People are stupid, so now what?

It's time we stop categorizing "stupid" in groups. By now, it's unnecessary to say that those who are right wingers, tank top rockin' bros,  hipsters, etc are a stupid type of person. We should just accept the fact that everyone, yes, everyone is stupid. There are of course different levels of crazy and awareness of one's own stupidity, but at the end of the day, we all are. I'm not immune either-- I write this blog, right? 

Contrary to what you may be thinking that I'm thinking, being stupid isn't a completely bad thing. It's natural. We all do it. I think what it comes down to is intent and circumstance. Are you just ignorant, or are you trying to be an ass? Are you ignorant because your don't try to learn? Are you trying to be an ass to get attention? There are degrees of stupid, but everyone does it. 

I was inspired to write this because my significant other was telling me about (aka talkin' shit) a  person that belonged to a group similar to one I opened this entry with. I was actually quite hung over and after his rant, all I could muster to say was, "everyone is stupid so I'm not surprised". He laughed and agreed, but neither of us can remember what exactly we talked about that morning. They say that truly funny things are never remembered because your brain is too busy... well, laughing to retain it. Without this key piece of information, I was stuck with an unfinished blog entry. People are stupid. It's annoying and frustrating. Ok, so now what? 

I recently read Do Nothing by Damian Mark Smyth. The point of the book was to fight the feeling of forcing a result. It was a quick read from the Kindle Lender's Library and I had no TV at the time. Anyways, I put that method into use for this blog entry, and in return I was rewarded with this:

This Time Magazine cover with accompanying article that cites Time was sent to me as a screenshot via email from a family member. I read the article without knowing much about Filipino politics. All I saw was that Time says it's stupid. What I do know is that they're a democratic country with a poverty and violence problem. From what I've heard, Filipinos like to elect celebrities. From what I know, Filipinos are loyal, especially to family and dynasties. From what I've seen on TV, Specifically on HBO's documentary series Vice, the Philippines loves their guns. Especially during election season. It's election season and this Time cover is about Nancy Binay, candidate for the senate, whose father is current Vice President Jejomar Binay and whose mother is former mayor of Makati City, Elenita Binay.. When asked about her credentials and experience, Ms. Binay apparently cited 20 years of "on the job training" due to her exposure to her parents' political careers as their personal assistant, and as deputy campaign manager of the UNA (United National Alliance). 

Long-story-short: remember how I said that Filipinos love their celebrities and dynasties? Well, a celebrity, among others, openly criticized Ms. Binay for her lack of experience. Ms. Binay responded by saying that she had no real intent on running but she had to step into the role when the original UNA candidate dropped out. Despite her disinterest in holding office and lack of public service, she was a popular candidate and yet, "72 percent of Filipino voters [were] 'mystified' by the process through which the vice-president's daughter, a total unknown, got into the candidates' list and why she is rating so highly in polls". The poll also cited "glamour" and "dad's money" as possible explanations to her popularity (Survey: Many voters still don't understand how Nancy Binay became a candidate).

So let's come full circle here. After only reading the initial article that was sent to me, which was accompanied by this Time Magazine cover, I sought out the actual Time article. The cover is pretty bold-- how can Time really back this up? There are plenty other stupid government systems out there, ours included (US Congress tried to repeal "Obamacare" for the 37th time today). After a couple Google searches, I asked the sender to link me to the article. No link was provided but I was told that he "googled Time magazine" and found it. Soon after, I saw that another family member who this article was also sent to, had already posted the screenshot to Facebook. Taking a shot in the dark I commented on the photo:

I did. I checked Time Magazine Asia edition, and came up with nothing. All Time Magazine covers have a millennial on the cover, cos apparently at everyone's surprise, they're almost all grown up. After searching for the Time article and news director and coming up empty, I again "did nothing" to take a break. To take my mind of things, I attended a talk on race and colorblindness by Dr. Felice Blake, associate professor at UCSB. It was very enlightening and motivating. More about that talk later....

I got home last night to try one more time. This time though, I looked for the source and bingo: So What's News dotcom. They had doctored the cover, which explains how ratty it is, to create "satire". Ugh, people and their satire. SMFH. They're a Wordpress site that "is a satirical & fictional news website" whose aim is "to inject humor into everyday news to provide respite to readers who have grown weary with mainstream news organization’s partisan, biased and depressing way of presenting the news" (So What's News? "About"). Stuuuuupiiiid. I started reading the comments for the entry w/ Time, and despite my difficulties w/ reading Tagalog, it seemed that people really thought Time printed that article and cover. Some said that Time was being harsh, some said Time was being fair. Later, there were a few comments left by "anonymous" who said that the cover is fake and explained that So What's News is a satirical site, but the conversation kept going about politics, what's fair, etc...

