Austero's angry again

There's a discussion going on right now at MLQ3 about this latest Bong Austero article sa Manila Standard Today. Bong's article starts off with this:

THE national torture of having to put up with self-proclaimed patriots who mouth all kinds of incendiary statements in the name of love of country has once again begun.

These are days when one cannot help but wish there is a way to vanish all these loudmouths from the national consciousness so that we can all focus on doing what we are supposed to be doing individually to make this country a better place. Unfortunately, these people are relentless in foisting themselves and their causes and prescriptions on us. They take out full-page ads in newspapers, call press conferences, and make themselves readily available to every available microphone and journalist of media establishments who, unfortunately, have made it their policy to stoke the fires of controversies in order to stay ahead of the ratings game.

Many among us have learned to take these in stride. We give them two minutes of our time, take a long deep sigh, mutter “politics as usual” and go on with our lives. Many among us have become numb and immune to the endless bickering and have become more and more disenchanted with the whole process. We silently wish and pray that these people would just shut up. But these people would not let us be. When their antics do not produce their preferred reactions from us, they call us apathetic and uncaring. Worse, they bewail our inability to see the righteousness of their cause and come very, very close to calling us immoral and stupid.

And yet, they claim to be doing all these for our sakes. They say they speak for us. They trundle conclusions and generalizations about having our widespread support, conveniently labeling us as the “people.”

So here we are again back at the same place and saddled with the same issues that we all know cannot be resolved no matter how loudly we all scream at the streets, no matter how many times we pontificate on television, or how many pages of ads we take out in the papers.

Here we are again with an impeachment complaint that has no hope of getting through Congress and certainly no hope of getting widespread support, thanks to the efforts to turn the process in its head and reduce it to a media circus. And yet, here we are again with the griping and the sourgraping when at the outset, it has already been clear that the numbers are simply not enough.

Here we are again with the statements and the homilies and the pastoral letters and the manifestoes and the self-righteous posturing of the self-proclaimed prophets whose pronouncements made headlines in the past but have all failed to galvanize public support and produce results.

Oh he also mentioned that he doesnt trust Arroyo, but that seems to me more like a throwaway line, since everything else about his article is focused on attacking those opposed to arroyo, and for us to "move on" na lang.

From ricelander:

Bong Austero is easy to explain. He admires Gloria so much but he couldn’t explain it to himself why! He is not stupid– that’s what makes it worse!

The problem with Austero is that hindi siya derecho kung magsalita. that’s what you get when you try very hard to disguise your own true views from your readers. Kinda like Andrew Sullivan back in 2004.

This article by Bong Austero reminds me of exactly the kind apologists Paul Berman was talking about in his interview this june re totalitarian movements:

Totalitarian movements have regularly been greeted by the blindness to which liberalism is prone, and even by apologetics. Hitler, and not just Stalin, had his apologists. Without these apologists neither one of those dictators would have been able to get as far as he did. And what we are seeing now is something exactly parallel. There are only a few screwballs defending Al Qaeda, or Zarqawi in Iraq, or applauding Saddam. But the people who really matter are those (many more numerous) who find some way to say either that these totalitarian movements are normal, natural, rational, or, in any case, that they should be ignored because we should focus our attention on defeating Bush. In these ways, the adherents of the totalitarian movements are not given much opposition and sometimes are even given a back-handed support. So, naturally, the movements prosper.

Of course, Arroyo is not as bad as Hitler or Stalin. GMA falls somewhere between Marcos and Estrada (although she's more Marcosian than Erap-like). But she has her own apologists too. Replace "defeating Bush" with "defeating the opposition" and voila!

Isa pa ito, from cathcath:

Tama ang sabi ni Bong, we don’t trust GMa but we don’t trust the opposition either. between two evils, I will not make a choice.

I don't believe you, cathcath.

These people claim na they’re not for either side. But almost all of comments/posts are critical/negative towards the opposition, at pretty much either tameme o muted lang ang criticism nila sa pagdating sa katarantaduhan ng Arroyo admin.

So sinong niloloko nyo?

if Arroyo is evil too, like you claim, then isn’t it your obligation to correct that mistake, since you supported the military-civilian coup called edsa dos, which installed your president?

so bakit ka naghuhugas kamay ngayon?

UPDATE: I think Austero's new favorite term is "patriots." Out na ang "Moralists". LOL.

We've heard Bong (and others of his kind) claim na he doesn't trust the president, and say he has even less trust for the opposition, the so called "patriots" and "moralists."

Well, good for him. OTOH, he's also supported the Arroyo administration and it's claims of legitimacy, and defended (or looked the other way) at some of the dispicable tactics used by the Arroyo admin in the pasts to cover up GLORIAGATE and target and harass the opposition.

But he's entitled to his own opinions, of course.

I myself am not a trusting fellow. I don't trust the "move on" people, the civil society types, the COMELEC, and people who claim they're "independent" or "non-partisan" of all this.

MLQ3 on Austero:

he emphasizes, too, he shouldn’t be considered a supporter of the President.

I dunno, Manuel. I doubt Bong would have been hired by Mr. Razon to write his columns the Manila STandard -- the most powerful and the most strongest newspaper in the world today-- if that were the case.

Just like I doubt Ninez would hire a pro-Arroyo columnist to write for the Tribune too.

And it's no surprise either that most of the commenters and repeat visitors Sassy and Austero's blog tend to attract are pro-administration types.