Trust in Security or Trust in Words?

As I live on, seeming impassive towards issues unrelated to me or anything that does not hold my interest, there are some times where I would break that habit.  One exception can be Philippine politics, because politics can be entertaining and I live in the Philippines.  I see Philippine politics as just another chaotic invention adopted from others, like the light bulb, democracy, or written works of Shakespeare.  Actually, politics can be like Shakespeare, in which you can rouse certain emotions to audience and profit from it.  The fun part of looking at this performance is the discovery of the fun in them.  I give you one such example.

Martin Andanar, Communications Secretary for the Presidential Communications Operations Office, and also known in the inner nonexistent circles as the President's "Wingman" in how to talk to the nation, or rather how should the nation interpret the ramblings of the President.  Like Groot and Hodor, he has a history of prefering to say the words 'don't', 'take', 'it', and 'literally', exclusively in that order.  While I don't blame him for doing damage control, for the duty of the wingman is no easy task, especially if you consider the friend he is supposed to help. However, it wouldn't help if the wingman is not really good at 'enrich the quality of public discourse on all matters of governance', as stated in the PCOO's mandate.

During a roadshow in Bacolod City, Andanar made some few points, which I will link here for information dissemination (which I hope gets me qualified in PCOO). I want to point out two of those points, which where:

• The Western media is reporting fake news, in which he argues that they reported 7,000 deaths in the war on drugs, while the PNP report states that there were only 2,000 deaths.
• The Philippine National Police is more trustworthy than the Western media, in which his argument is the same as the first point.

Okay, first point. The fact that the 7,000 deaths took into account EVERY drug-related deaths, including vigilante killings while the reported 2,000 deaths took into account only deaths during police operations, which is a pretty big deal for a Communications Secretary who did not bother to fact-check this, is negligible, a fact that I can disregard. However, calling NY Times 'fake news' is something I will not let go. Has he ever seen ACTUAL fake news before, like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report? Unlike him, they actually fact-check their stories, and they are supposed to be fake. If you are actually looking for fake reports, may I suggest this?

Second point. If I were to ask to whom I should trust, the PNP or the Western media, I would reply neither. I do not trust strangers unless I know them at a personal level.  Would you trust a person you personally don't know to fix a problem?  Of course, you would but I won't.  However, let's give a benefit of a doubt and say that I know them on a personal level.  If I were to be asked the same question, I would question the intelligence and (possibly) sanity of the person who asked that question.  After all, the PNP and Western media are two completely different entities, and comparing both of these must have a fallacy connected to this situation.  Besides, technically, they both reported the same thing, which was that there were 2,000 reported deaths in police-related drug operations.

After writing those, I started thinking "Jasper, what the **** are you doing?  This was supposed to be an essay, not a satirical article".  I would agree with the voice inside my head because I have no arguments against that.  I just find the article something worth writing about because of the sheer amount of obliviousness shown by the wingman.  It's also what you might call a thought exercise, randomly asking questions, especially about your sanity and the sanity  of others.  It can also be a lesson on trust, and who should it be given to, which the answer would obviously be 'no one'.  Maybe it's just another ramblings of a mad man, who is hellbent on proving the idiocy of the society he was born and and raised in.  Only time can tell.