‘Send in the clowns’

Now that I have your attention by way of the song title, please be advised that today’s topic has nothing to do with tragic love or sad romance angles but the bitter truth that many of us have let clowns into our daily lives.

The not so funny and often not entertaining clowns in our lives are many of our local and national politicians, self-styled intellectuals and alleged subject matter experts, openly biased analysts and opinion writers, even a couple of “religious leaders.”

Most recently, many Filipinos have become captured audience for clowns who have given false narratives, undelivered claims and non-performance.

As I observed the comings and goings of “defective witnesses,” government investigations on hearsay and false claims versus the left or the right, not just at the impeachment trial but in grave accusations that have now become a dime a dozen, some people wonder why things have gotten out of hand.

It is good that there are still some people wondering how lying has been normalized alongside character assassination. But few would admit that all of us have failed in doing one of the most important responsibilities of being gatekeepers.

By setting aside or abdicating our individual responsibility to keep liars and false witnesses in check, we have allowed others to get away with the crime and thus normalized it. The sin of omission makes us indirectly guilty of commission.

There is a phrase that puts the failure squarely on our shoulders: don’t blame a clown for acting like a clown. Ask yourself why you keep going to the circus.

Going even further, AI elaborates that “when you entertain a clown you become part of the circus” means that engaging with foolish, toxic or dramatic behavior drags you down to that level and makes you a participant in the chaos.

In my younger days, elders would often remind us: ang puma-patol sa baliw ay mas baliw o baliw rin. However, today’s political and online “clowns” are not mentally handicapped or sick, they are healthy individuals with sick souls relishing how they lie and mislead the rest of us.

We don’t need to get personal by naming names or accusing others of lying to their face, but it is important to challenge a lie, demand evidence or proof or call out a falsehood or expose a hidden agenda as the brave but the few “gatekeepers” have been doing lately.

In such dark times when falsehood is relied upon even by those in government and positions of authority, it would be good to emphasize that “bearing false witness” is a sin against God and against man.

It is so serious it ranks as the ninth commandment, coming in before “not coveting your neighbor’s house or any of his properties.” It is probably the most ignored and the most violated of the 10 Commandments among “God fearing” Catholics and Christian Filipinos.

Even before the term “disinformation” became normalized, most Filipinos were already violating the ninth commandment by normalizing the practice of disinformation.

In the movie “Broken Arrow” there is a line that goes “I don’t know what’s worse, that this happened (stolen nuclear weapon) or that it regularly happens that we actually have a term for it.” In the Philippines, we actually have a culturally imbedded term or normalized practice of disinformation called “tsismis” or “chismis.”

We share unconfirmed “reports,” gossip about events and individuals, labeling these as mere storytelling or entertainment.

Tsismis has been justified as the only source of information during the Japanese occupation and the Marcos martial law or dictatorship.

Today, the need for validation, clicks and follows, or nomadic income generation online has resulted in digital tsismis. Some may react and attempt to differentiate between tsismis and click bait. If that were the case, social media would have no need for fact check or validation.

Still, let us not despair and whip our backs because the same holds true for even the most developed countries, cultures and economies in the world. Disinformation has become the impurities, the chaff that we must sift or filter like the pebble in the rice or the hair in your soup.

No, it is not easy to be gatekeepers. Repression, backlash and censorship has become a consequence for people and organizations that strive to promote truth telling. Making matters worse is the global leaders of the past have now become leaders at lying on a global scale.

So how exactly do we refresh or reinstate our roles as gatekeepers? As they say, start with ourselves by admitting that we engage in hearsay, tsismis and the like.

Confront ourselves with the fact that our act of disinformation makes us false witnesses with false testimonies, then recognize the injury it causes to others and to us.

From there actively watch, filter, fact check and gatekeep your mind and your tongue from sharing other peoples’ claims, shared bias or unverified information. As an elderly Marine once told me, I do not comment on people and things I don’t know or have no personal knowledge of.

Filipinos are a helpful bunch, always giving an answer or directions even if they are not sure. We give “guestimates,” prices and travel time although we are not quite sure. If you don’t actually know, say you don’t know.

Last but not least, read the Bible. God bless you.

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