FAKING, THE NEW ‘F’ WORD
TFirst part of a ‘fake’ series
HE most abused term in the age of the internet and the reign of social media is the word “fake.” People seem to have acquired the Trumpian excuse that anything that runs counter to one’s own core belief, whether right or wrong, factual or not, is fake news. It has become the lazy generalization of anyone who would like to escape from a state of cognitive dissonance. Confronted with new evidence that clashes with one’s personal belief, the visceral reaction is no longer confusion, but to deny the legitimacy of that contrary claim by labeling it as fake news. It has become the new “F” word.
Politics is one of the domains by which people adhere, almost blindly and with the passion of a zealot, to a set of core beliefs. In a personalist political culture such as ours, this revolves around political personalities, and not ideologies. Political leaders are elevated to almost god-like status. This is where the loyal supporters have placed
President Rodrigo Duterte who has taken on the semblance of an infallible demigod. Anyone who dares criticize him is targeted to be taken down, while any criticism of him is now labeled as fake news. It is no accident that these loyalists proudly label themselves as diehard Duterte supporters, or DDS. If there is any doubt as to their dogged loyalty, proudly describing themselves “diehard” practically removes all doubt. These are the people who, when confronted with criticism, or when the President himself acts in ways that undermine their convenient narratives, would deny, rationalize and turn livid at the critics or those who call out the President’s actions.
These are the people who would conveniently label as fake news anything that is uttered against the President, even if these are not necessarily news. They have abused, misappropriated and corrupted the word “fake” to a point that the word itself has been alienated from its authentic meaning, and therefore has become fake. They have virtually faked the real meaning of fake.
They love to label all criticism as fake news. But in order for this to have a logical meaning, the subject material must be one that pretends to be news when in fact Contreras A7