In today’s highly mediatized and post-truth society, digital spaces have become a suitable and fertile environment for disinformation and misinformation – carefully orchestrated by troll farms, anonymous users, hyperpartisan content creators, and ambitious politicians.
Until now, I cannot fully fathom the fact that educators can be red taggers and purveyors of false information, fueling impunity, fanaticism, disinformation, and hyperpartisan politics within academic spaces.
“You were more than nine pounds when you went out of my womb. You almost broke my pelvic bones. But I have exhausted myself during the delivery for you to experience the world. And I don’t ask anything in return,” my mom said [in non-verbatim] during one of our rare talks.
Every day, we are challenged by rhetorical questions: who can sleep at night after listening to stories of a widow who just want to end her life due to poverty, or an internally displaced person who lost his mom due to their unlivable situation after the Marawi siege, while the President spits insults to divert the attention of the listeners to his language and charismatic leadership?
Right now, what’s left in Marawi are just the ruins. But the greatest ruins can only be found inside their minds — deep-seated invisible scars — seeking for healing, not insults and disregard from our government.