My online friend Jaiden lives in and is from the Philippines. She has dealt with a lot of trauma and abusive parents, it seems, and also seems to have been bullied. I have heard from many people, especially those who have been to the Philippines, that it’s great. The country is pretty and the people are nice.

However, Jaiden says it’s quite the contrary. I am taking into consideration her trauma and another comment that she herself could be lying and actually the bully or someone with okay parents. We don’t know. But anyway, she says that it’s a very racist, neo-Nazi country filled with murderers.

  • dragontamer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    2 days ago

    I don’t live there.

    But my opinion of the place is that it’s wildly diverse. Each of the 7000+ islands has its own history, culture and “dialect” which is really its own damn language.

    With political winds today making the choice between Duterte and Marcos, I’m not entirely sure if picking the fascist is necessarily the worse choice either. As an outsider looking in, there’s two deeply troubling candidates full of corruption, contempt and horrifying ideologies.

    But most Filipinos I know are non-political. Mostly worn out by the corruption and in a state of learned helplessness. I don’t think that’s necessarily NeoNazi or whatever.

    There is also the issue that the Filipino identity is under attack by these cultural islands. Being incredibly pro-Filipino identity isnt necessarily a bad thing. It really depends on how specific they get. Someone can be ultra-nationalist but pro-unity.

    I don’t think a Western term like NeoNazi could ever truly apply to the Filipinos. The politics over there just really doesn’t line up on that axis. I wouldn’t be surprised if it existed on one of the specific islands though.

    Like seriously: who is the NeoNazi? Marcos or Duterte? Both have their elements that can sorta apply.

    My mom and dad literally don’t understand each other’s native dialect. And they are just a few islands apart (and still on the Catholic islands on the Northern half of the country). How can anyone generalize on a nation like that?