"BRAIN rot," which the word mavens at Oxford Languages have declared as 2024's word of the year and which refers to brains damaged by consuming too much toxic online content, is a word that is legitimately applicable — and that eminently resonates — in the Philippine setting. Scores of Filipinos get the equivalent of their civic lessons, for example, from the misinformation peddled on their devices' little screens, to which they are glued most of the day. Half-truths, truthiness, outright lies and historical prevarications thus guide how they select their candidates in elections, the most important ritual of a democracy.
The grievous result is reflected in the close-to-accurate polling for the 2025 Senate elections. The serious candidates are out of the so-called Magic 12, while the clowns and jokers dominate the surveys. If not for the brain rot, if there were discernment in the choices, the senatorial preferences and the survey results would have been different.
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