If you're native… Commentary on Natives of La Union

The Facebook group "Natives of La Union" appears to be composed primarily of those born and raised in the province. It’s a closed group, but according to the statistics that I could gather, there is over 15,000 members. Nice!

 

I joined because I was born there in the city of San Fernando. I had thought that it would be interesting to see how life is in the province of my birth. I wanted to have some connection. I rarely participated in discussions, however, as there are various individuals who have a penchant of flagrantly twisting and contorting plainly stated statements. In other words, these despicable men and women are “creative” enough to “put words in your mouth”. I have even had various spats with certain individuals standing and reiterating my point ad nauseam.

 

An underlying sentiment manifests as the militant Christians in the group. Granted, the Philippines is predominantly Catholic, however, the attitude is "If you do not tow the 'Christian' or 'catholic' line, you will be harassed." During my membership, I saw an atheist and a Muslim woman get harassed. At one point, I, too was harassed.

 

Case in point, when I posted a pic with "You beliefs don't make your better, your behavior does." I was questioned and harangued. Someone commented using an example of "belief" and how their behavior was not congruent with those beliefs. The Crusades during the Middle Ages, was an example that I threw out.

 

Example: The Crusades

I mentioned how such a series of historical events (there were 10+ Crusades) instilled ill-will that would continue and continues to this day. One member, Teresa de Jesus, insisted that such was a slight against Christianity. Again and again I repeated that it was in reference to the Crusaders and that it was not a slight against all Christians. I repeated that is was historical fact.

 

If you don’t know what the Crusaders were, here is the Wikipedia article to get your started. (Wikipedia: Crusades) This is not meant to be a history lesson. In a nutshell, they were military campaigns to retrieve the territory around the city of Jerusalem from the Muslim “occupiers”. There were at least 10, but every one had disastrous affects and have tainted Christian-Muslim relations.

 

No Interest in True Debate

She was not having none of it, saying that she didn’t was to read some web page about it that I had to explain it to her. Lazy cunt! She was just arguing for arguing sake. And, ignorant of world history. There was no way to “convince” her otherwise. She was going to be a vicious cunt and dug in her heels. She basically, ensnared me in her “debate”.

 

A debate and winning one, is about presenting facts and figures. According to Wikipedia…

“Though logical consistency, factual accuracy and some degree of emotional appeal to the audience are important elements of the art of persuasion, in debating, one side often prevails over the other…”

This was no debate. I knew that her audience was her bigoted, Christian, “sheeple” (people who can’t think on their own) cohorts in the group. As far they were concerned, she was “winning” since once in a while some idiot with an equally idiotic remark would chime in. What was there to gain? Possibly respect of some sort, just not respectable knowledge. Prestige? Possibly.

 

I know which battles to fight and this was not one of them, even with presentation of text, mine were re-interpreted. Which I had pointed out many, many times. Like a coop full of chickens, I was the one pecked. It was fine. I was respectable, but snarky. Some of the sarcasm, was well above their heads because it was glaringly apparent that those on her side weren’t accustomed to my dialect of English. I stood my ground. If I had to repeat what was said ad infinitum, I did. And, Lo and behold! What was said, when presented directly for scrutiny, wasn’t right or I had “edited” it – I wasn’t playing “weasel” like she was.

 

True Disappointment

In this day and age of the Internet, more people are interconnected than ever before. It’s now very accessible. Like anything we create as humans it can be a tool or a weapon. Sitting behind the screen, it makes it easy to dehumanize the other person. So, people like this cunt can easily prattle off bullshit and turn truth into caca. Sadly there are those who follow, too. Instead of critically think about new information presented, they just follow along.

I left that group sometime after. I can’t recollect how, but I either left on my own accord, or one of the power-tripping, Nazi-fascist admins removed me without warning. I admin groups, I usually give the “trouble-maker” some leeway before removing them as a courtesy. For all my upbringing, the people in that group didn’t represent aspects of the culture that I grew up knowing. They represented many of the vile and disturbing aspects.

The Irksomeness of it all

The following are some qualities that many of the members showed in the group. I can’t say that it speaks for Iloko culture, but it was quite prevalent.

Maintaining the status quo

The quote “The nail that sticks out will get hammered” is always the equivalent of maintaining the status quo. Anyone who doesn’t follow the customs or think the “approved” way of thinking was punished. I broke that rule with the following image. I wasn’t in any way trolling, but wanted to see who would agree. Instead, I found a lot of opposition as epitomized by Teresa because it didn’t maintain the status quo. Being religious and Christian was “good”; anything else, “evil”.

Aside from religion, this extends into other aspects of life. A great article about this is one about the ubiquitous jeepney. It hasn’t really changed since the end of WWII, almost 80 years ago! They are grossly inefficient and pollute every major Filipino city. I can imagine anyone who has thought of innovating this icon of American occupation was met with “ambisiyoso” or otherwise deterred because it wasn’t maintaining the status quo.

Closed-mindedness

In order to maintain the status quo, you have to be closed-minded. In other words, however things got that way will remain that way. Change is not permissible. You must follow the ways of those before you; you must not deviate. Why not? Possibly because the divine will punish you. If the priest said the earth was flat then it cannot be a globe. Much of what keeps these people closed-minded is because of religion. If I were to talk to Karl Marx, Ilokos would be the poster children for his phrase “Religion is the opiate of the people”.

Fascist mentality

The admins of the group were true fascists. Kicking people out who challenged their authority or questioned how things were run. There was no room for debate because they weren’t ever capable nor apt. They followed the two previous points presented and they expected that you did, too. Granted there is a certain amount of behaving civil, but when it came to point of contention, civility was thrown out the window.

Nothing of true value

I can see why the Philippines is a politically fucked nation. They don’t seem to get involved. But, hey,it happens here in the US. People only get involved when it gets worse. Having said that, a lot of what was posted was BS. Nothing was of a great deal of value. Nothing was thought provoking. It was mostly entertainment or the occasional food pic. There was nothing about Iloko literature or of the arts. It was a constant stream of pop-culture BULLSHIT.

A new group, but better

When one of the former members created a different group, I was approached to help administer it (Progressive Natives of La Union). It’s not as big as the original and vile group. But, it’s not as mentally bound or crippled as the previous one was. It actually is more of a beacon for the better aspects of what it is to be Iloko alive.

I’m glad that I’m only native by birth and not by heart if this is what it means to live. It’s quite disheartening. I’m proud to have been born there; these people just shame themselves.