One thing today’s Philippine Opposition need to seriously consider is that a cabal of woke “journalists” are among their top “thought leaders” and agents of public relations. This is a problematic situation for parties that aspire to seize power legally in 2022 because these parasitical members of their “cause” are not delivering results where they matter. They are focusing on all the wrong things. Well, actually they are focusing primarily on one thing: poverty. I mean, who wants to read about poverty, right? Such a boring topic. It just doesn’t sell papers and pull in eyeballs. If Opposition politicians really want the sorts of messaging on which they can piggyback their fat asses on, they should consider the work of real investigative journalists — the ones that don’t get invited to chit chat with journalism “professors” in chi chi campus forums at those Katipunan universities.
It’s really not rocket science. All one needs to do is pick up a copy of Abante Tonite, for example. Check out the banner stories on its front cover. Do you see anything there about the “plight” of the “poor”? Think about that and consider what market this product serves. There’s your answer right there. The poor don’t really care about poverty.
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What the poor do care about is how to escape poverty. Whining about their “plight” as many woke journalists do does not contribute to that escapism. It only reminds the poor how desperate their situation is. Big help that is, right? The stories represented in that Abante cover by no means offer solutions to poverty. That’s not a problem to poor Filipinos. In fact, they actually pay to read these “unhelpful” stories which says a lot more about Abante‘s value proposition to its audience than, say, Rappler and Bulatlat whose respective editors spend their days begging for suckers to fork out money in exchange for “premium” content or to “support” the cause of chi chi woke “journalism”.
The thing wokedom don’t understand is that the subsets of poor people that can be helped are the ones consisting of folk who, individually, are working on solutions to their personal financial challenges. These don’t care about the “pity” woke “journalists” presume to solicit on their behalf. They’re too busy solving their own personal poverty cases. Of course, not all efforts are successful and a great number of these hard-working poor will remain poor despite their efforts. But, see, ultimately successful or not, the hard working poor regard feeling sorry for themselves as a luxury they can ill-afford to indulge.
And then there are those poor people that just can’t be helped. They are the ones who will continue their habit of entering into commitments they are inherently-incapable of honouring. There’s quite a number of them but their style of palamunin thinking does not represent the attitudes of all poor people. The trouble with woke journalists is that they would like the “more fortunate” to regard the poor as charity cases who can only hope to continue living if the world magically turns into a nice and peachy sharing-and-caring one. In essence, they assume all poor people are of the palamunin sort who’s only aspiration in life is the next ayuda handout. The world, quite simply, does not work like that.
The fact is, woke “journalists” insult the poor with their patronising stories. They thrive on the “retweets” and “likes” from their amigas in the echo chambers they inhabit and use these as medals to hang on their breast pockets to signal their “compassion” for the poor. If anyone hadn’t noticed yet, that’s been the modus operandi of the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. Yet, despite the Catholic clergy one-upping woke journalists’ virtue signalling with their infamous “vow of poverty”, centuries of compassion-for-the-poor branding got the Church jack. Indeed, the two-decade decline of Big Corporate Journalism today practically mirrors the centuries-in-the-making decline of the Roman Catholic Church. That’s a lesson the “journalism” industry need to take to heart.
More importantly, the Philippine Opposition need to recognise the cancer growing in their midst. Like how the small band of really cluey personalities within the Philippine Opposition have recognised that the Church and Yellowtardism are liabilities in their campaign strategies that they need to ditch, it is high time that they cast a similar critical eye on the woke “journalism” infestation their “cause” suffers. Sooner than later, in fact. The 2022 elections are just around the corner. Old habits need to die now na. The clock is ticking.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
The Bible passage “the poor you will always have with you” has the sense that poor people will always be part of the landscape, so you don’t need to hurry to help them, you’ll always get the chance. This was during Jesus’ anointing by the woman, presumably Mary of Bethany. He was responding to people saying the money spent on the perfume used for anointment could have been used to feed the poor.
This passage could also demonstrate what I call moral blackmail or trying to make someone look bad by calling out a moral fault in them. But it can be hypocritical, especially if the one making the call-out doesn’t lift a finger to help the poor or dish out the kind of help they claim to give. It’s the same as what the “opposition” are doing now. That’s why the passage “don’t call out the speck in one’s eye if you have a plank in your own” exists.
So if one doesn’t hurry to help the poor, it’s OK.
Look up Mike Winger on Youtube as the source of my idea for this topic.
It’s gotten extreme with people now demanding that owners of businesses give out stuff for free (presumably forcing them to be “inspired” by all these “community pantries”). As you said, it’s emotional blackmail.
The poor among us are only remembered, during elections….after election, they are forgotten…