“Corned beef”

The internet (mostly Facebook) troll comment “corned beef” used to disparage and make fun of victims of the murderous Armed Forces of the Philippines is truly deplorable. 

First of all, troll comments that red-tag civilians as NPA soldiers and therefore “terrorists” are 1) slanderous and 2) dangerous, as this gives the police and military reason to 1) harass, 2) illegally arrest and detain, 3) abduct and either a) force the subject to surrender as an NPA or b) have him or her disappear, or 4) kill the civilian (or “target”, in military parlance). All of these are actually illegal and in violation of International Humanitarian Law. But the AFP and the reactionary government have been committing these with impunity and have demonized activism so much that red-tagging in the Philippines is now as wide-reaching as social media itself.

Second, casually and gleefully wishing civilians harm such as rape and even death in social media posts and comments is so unspeakably terrifying for its blatant cruelty. Why would anyone wish an innocent civilian to be harmed or killed on the basis of his or her political beliefs that, if only one would take the time to understand them closely, actually oppose this kind of inhumane and frankly idiotic thinking? 

Third, and to zero-in on the “corned beef” comment which means for one’s body to be minced like canned meat: has Duterte’s extrajudicial killings normalized splattered brains so much that trolls think ground flesh would clearly demonstrate the supposed wrongness of activism?

But “do trolls think” is oxymoronic. Comprehensive reports connect Marcos Jr with troll armies, troll farms, and missing funds allegedly to pay trolls. An Oxford University study shows that Duterte spent 200,000 USD on digital propaganda. Trolls don’t think. They do their job for the money. 

If trolls could think, they would know that ruthlessly violent acts like trolling itself and those included in AFP’s bloody track record especially in rural areas merely expose how stubbornly oblivious the reactionary government is to the root cause of activism and the revolution in the countryside. Instead of invalidating the reality of the revolution, these acts merely unmask said government and the military as the real enemies of the people, sowing fear and terror.

Countless martyrs have been dragged, imprisoned, raped, tortured, shot, drowned, mutilated, and bombed by the AFP. Bodies that managed to stay intact were paraded like trophies. And yet, many men and women from various sectors still take up arms. Landlessness, poverty, and imperialist control of all aspects of our individual and collective lives are just some of the reasons why the revolution was waged and will be resolutely continued by our children, with all their hearts and minds.