when lies trump truth

“fact-free narratives” have “scrambled” our perceptions of reality…  more dots to connect, but which dots matter?

‘…postmodernism had its strengths and weaknesses. “Its crucial insight is that power in all its dark forms is what often determines what passes for truth in our culture and ignoring that makes you vulnerable to manipulation,” Lynch says.

‘But the big error, Lynch added, “is to infer from this that truth itself was determined by those in power. That collapses what passes for truth with truth itself, which is just a mistake, both politically and logically.”’

that’s from The post-truth prophets by Sean Illing.  a must read.

Inchoate displays of anger

AMELIA HC YLAGAN

“Inchoate” means imperfectly formed or formulated: formless, incoherent, the Merriam-Webster dictionary says, to which the Cambridge dictionary adds, “not completely developed or clear.” When Sanjoy Chakravorty, professor of global studies at Temple University, Pennsylvania, called the fever of street protests around the world in 2019 “inchoate displays of anger,” “inchoate” can only mean futile and desperate.

The Guardian, in its Oct. 25 issue, cites experts in academe on political science, speaking on the long-playing “protests in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Chile, Catalonia and Iraq as well as in Russia, Serbia, Ukraine and Albania… the UK (against Brexit), France (yellow vest movement), and Spain, in the restive region of Catalonia. The Middle East has convulsed with so much dissent that some are calling it a second wave of the Arab Spring. In South America, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela have experienced popular unrest.” The article asks, “Protests rage around the world — but what comes next?”

Read on…

sawsaw pa more sa barretto brouhaha (in defense of tsismis)

no, it’s not just us pinoys who are tsismoso, as pat-p daza suggested (or is it opined) on dzmm teleradyo.  gossiping is a universal human predilection, we are wired to gossip and to be receptive to gossip, not just for distraction or entertainment but as a matter of survival.

read  in defense of tsismis” [below], a 1996 column I wrote for jarius bondoc’s radical all-opinion tabloid where I quote evolutionary psychologist robin wright [The Moral Animal 1994] at the height of the gabby concepcion – jenny syquia scandal.  read too the new york times’ Go ahead. Gossip may be virtuous. [2002], the guardian’s  In defence of gossip: no better way to navigate life’s flawed relationships [2015], and psychology today’s  Addicted to gossip?” [2016]

medyo level-up pa nga itong barretto bruhaha compared to the usual showbiz scandals involving sex videos, love triangles, broken marriages, adulterous relationships, abusive or two-timing partners, lgbtq+ closets and out-of-closets atbp. because this one is, above all, about FAMILY, and the sisters’ slaphappy showdown at their father’s wake–everyone (burgis and masa alike) agrees–was inappropriately wild and uncivilized, and because (beyond the juicy tidbits and sideswipes) the fact and context of family looms large and touches us all.

the reaction that most resonates with me is that of pinoys who are also members of big families, like the barretto’s seven sibs: nag-aaway din naman kaming magkakapatid, pero never naming dinadaan o pinapaabot sa sampalan at sabunutan, sipaan at sapakan.  

true.  family conflicts can, and should, be settled amicably, but every one concerned has to be willing to rise above self-interest for the good of the whole.  it’s also good for the soul, and good for the karma.

In defense of tsismis
Isyu 23 January 96

Natabunan nga ba ng Jenny-Gabby scandal ang EVAT, jueteng, at iba pang isyu? Dapat nga bang lubay-lubayan ng media ang katsitsismis about the private hells of the rich and famous dahil wala naman itong katututuran except as escapist fare for the poor and obscure?  read on…

Traffic planners elsewhere prepare for a post-car world

Marlen V. Ronquillo

Bill de Blasio’s New York City welcome, after his doomed presidential bid, was a court decision that sustained the car ban carried out by his city’s Department of
Transportation (DOT) on Manhattan’s busy 14th Street. De Blasio was the prime proponent of the car ban on one of the busiest streets of New York City and, probably, the entire US. Under his and the DOT’s proposal, only buses, delivery trucks and ambulances would have access to that road.

Some well-heeled residents of Greenwich Village, Chelsea and Flatiron, and other neighboring communities sued the New York City government for its supposed “arbitrary and capricious action.” Cars banned from the 14th would just create “gridlocks” in other parts of Manhattan, the court case stated. The court, which probably based its decision on solid transport science, green lighted the car ban.

Read on….