There are a lot of kind, rational, and patriotic Leni Robredo supporters. Many of these kakampinks support Robredo for the presidency without canceling their loved ones. But it’s saddening that their ranks have been infiltrated by elitist social justice warriors and power-hungry communists. For one, they look down on people for not having the right academic degrees. They ostracize relatives, friends, and co-workers for challenging their political beliefs.
Some netizens even claimed that random kakampinks tried to get them fired for supporting certain politicians. Sen. Antonio Trillanes also tweeted that employers must conduct conversion meetings with their employees to gain more votes for Robredo.
The toxic ones among the kakampinks rationalize their behaviors by claiming that we should not tolerate people with allegedly destructive moral values that are reflected on their political choices. However, Robredo’s mediocrity, self-righteous grandstanding, and her leftist allies’ oppressive politics also point to their own weak moral fiber if we will follow their framework.
Yet many of them cannot get off their high horse! They behave as if they’re the only ones who are always right. Therefore, in their thinking, they're entitled to silence you for spreading “disinformation”. If they need to get you fired or boycott your business, they’re going to do it. As if they’re not spreading fake news themselves!
Falling Into Their Own Traps
The possibility of losing your livelihood is real should cancel culture prevail. But mark my words: these new fascists will also damage their careers and businesses in the long run. Entrepreneurs will lose loyal and valuable employees for canceling them over political differences. Those workers will go to other companies that will leverage the former’s ideas and work ethic to put cancel culture perpetrators out of business.
Employees who mob colleagues will lose networking opportunities. In the Philippines, your connections are almost as important as your skills. The person whom you’re bullying now might one day be the key to landing your dream job in your dream company. Imagine canceling that individual over some mediocre politician who will not even give you the time of day.
Finally, fascists end up in echo chambers when they ostracize other people. They will consequently lose access to information that can improve their job performance and businesses. They will deprive themselves of opportunities to refine their ideas by testing them against diverse perspectives.
What’s most ironic of all is that cancel culture perpetrators won’t benefit from contrarian views that might help them make political decisions that can promote their livelihood. A lot of Robredo supporters are doing this. They’re painting Bongbong Marcos (BBM) and Panfilo Lacson supporters as evil even if these two presidential candidates actually have a practical energy plan that will power up local businesses. On the other hand, Robredo’s solution to the energy crisis is pure wishful thinking.
Fascism’s Different Faces
To be fair, even some BBM supporters have a tendency to cancel others. It’s just that their brand of fascism will most likely involve red-tagging opponents — not because of actual ties with communist rebels, but for simply demanding accountability from politicians that they idolize. They might even red-tag you for merely considering the leftists’ valid points.
I know this because I follow many BBM supporters on social media. It makes my skin crawl that some (not all) of them scoff at individual rights and hurl slanderous epithets at state officials for not being Rodrigo Duterte’s yes-men. I’ll choose my level-headed, freedom-loving kakampink friends over them anytime.
Besides, I share these kakampinks’ concerns about the possibility of historical revisionism, cover-up of corruption, and subjugation to China under a BBM presidency. That’s one of the many reasons why I want Panfilo Lacson to become president. It’s too bad that such legitimate issues are now being dismissed and that the good kakampinks are getting drowned out because the self-righteous ones in Robredo's campaign are insufferable. Now even those who dislike BBM would rather risk a BBM win just to stop the cancel culture that the Pink/Yellow party is trying to perpetuate.
(Photo by Brian Wangenheim)
Very brave!