MANILA
The Pope has spoken. Fake news is “satanic.”
Fake news has taken the world by storm. It’s the rage among world leaders who crave to be tyrants. Fake news and blatant lying have become destructive weapons of cowardly leaders. They abuse their power by intimidating their own people through abominable language and macho posturing.
Why do I say “cowardly”? Because those who are demeaned by crude remarks and open threats can’t fight back. They can curse back under their breath, but not openly against the powerful who curse and intimidate. All they could do is take it all in silence, no matter how they resent the intimidation or vulgar threats.
That’s the dilemma of the media, for example. How do media that are subjected to grave threats and kanto-boy rhetoric react? They’re put in a tight spot by not knowing how to retaliate. They’re put in an embarrassing, even humiliating, position when someone in authority talks rough at them. How do they take that abuse?
Where does it come from anyway, this new rage among leaders to use nasty, intimidating, and untruthful language?
It’s the new way of subduing people who express or espouse dissent against what they perceive as abuse of power or unacceptable policies. It’s the new way of making people cower in fear and retreat into silence as their leaders do as they please. It’s the new wave of leadership that thrives on a paradigm of might is right. Or say anything even if it’s not true as long as it suits their purpose.
They do it with impunity. Damn the torpes, full spiel ahead. They turn their people into meek sheep and revel in their success at being intimidators. They prefer their people to be torpe (“timid” in Spanish) instead of being active participants in public discourse.
The consequence of this new type of governing through fear is a lack of a robust exchange among the people in the so-called marketplace of ideas. People are afraid to speak out. People are afraid to speak, period. In short, democracy itself is being gagged into a state of silent assent.
And that’s exactly how they like it, this new breed of leaders. No talking in class, damn it! The more silent the people, the better.
That’s the situation right now in a growing number of countries. Might is right. Fake news is what they say is the news. Lying through their teeth is their unpunished vogue. They say it with a straight face. In the current double-speak, we won’t know real news if there’s no fake news.
It won’t matter to these people that the very leader of the Roman Catholic Church has called out people who lie and spread fake news. This is the same Pope who got cursed by causing traffic jams where he goes. He could take a “holier than thou” posture but these guys don’t give a hoot.
But when it takes the leader of the largest religion in the world to take notice — that fake news is deceitful, dangerous, and the devil’s deed — then people should listen.
The current crop of leaders who curse, intimidate and bully their own people have discovered new weapons to put down opposition and dissent. They use muscle and misinformation. Whatever happened to the power of gentle persuasion? Instead they use the persuasion of brute power.
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