Honestly, as someone who has lived in the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte is an embarrassment. But the biggest embarrassment Duterte, the man… it’s his rabid following. They’re absolutely unhinged. Ever since he was arrested and taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, they have been spamming and harrassing people involved in his case online.
American fiction writer Nicholas Kaufmann had to come out and repeatedly beg the followers of Duterte to stop messaging him, which they do constantly — Duterte’s laywer is also called Nicholas Kaufman, only that Kaufman writes his last name without the extra “n” at the end, and he is based in London…
The people who reach out to Mr. Kaufmann — the writer! — do not believe him when he tells that that, no, he is NOT Mr. Duterte’s lawyer, in fact he never met the Filipino former president and he has no involvement in the case. Thick as molasses, this crowd…
I love the Philippines and I’ve had some amazing experiences there. But my goodness, there are some dumb people there, too. The Filipino fanbase of Duterte overlaps with the most rabid element of MAGA in America rather neatly; people devoted with near-religious vigor to a Christ-like leader who is “unfairly targetted” by the court. And these people are an absolute menace, online. They make their — otherwise lovely! — country look rather bad.
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