A Call to Criticism
During the Gloria Arroyo times, there was a blog called Filipino Voices: a group of writers, columnists, bloggers who engaged in civilized discussion and debate on the website, which became a portal as well of the state of the nation.
In 2020, after four years of Duterte, this is one of the many things we need. While the survey numbers continue to feed his base of support, while funding for PR and propaganda has created “public opinion” in his favor, there is also growing distress and disgust that is not captured anywhere. The issues are multifarious, but our energies are dispersed across social media. We’re all just firefighting, responding to the various emergencies, real and manufactured by this government. With trolls taking over important information, and a government that has successfully discredited criticism to be nothing more than either Left or Liberal, we are exasperated and exhausted, unclear about where to go for critical information, credible opinion, and relevant discussion.
The goal is to create a space where we go above the din of this discursive blackhole.
To try and gather people across the political spectrum who agree about the urgency of talking issues and fleshing out opinions. Who agree, at the very least, to go beyond the Left VS Liberal rhetoric. Who agree that four years in we need to take stock and take time to thresh things out and have discussions.
On this site, we stick to the issues. We stick to categories, to start with: the environment, China, human rights, foreign relations, disinformation and propaganda, economic policies, corruption and cronies, arts and culture. We do short- and long-form essays, cross-post relevant statuses from our Facebook accounts and our essays from other sites. We agree to engage in discussions in the comments section. We disagree without the hate, vitriol, and policing in current public discourse.
We have a strict no trolls policy. We agree that we are not talking to Duterte’s supporters here—this is not the space where we might change their minds.
This is for us. The ones who remain hopeful about nation. The ones who still believe that public discourse is possible in these times of disinformation, trolls, and propaganda.
This is DISQUIET, civil discourse and critical dissent in uncertain times. ***