Esteemed political social media blogger Sass Rogando Sasot posted this much-appreciated hat-tip to GRP on Facebook.
I may not always agree with GetRealPhilippines.COM. In fact, its founder benign0 and I even acerbically criticised each other’s views before. Yet despite his sarcasm and “pang-asar” tactics, benign0 never dehumanized me. Unlike Jover Laurio funded by Kris Aquino, he never deadnamed me nor launched a transphobic attack — potent weapons of those who would like to silence a transwoman.His sarcasm and pang-asar tactics were directed towards my opinion. Even his ad hominem were related to emphasising the weakness he perceived from my opinion.
After our exchange of views, benign0 and I remained civil. And every now and then, we even share each other’s article. Why? Because we are grown ups. Our alaskahan are banters expected in society that values freedom of speech.
Salamat benign0! Salamat GRP for being one of the true advocates of freedom of speech in the country!
“The reality Ressa and her ilk fail to appreciate is that the social media game demands competitiveness in its players. If Laurio is Ressa’s and the Yellowtards’ best bet to win such a game, then they are setting themselves up for failure. Worse, if their strategy to get ahead in that game is to propose that the playing field be regulated with “traffic lights”, it means their real plan is to discredit the whole game itself seeing that they are losing it on many fronts.” [Quoted from the GRP article ‘Resibo Queen’ Jover Laurio represents the demise of free speech on social media]
Thanks Ms Sasot. We don’t have to like one another personally to respect, even admire, and, definitely, build off one another’s work. Real personal friendships are mostly formed offline. But work relationships are built on a foundation of trust in one another’s integrity and respect for the quality of one another’s work.
What we as a blogging community should use as currency to measure the strength of our social networks is the quality of the content we produce, the soundness of our ideas, an openness to challenge against our most cherished beliefs, and a willingness to collectively evolve towards a goal bigger than our individual selves.
Friendship amongst bloggers is nice and a much appreciated bonus to what is essentially thankless work. But we should never let friendships and personal alliances get in the way of an honest search for the truth.
Always happy to be on the same page in this regard, Ms Sass Rogando Sasot.
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