this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Going by our depressingly low literacy rates, proliferation of fake news/disinformation, a malfunctioning quality of education, and dramatic increase of malnutrition, we can't fully promise that. 😔
There's also memes. Memes are arguably more likely to trivialize issues even if it was not the intent. I was surprised to learn when a friend talked about a stuff toy their kid wanted. They were not familiar with the character/s until I gathered from their description that the kid wanted countryballs merch.
But what's alarming is that the kid seemed like they enjoyed memes around Nazi Germany and Russia as if they're Saturday morning cartoon anti-heroes.
They are referring to the cover image used for this daily post, which closely resembles the Nazi concentration camps’ (most likely Auschwitz here) entrance
The text is also the English translation of "Arbeit macht frei"
It's not my place to say how people should receive this, but at the same time, I don't think "trivializing" is the right word either.
Kinda reminds me of when someone said that just because a protest (Reddit blackout) "didn't work", doesn't mean it failed — and that person brought up Tiananmen and La Liga Filipina as examples. The commenters then interpreted it as the blackout being placed at the same level as those who were massacred, when that wasn't the point being made at all.
This painting was made in 2020 during the height of the COVID pandemic. Filipino laborers were being forced (or have no choice but) to come to work without the option of WFH or the luxuries others have. Some of them are also being executed for violating quarantine when purchasing essentials and not having the benefit of Grab or deliveries.
In some ways, it also ties into their other concerns like income inequality and capitalism being bad, as someone mentioned already.
It's not making a 1:1 comparison to Auschwitz (I think that goes without saying - it's a catastrophically reprehensible event without equal), but merely using the imagery around it as inspiration.
A lot of them were also blamed by the government for bEiNg pAsAwAy even though the alternative for them was starving to death because the duterte administration didn't make incentivizing people to stay home a priority.