Rhona Canoy  SO... Still disclaiming: All thoughts, ideas, words are mine mine mine. And I stand by them. Well now. I’ve chewed on names and titles, so I’m going to move on to opinions and sensitivity levels. Or should I say sanity levels? Because Pinoys are very opinionated. I didn’t say well-informed. I said opinionated. And we will defend those opinions to the point of psychosis. Refer to Lecture 1, please. Remember that we were oppressed and brainwashed for roughly 404 years. According to the late great Emilio Corrales, 350 years in the convent and 50 years of Hollywood. He forgot four years of mandatory incomprehensible service to samurai. Four hundred and four years. Certainly more than enough time to twist anyone’s mind. Four hundred and four years of not being respected, nor treated as sentient beings, nor heard. That’s a lot of frustrated “shut the eff up.” I’m not saying we didn’t have opinions for that long. Surely we did. Proven by attempts at rebellion against whoever was in control, attempts to declare independence. We just couldn’t get anyone to listen. On a side note, I think Hollywood finally granted us political freedom once we knew enough English to watch their movies without the help of subtitles. I don’t know that we were ready for it. Wasn’t it President Manuel L. Quezon who said something like, “I’d rather have a government run like hell by Filipinos, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera....”? He certainly was prescient, that one, because that’s all we’ve ever gotten so far. Back on track. After 404 years, the muzzle was removed and every single Filipino was free to express an opinion about anything and everything. No matter what the history books may say about our independence (which we celebrate on June 12 to honor the original date of ratification in 1898), we were not recognized as independent until July 4, 1946. So now we have a country that has awoken from a Rip van Winkle sleep, politically immature and still learning to be left alone to its own devices. I can imagine how we must have reacted after centuries of silence. The emotional impact of being able to speak out must have been overwhelming. And here is where it becomes blurry. There was no way we were going to shut up. Ever again. About anything and anyone. This is the one freedom we fiercely defend to this day. More fiercely than we would physically defend our territory as evidenced by Scarborough. Although I must admit, we are fearsome on social media. So now we are a people of opinion-makers who are intensely emotionally invested in our opinions. We are not yet open-minded enough to contemplate the bigger picture, yet we will grandly opine on the little portion that we see. Kind of like the blind men and the elephant. If you’re not familiar with this fable, Google it. Social media certainly hasn’t seen us at our best but it has certainly seen us at our worst. We have taken it over with ease because it’s wonderful, it’s paradise! We can say anything we want without the burden of proof. We can be cruel, illogical, grandiose, offensive, reactive, incendiary because... what you gonna do? Crawl through the Internet out of my screen and punch me in the face? I don’t think so. I can hide behind fake identities, be unreachable, unfriend you, block you, delete your virtual ass from my virtual world. And I will spew out vile words (mostly ad hominems and non sequiturs) if you have a negative opinion of my opinion. We have yet to reach a level of maturity where we can respect another’s opinion even if we don’t agree with it. And even be willing to dwell on another’s dissenting opinion rather than just outright rejecting it because it differs from ours. And not see it as disrespect. We are as protective of our opinions as we are of our freedom to express them. There still is much for us to learn. I figure another 404 years ought to do it, if we’re willing to work at moving forward. So there is hope. And if you don’t like what I’ve written, you can eat my shoe. Because you’re ugly. And I don’t like you.