I'm sure you know of a guy who thinks he knows the story behind everything. He says he knows why things work the way they are, that he has some secret insight you wouldn't otherwise have if you weren't talking to him. He says he has an understanding that would never occur to you because, well, I guess he just has a way of connecting the dots that you don't. He may say he's read a lot more things than you, but you're not really sure about it. You get the idea.
Sure, that's really all of us right about now, or at least those of us who are foolish enough to continue commenting about politics. (In writing that first paragraph, I definitely realized I am describing myself, and a little unkindly at that.) Considering that we've been mostly stuck at home and lacking any immersive distractions for over four months now, we can't help but connect the dots and release our frustrations somehow. To those that see things our way, we're someone who understands the real issues. To those that don't, we're stupid pricks who do nothing but be annoying and complain. And really, that's how we see that one relative who, as we most likely have put it, shoves his misinformed political opinions down our throats.
The difference is, we're not in power. That uncle of yours can only spout his conspiracy-laden dribble on his social media accounts, but he's not in a position to do much more about it.
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First off, this essay is filler.
There is something else I've been meaning to write - the sort that already has a mental outline - but I haven't mustered the energy to write the whole thing down. I just tell myself that it's evergreen anyway, and besides, the State of the Nation Address is happening next week, and that feels like a more appropriate time to write it.
Also, I have been busier at work for the past couple of months, now that things are a little more certain (in its uncertainty, you get the idea) and we realize we have to still earn money somehow. There goes my time spent looking out windows and composing essays nobody reads.
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In the end, we're all just looking for people who are on our side. I could be nice and say we're all just looking for people who we share common interests and beliefs with, but this is really what it all boils down to. It's why we're busy unfriending people of different political persuasions on social media. It's why we latch on to whatever social and political movement is gaining ground. It's why we're watching politicians try to school journalists on what constitutes bias, when all they really want is a media outfit that would not question them.
Speaking of media outfits, that need to find people who are on our side has informed which of them we follow. Now, my caveat, of course, is that what follows is merely observational and woefully extrapolated, and not backed by any scientific study. Anyway, I did notice that while we will follow the bigger outfits out of obligation, we are more likely to interact with those who we perceive to be on our side - meaning, they're covering the stories we think should be covered, preferably those the so-called establishment are deliberately overlooking (supposedly) because they have interests (supposedly).
Take the United States and the prominence of news networks that wear their political leanings on their sleeves.
MSNBC if you're to the left.
Fox News if you're to the right. While they'll say - and this is definitely said a lot about the latter - that the opinion programming is separate from the news programming, if you choose to spend time with one or the other it's because you believe they've got your back. They're covering the stories you think is most important, perhaps the ones being overlooked by other people - the other side, shall we say - because they believe things differently, and that's not compatible with how you see things. Never the twain shall meet.
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I've learned that there's a better chance of you seeing the stars when you're outside Shalla's home than when you're outside mine. I realized this when I was holding her nephew -
the two-year-old boy - outside, and he kept on looking up.
"Alam mo ba," I said, knowing very well that he will not understand a single word I'm saying, "'yang mga stars na 'yan, hindi 'yan 'yung hitsura nila ngayon?"
I must have been remembering something I saw from Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, the remake with Neil deGrasse Tyson. It was the bit about how the light from the stars take a long time to reach earth, thus the concept of light-years: the light of a star seven light-years away would take, well, seven years to reach us, by which time the star may have grown, or changed, or exploded. Maybe I am making it up, but I can hear Neil talk about how looking at the night sky is like travelling through time, because what you're seeing is the universe from back then, thanks to the vagaries of space and time.
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