The good, the bad, the petty: Chiz and the Sara impeachment #SocialMediaDiscourse
Katrina S.S.
I do not doubt that there is a whole lot of reasons to continue discussing the impeachment of VP Sara Duterte, specifically whether it is right or wrong that Senate President Chiz Escudero is doings things at his own pace, and whether that puts the whole impeachment at risk and / or risking the possibility of getting an acquittal for VP Sara. I tend to think that SP Escudero is far smarter than all of this. He’s not new to this circus, and certainly has engaged long enough with politics in this country to know not to put even his own political career at risk by a failure to thoughtfully and carefully flesh things out, anticipate outcomes, adjust as things unfold.
And if your biases against Escudero don’t cloud your judgment, he actually made a lot of sense at that February 20 press con, talking about how the Senate, in fact, is taking the necessary steps it can take at this point in time, owing to the fact that the Senate is not in session, and many Senators are busy campaigning either for another term in office, or for other elective positions. He is firm in the refusal to rush the proceedings, or to call a session, and denies either side of the political spectrum to pressure him into doing or saying anything: “I will not dignify nor listen to partisan legal opinions or positions for or against the impeachment of VP Sara.”
At this point in our political discourse, that pretty much gives Escudero the license to ignore everyone. For good or bad, partisanship is the rule these days, not the exception.
And this surfaces in the most simple of ways. Say, the superficiality of discourse that will, by default, mention what Escudero looks like as opposed to what it is he is saying. The worst part is that this kind of pettiness exists across the vlogging spectrum—from the Duterte supporters, to the ones who insist they are better “than those vloggers”. All of them, across the board, frame their conversations about Escudero’s (in)actions relative to what he looks like—Heydarian constantly cracks jokes about microblading, Llamas insists the white shirt is about Escudero wanting to “show off” his “boobs”, Esguerra asks: naka-white shirt ba? in reference to Escudero. Meanwhile, Duterte supporters are calling out Escudero for wearing that shirt, too, insisting that it is disrespectful of his position, as is his earring. On Facebook and YouTube, a superficial search on Escudero will surface content that tags him in relation to his eyebrows.
It is undeniable that this is the state of political discourse in this country, one that remains as counterpoint to mainstream media, where there remains a sense of what good interviews are about, and what political analysis still is. That is: not petty or superficial, not at all about what people look like.
Oh but liberal macho punditry knows no bounds, and revelling in the freedom of social media platforms, they can use the same kinds of tools the vloggers on the Duterte side use. Say, using a tone of arrogance in speaking to our government officials, always certain about what should be done, and almost ordering politicians around: this is what you should do. And any politician who decides otherwise was just scared, or “dinaga”. Because how else to explain that their punditry was ignored?
But given the tone and tenor of this kind of political analysis, I can imagine politicians not just ignoring what is being said across the spectrum of liberal-Duterte vloggers; I can imagine them deliberately and pointedly refusing to do what is being said by these critics and vloggers and pundits and analysts.
In a February 21 episode of Facts First, after framing the discussion of Escudero’s press conference on the impeachment trial in what he was wearing, Esguerra labelled it as “konting katuwaan lang.”
This is what they need to get. When the liberal “katuwaan” is exactly the same as the “katuwaan” that’s done by the Duterte side, then that makes for dominant social media discourse. It doesn’t matter if it’s a fraction of what you do, neither does it matter if you do it to everyone—you do it at scale, all the time, every time, the small things become normalized. We should all know this by now after six years under Duterte.
Is a sense of humor unwelcome? No, but real political humor is a skill set, and not one that these guys have. This is not humor, it’s empty laughter. It’s laughter that sacrifices what is intelligent and critical, for what is small and petty. And while we expect this from the Duterte side who are grasping at straws, and will really stoop so low as to talk about what people look like as opposed to what it is people say, the rest of us on the purportedly “better” “more critical” side, should know better.
“Meron pa ‘kong standing invitation kay Senator Chiz,” Esguerra said, after Llamas framed the conversation on the Senate President’s white t-shirt.
May the Senate President know better than to ever say yes to that interview. He doesn’t need it. ***