I emailed the information I had learned to the family member who had originally sent me the article and also to the one who posted it on Facebook. I also had to comment on the photo again for anyone else who was "watching":

So I'm going through all this with the idea of "stupid" in the back of my mind because this story, the website, people involved, all of it-- is so stupid. Like, why would they post a story like that? Why are Filipinos so "die hard" (as they would say) about status and family names and stuff? Why'd my family send me this article on how stupid our countrymen are? Me included: how stupid was I stupid for looking into something so stupid! Filipinos as a whole?... I won't say stupid cos that's mean, but they're interesting. The country, their politics and priorities. How quickly they are ready to admit how stupid they are. What does it mean? Where does it come from? 

Really though, I wasn't surprised. Filipinos, politicians, bros, old people, young people, white people-- People and what they do, what they say are just stupid. Naturally. People are just people. Knowing that really does calm me in a way. No need to wonder why anymore-- it's just who we are: we're all just stupid human.

I'm going to work on following Filipino politics now. I think all their... humanity comes from their very... interesting history. More on this topic as well as Dr. Blake's talk in a future entry. Stay tuned.

Pray for Rain

"We have a moral responsibility to the most innocent victims of climate change: the poorest citizens of the world and those yet to be born" - Dr. Steven Chu

On May 2, I was able to attend a talk by Dr. Steven Chu, Chinese-American Nobel laureate in physics, and the 12th US Secretary of Energy under the Obama administration. It's been a while since I've attended a talk, but after a really good one, I feel so invigorated and kick myself in the ass for not going to more (especially free ones like this). This one was no exception.

One of the questions Dr. Chu got was on how scientists can be better advocates of policy related to their work. Dr. Chu's reply was to stay "steady at the helm". You've got to stick to your guns, explain your position, explain, explain, and explain again (without taking attacks too personally), and continue your quest for the truth. You put your work out there and hope that it will make the impact that it could-- or should. You stand by your work, and get the voices of the voters behind you. Ultimately, policy comes down to voter pressure so you gotta make 'em understand the facts so they can make the change happen.

Steady at the helm is a universal message, with science as a great example. The same goes for arguments on post-racism, reverse-racism, post-women's rights, the list goes on and on. There are always going to be those who say that facts and realities don't exist, but we have to outnumber and "outnoise" them.

The same day that Dr. Chu came to campus was the same day the Camarillo Spings fire started. As of now (5 days later) it is 80% contained and has gone through about 28,000 acres. Dayum. That's a lot of burned stuff, dontcha think? That may be a lot but it's still not enough to have a real solution based discussion on climate change. I've lived in SoCal all of my life and fire season used to start in the fall-- now it's starting in May? 

Friends (well, Facebook ones at least) were posting pictures of the smoke they could see from home/ work/ wherever, with captions describing amazement and  fear. One in particular was captioned "pray for rain". I admit that there are a million interpretations for that caption, but the first one I thought of was "pray for rain [cos I don't know any better than to ask God for help as we are helpless little humans]". I know, I know-- I'm cynical and mean. I go there first most of the time. The only clouds in the sky that day were clouds of smoke. There wasn't going to be any rain. Why pray for rain? Later I figured the caption could've referred to rain in general-- as in we need more rain so that fires like this aren't sparked in the spring. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and interpret it  as the latter from now on. 

As passionate as I may seem about politics and policy, I'm no expert. And based on this particular Facebook friend's profile page s/he posts 100% foods, activities, cats.... and 0% serious stuff. There is no political or religious information... Likes include Walmart and Stewie from Family Guy. Do you get where I'm going here? Do you see why "pray for rain" made me feel the way I did at the moment? It really seemed like the caption meant the first thing-- only God can save us now.... I know, I need to stop going there.

Either way, the intentions of praying for rain are good. It's not like the caption said "I Love wildfires!" or "burn it all!". But there's a part of me that feels like intentions aren't good enough. We can't just post a picture and hope for an outcome-- we need to make that change happen. There are things we can do to indirectly "make it rain". How about being more supportive of public safety workers? How about pressuring congress to adopt better energy policies? I guess what bothers me the most about the praying comment is how the burden is taken away from you and given to God, when really, like Dr. Chu said, change comes from the people. At the same time, I hate when people turn breaking news into political talking points. Apparently I hate when they bring prayer into it too. 

I don't want the Camarillo Springs fire to just be another SoCal blaze. This fire impacted so many people I know. I grew up with a lot of people in Camarillo, and the ones that stayed are mostly the ones who have families now. And parents just seem to think differently than the childless, but that's another blog topic. Anyways, I want to see these people really think about the fire that could have so easily burned their lives down. I want them to think about why it happens (as complex as that may be), and to do something about it-- even if it only means spreading the word. Don't just leave it up to Congress alone-- they're a mess right now!

And I will continue on. Steady at the helm!