AP and FV: Two Uglies in Bar

The Philippine blogger world had a split a few weeks ago, a spat, a testimony of testosterone and whatever it is that makes woman spitting mad. Several mainstream FilipinoVoices (“FV”) bloggers got ticked off that their comments were being moderated and so they set off to dwell at the Anti-Pinoy (“AP”) site, where the only moderation is done by the computer to replace swear word letters with asterisks. Indeed, I had fun playing with AP's computer. I'd type cocktail, a perfectly fine word, and it would show up on the site as c***tail. Or I would type siht instead of its correct spelling, but people would read it correctly, for context is king, and that's the way our brains work.

These are the games humans play. Vulcans we are not. Mature we are not. We are kids in a world of adult responsibility. What's a war but a bunch of kids fighting viciously over who peed in the sandbox? You get angry, you stop thinking rationally. I personally aspire to stay reasonable, but fail often.

I'm on a diversionary path here, and will get back to FV and AP in a moment.

I like bars. I never go with the guys, but by myself or, in past lives, with a gorgeous Czech veterinarian who liked beer a lot, or a Jewish bass guitar playing babe in New York who palled around with Bob Dylan, Peter Yarrow, Taj Mahal and other old school rockers and bluesmen. She had lots of music stories to tell, most that would last about as long as a bottle of expensive Cabernet before we headed back to her place up on 95th. Bars are the soul of man, I think. Generally dark but filled with laughter and an occasional fist fight.

Characters lurk in bars. The Shanana Bar on Melrose in Hollywood had this 6-foot amazon bartendress, a lesbian wild woman who would start downing her own string of shooters starting around midnight, forthwith becoming the conductor of a drunken orchestra that was all sound and little meaning. A live band jammed under a red spotlight in the corner of the little room, pounding out rock like four epileptics caught in rhythmic seizure. The dance floor was the size of grandpa's dining room table, blonde parquet like that on most dance floors, and four or five couples ground out simulated musical sex there. The rest of the patrons were pasted on chairs or sofas or bar stools trying to outshout the band whilst being entertaining to their neighbors or dates. Glasses and bottles clinked sharply, percussion to the dark wild and woolly scene.

I'd sometimes sit smiling mindlessly into my Coors, or flirt with the c***tail waitress, or grunt a few inanities to whoever was slouched next to me. Most people slouch at bars, a function of the stools being wobbly and the hard liquor being piped in one ounce at a time lubricating the backbone. I'd try to imagine what people did in their day jobs, and, of course, rate the girls, 1 to 10.

That brings me back to the Anti-Pinoy and FilipinoVoices community blog sites.

Let me be precise here as to what I think about FV and AP, so I don't have some idiot representing me incorrectly, as was recently done on BenK's site. I miss the AP bloggers who used to inhabit FV. They are some of the best minds on the internet, even if they do obsess a little too much for my liking on the flaws of current Filipino society. That's why I grind away for constructive acts.

Whereas others see Benign0 as insulting, I see him as brilliant, at debate, at imaginatively bent perspectives, and at coining original phrases. BongV is a master of information brought to bear on issues, UPn grad a maestro of common sense, BenK a pro at cutting through the crap and getting to the root of things in clear expression; and others bring consistently valuable perspectives to the table. Then there is JetHernandez and his ilk, the censors of AP. I object to personal insult because it is so easy to do and so difficult to counter. And such a waste of energy and time when there are important and difficult issues to sort out. The view is you have to be able to “macho up” and deal with it.

No, I don't. I choose a higher standard of exchange. So AP doesn't moderate me away, it drives me away. Same result, a voice that could be engaged in AP is silenced. AP's unfettered style silences a lot of people. So the AP incessant plaint of “censorship” that rings out, aimed largely at FV's moderation policy, rings strikingly hollow.

Now FV on paper provides a higher standard, seeking to moderate out the mudslinging. But the operators do a really stinko job of handling the administration, delaying pertinent comments for moderation, moderating people who have contributed enough good stuff that they have earned unmoderated status no matter what they say, and not responding at all to submissions or e-mail inquiries. Plus, it is a slippery slope when you start editing submissions; there is no definable line of propriety. But the site has a broader mix of perspective than AP, which tends to be like people liking each other. FV has liberals, conservatives, people of all political and professional persuasions . . . but it is also a bit of a stale society without the spice of the AP writers.

AP would have a good site if there were some way to teach the mudlingers to grow up; that, I fear, is futile. FV would have a good site if they administered it better; that is my hope, as yet unfulfilled. But that is why I write there instead of on AP – the hope for an honorable dialogue.

The split into two blogging clans is unfortunate. Unity is everything when it comes to creating a sharp dialogue on issues and a force for a progressive Philippines that people respect. I fear that aware bloggers and media people must look at both AP and FV and shake their heads, lo oy. Two uglies in a bar.

This useless exercise in blather is necessitated by an anonymous mudslinger misrepresenting my views. It is okay to call me an arrogant wiseass, as he did. I can relate to that. But it is not okay to misrepresent me as being anti-AP on FV. THAT is not true. The truth is as above. Too bad I have to waste time explaining it. Slant and slander, a sign of our times . . .