When I read Don Quixote I saw a lot of references to “brain rot” and what was essentially pop culture at the rime ruining people’s perception of the world and I thought it was just funny to send in a quote that literally mentions brain rot

we weren’t ready for it yet. Filipinos didn’t understand what it meant and our politicos are too corrupt.

Do note that America’s rhetoric of “granting us independence when we’re ready enough” was mostly rhetoric. If they wanted us to be independent they wouldn’t have done economic policies that made the Philippines dependent on the USA, policies passed only if it was of benefit to the USA, as well as the fact that they didn’t return the land that was unlawfully grabbed by the Spaniards during a certain period of time and instead just appropriated it for themselves despite promises that they would divide it among the wronged parties (of tenants, who had owned the land), for the ready exploitation of Filipinos for American corporations.

Seriously, it is more laughable to defend colonialism perpetuated by a democratic nation, because the leaders would have to justify that it was beneficial, first and foremost, to their own people, else they become unpopular and won’t hold any position of power.

It was an act of colonialism for the sake of economic interests. And the reason why there was such a culture of corruption was because the way you survived in the colonial world (as a principalia) was to kiss up the asses of who will benefit you the most. Either it was the colonial overlords when you felt they were the safer bet or if you felt like a revolution was successful, the angry masses. To thrive you shouldn’t be loyal, only to that who would benefit you the most.

The colonial system of the Philippines perpetuated by the Spaniards themselves were notoriously corrupt, probably because of the distance between nations making laws hard to enforce, that the colonisers present in the country often broke the law even against the King’s commands, hell, even against the Pope’s. And did our period under American Colonialism helped us unlearn that culture? No, Filipinos were given a sense of Learned Helplessness, and a peculiar tendency to give apologetics for the practice of Colonialism.

Buying books for public schools directly, specifically for regular and SPED classes because our Department of Education is corrupt.

I remember being in the regular class of public highschool and seeing that there’s only one highly used book per 10 people. Sure the sections “for smart kids” were complete in books, often updated, but regular and special ed students were often lacking resources, and the Department Head of SPED even told me that the higher ups of the school were prejudiced against SPED students, and they couldn’t get funding for those students even for talent show events because a higher up said, “they have no future, so why bother?”, the specific reason I was contacted because I was identified as a Special Needs learner who had a bright (conventional) academic future as well as achievements, so I was encouraged to help the Department in proving prejudice otherwise.

I felt it was unfair that all the investments of education were to be given to already highly performing children. The reason why I wasn’t even in those sections for smart kids is because I was 1 or 2 points below the required report card grade in elementary, and that was when my mental health barely recovered from bullying. The reason I was bullied was due to classist bullshit (was relatively poor in a private school) and being neurodivergent.

(n.) Supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.

“The devil take Don Quixote of La Mancha! How did you get this far without dying from all the beatings you’ve received? You’re a madman, and if you were a madman in private, behind the doors of your madness, it wouldn’t be so bad, but you have the attribute of turning everyone who deals with you or talks to you into madmen and fools, too; if you don’t believe me, just look at these gentlemen who are accompanying you. Return, fool, to your house, and look after your estate, your wife, and your children, and stop this nonsense that is rotting your brain and ruining your mind.”

Knowing all you can about cats!

Light Novel Titles:

In the Philippines, if you stopped supporting your kid at 18 they have a low chance of ever finishing college because ~30 units is the norm. Imagine having to deal with that on top of a job and doing all the household responsibilities. And if they do work they’re stuck with low wage jobs because they only finished highschool. In that context doing that is just irresponsible.

Avanceña wrote, “Nilalako nila ang pambababoy sa alaala ng mga taong patay, at ‘di nila ako hahayaan na magpahayag ng damdamin at ipagtanggol sila? At hindi naman kung sino lang ang lolo ko, at nagbayad naman ako ng tiket… [My grandfather] was a president, and the best ever, most incorruptible.”

I don’t know what scenes he is referring to because I haven’t seen a trailer or anything, but Quezon is a flawed man who had his own self-interests, and he was in that position because he had to appeal to both the coloniser and the colonised people. Just like any other politician in his time. We don’t need anymore propaganda that shows him as perfect because he’s dead and he probably doesn’t have any ambitions to run for any position right now or in the future. Perhaps it would be more respectful to show what he truly went through to get where he is.

If ever I were to be a politician I definitely would care about my image while I was alive, but when I’m dead I’d release my diaries so that people can know the real me. But that’s just me.

Well I think I just realised why they do it. There’s this longstanding conspiracy theory that whenever a politician does a fuckup they conveniently say keywords associated with the fuckup but put it in a different context (like say, scandal related to trains, so they get into a model train hobby), and they pay advertisers to market that changed context HARD, so if people search up their name plus trains what shows up are articles talking about their new hobby.

Just thought of this because I was searching up “Banana Republic” in the context of neocolonialism (while reading my country’s history) and besides the Wikipedia page being the first result, the next results were that store. And I remembered this reply.

This reminds me a company that claimed to have automatized, I think it was their counters? But it was actually run remotely by workers in India

No you didn’t say anything wrong re: women participating in physical activities, it’s just that the professor had a point. Not that the two sexes have the same physical capability or ceiling (your professor didn’t even factor puberty and hormones), but that women aren’t as strong as they could be because of how society treats them differently. Lots of girls aren’t even allowed to go outside and play rough for example. Because they don’t become as physically capable it becomes a feedback loop where people assume they are weak so they are discouraged from physically demanding activities.

And me mentioning the Tug-of-War thing wasn’t about what you said but a statement against the people I mentioned beforehand who claimed that the physical disparity was so high that an out of shape man can beat a trained woman.

While I don’t think the two sexes have the same physical capabilities, I dislike how being a woman is such a hyperspecific category in sports like someone could be born AFAB and lived as a woman their entire life only to be found as intersex in some test and now they’re automatically a man and should use masculine pronouns.

And as someone who is AFAB, growing up I was often discouraged from going outside, and the gym was off-limits, which would’ve been a disadvantage for me if it wasn’t for calisthenics. It’s not like the physical strength of a man and woman is so far apart either. Some people even claim that an out-of-shape man can overpower a trained woman. In Tug-of-War I’m able to win against an AMAB and I haven’t had any HRT yet lol

The rich are never satisfied, and they’re always in competition with other rich people. That’s why even if they have the best life they’ll always seek for more even if they make people suffer.

All Cats Are Beautiful

We wont have bananas that taste any good.

Cavendish bananas aren’t the only varieties of bananas that taste good. For example Lakatan and Latundan taste good raw. It’s just that most of the time they aren’t feasible for export.

One epidemic and we won’t have bananas anymore.

Only for a few countries ;) There’s still a lot of banana varieties eaten around the world.

Idk about Brazil but there’s a lot of banana varieties that are regularly consumed around the world. There’s Lakatan, Saba and Latundan in the Philippines for example, the Saba banana being really popular as a fried snack on a stick.

The silver lining is that it’s biodegradable. And good as compost

In Southeast Asia we have lots of banana varieties that we regularly eat.