraordinary, and so is the libag in her kili-kili.”
Lawsuits for libel are said to be brewing on both sides, but what emerges from this entire incident is that petty insults like these are becoming more common in social media conversations, particularly on the pro-Duterte side.
Criticizing an opponent’s looks is the lowest blow of all and delivered when no logical or reasonable argument can be mustered.
This sort of name-calling should have been left behind in kindergarten. Badoy in particular, in the harshness of her words against Laurio’s looks, sounds like a child going “nya nya nya” because she can’t think of anything more compelling to say.
Why has an observable degree of the public discourse on the part of these and other social media personalities of the administration degenerated into crass ad hominem taunts tantamount to schoolyard bullying? And why has this type of interaction found acceptance among some Duterte supporters?
Pro-Duterte social media personalities have the avowed mission of expressing support for Duterte and counter criticism of him. However, with his words and actions reaping mounting censure and rebuke, his bloggers now have a tougher task—instead of merely having to sing his praises, they have to not only deflect negative commentary, but also suppress it. From journalism or opinion writing, they have had to shift to being propagandists.
Propaganda, as Eric Hoffer says in “The True Believer” (1951), is a “formidable instrument” for persuasion and coercion. “To its skillful use we attribute many of the startling successes of the mass movements of our time, and we have come to fear the word as much as the sword.”
As to the latter, some of the pro-Duterte bloggers brag about the thousands or millions of “followers” they have on social media, implying their use as a weapon to influence and sway public opinion.
Many of their followers are the frustrated and disaffected members of society, who already share the opinions of these bloggers, who amplify their fears and frustrations and seek scapegoats to blame. “The acrid secretion of the frustrated mind,” says Hoffer, “though composed chiefly of fear and ill will, acts yet as a marvelous slime to cement the embittered and disaffected into one compact whole. Suspicion too is an ingredient of this acrid slime, and it too can act as a unifying agent.”
Unkindness and petty meanness are generally regarded as deviant behavior. In sociology, deviance refers to “an action or behavior that violates social norms.” What we teach our children is to be kind to others; saying hurtful things is considered wrong and against the norm, i.e. not normal.
However, the collective behavior of these bloggers, perhaps motivated by stress and frustration in their desire to reach societal goals (look up Robert K. Merton’s strain theory) through non-institutional means (hence their use of social media), the institutional means perhaps not having worked for them, have caused a shift in what is now considered normal in discourse.
There is, however, a limit to what society will tolerate. When this is reached, a pushback could occur.
What all this brouhaha brings to mind is that for the hundreds of years of religious presence and education in this country, civilization and its emphasis on good conduct and morals remains a thin veneer. Savagery lurks under the surface of even the most highly educated and prominently placed in society, to burst forth without control.
There is no compassion to be found in some of the writings of these bloggers. As a value, it has diminished in favor of a shrill, histrionic adulation that props up a rotten façade.
But the Internet keeps receipts, and the cruel and inhumane are on the wrong side of history. Now is their time, today is their day – but it won’t last forever. And there are those who will not forget.
Someday, hopefully soon, compassion and kindness will return to the discourse, and the orderly and logical exchange of ideas will once more bloom.
Dr. Ortuoste is a California-based writer. FB: Jenny Ortuoste, Twitter: @jennyortuoste