The Battle for Social Media
All this talk about fake news has turned into one gigantic farce.
Bloggers, pundits, stakeholders and wannabe commentators from both sides of the political divide have once again cheapened the discourse and turned social media into an all-too-familiar battleground, where lines are drawn and logic is thrown out of the window in the name of rabid adherence and blind loyalty to partisan leanings. It’s the classic battle between Dutertards and Yellowshits. With each side accusing the other of peddling fake news and using the media spotlight to piss on each other’s throats while gloating on each other’s stupidity.
But then again at the end of the day, what’s new? The only thing we can surely gather out of this whole mess is the convenient distraction we have all allowed ourselves to become accomplices to. Nobody’s talking about corruption, nobody’s talking about electoral fraud, all of a sudden you see Congress dismissing the impeachment complaint against Andres Bautista and nobody seems inclined to give two shits about it. Seeing the likes of Bam Aquino, Trillanes, Pangilinan and Hontiveros making complete fools out of themselves seem to be giving us the illusion that we are winning. Yet in reality, who’s smirking silently in the background? Who are the real winners in this deliberately engineered clusterfuck of a charade?
It is no longer a mystery who controls mainstream media. It is likewise no secret whose interests they are trying to protect and whose agenda they are trying to market. Since TradMed has become a virtual monopoly of the oligarchy to constantly dupe the public into ignorance and submission, a lot of us have taken into other platforms to vent our collective disgust against such a travesty. Soon enough, we found our voice and empowerment in social media and invaded the territory. We planted our flag firmly and reclaimed the discourse. But it wouldn’t be for long. Pretty soon, social media would once again fall into the complete control of the same interests we despised. That is, if we do not realize what’s happening now and we keep dancing to their tunes.
The same disease that has afflicted Traditional Media for so long is now threatening to contaminate SocMed. Since people are more engaged and active on social media nowadays, politicians and PR operators are now investing on social media pages to steer the discourse to whatever direction they prefer. Envelopmental journalism may have plagued Mainstream Media and turned it into the sham that it is now, but the same thing is happening in Social Media. AC/DC (Attack and Collect, Defend and Collect) journalists have conveniently transformed and reinvented themselves into becoming AC/DC bloggers. The only difference is that in social media, they have learned to become more subtle. Whereas TradMed players seem to be shamelessly parading their biases and partisan leanings for everyone to see, the new players in SocMed have become more subdued and perceptive. Hindi halata. Hindi garapal. Kagaya ng TradMed. But these people are successfully steering the discourse. And now we find ourselves jumping the bandwagon and talking incessantly about “hot” issues while veering away from the more important subjects that are more deserving of our undivided attention and outrage.
Why are we investing too much time talking about Cocoy Dayao? It’s a good thing his name is exposed but Dayao is just a stooge. In the natural order of things, he’s nothing but a convenient scapegoat. A patsy being used by people with greater influence who work surreptitiously in the shadows making pawns of the clueless populace in one giant, invisible chess board. Now who could be pulling his strings? Is the answer to that NOT obvious? Hindi pa ba malinaw kung sino ang nasa likod at nagpapatakbo sa mga taong kagaya ni Cocoy?
The attempt of the LP senators to turn the tables against the pro-administration bloggers in the recent Senate hearings on Fake News has revealed that much. We even heard Bam Aquino practically calling for a truce or a ceasefire just because their patsy was exposed. So the question is? Why waste our time on something we already know the answer to? We all know that these pages are being used to destabilize the government, we all know that they are being funded and somebody is behind them, hell it is not even a mystery who could be running these pages from the background. Why in God’s name must we belabor the obvious?
If we expose a hundred Cocoy Dayaos what difference would it make, seriously? We’re not saying he shouldn’t be made accountable, all we’re saying is that we should be balancing the discourse instead of focusing singularly on this issue, which, if you come to think of it, is not really a big issue at all. Alam mo nang nagdedestabilize at kung sino ang nagdedestabilize at ano ang interes kung bakit nagdedestabilize bakit kelangan pag aksayahan pa ng panahon ito?
Many times we have been harping about distractions and diversions (see our previous articles Enough, Selectivity and even Deception 2) and now we still find ourselves willingly dancing to their music? Why are the Senators and Congressmen eerily silent about the Andres Bautista and COMELEC-Smartmatic issue and even NagaLeaks yet no time is wasted talking about fake fucking news?
Is it not obvious na mas gusto ng mga senador at mambabatas na pag-usapan natin at pag-aksayahan ng oras ang fake news at mga kagaya ni Dayao kesa maungkat ang pagkakasangkot nila sa dayaan noong nakaraang halalan? Hindi ba ito ang dahilan kung bakit ibinasura nila ang impeachment complaint laban kay Andy Bautista at tila binabaon sa limot ang isyu gamit ang kung anu-anong distraction kagaya na lamang nito ni Ginoong Dayao? Hindi ba sadyang inililihis ang atensyon ng publiko sa mga bagay-bagay na alam na natin ang ugat at kahihinatnan? Hindi ba pabor sa mga kagaya ni Leni Robredo na si Dayao ang pagtuunan ng pansin kesa ang kaduda-dudang pagkapanalo nya noong nakaraang eleksyon sa tulong ni Andy Bautista at sa pagmamaniobra ng COMELEC-Smartmatic Syndicate?
What is the objective of exposing who could be behind these pages? Is it not to expose who is behind the destabilization plots against the government (something we already know the answer to)? If we want these destabilization plots to stop why not focus on the real culprits and beneficiaries of these destabilization plots? If Duterte is ousted, then Leni Robredo takes his place. And everybody who worked silently in the sidelines to make sure that happens will surely be rewarded in the time After Duterte (A.D.).
These senators may look stupid and we can all gloat in that fact yet they are the ones winning the battle and we are all taken for a ride. They are dictating the discourse and just like Cocoy Dayao we are all allowing ourselves to be used as patsies in a game we do not even comprehend. We think it’s about proving ourselves better and intellectually superior in Senate hearing banters and debate? Well guess what? When everything is conveniently swept under the rug and all their sins are forgotten in the name of Cocoy Dayao and fake fucking news, sino ang matalino? At sino ang naging tanga?
