[quote=“rowland, post:125, topic:89625, full:true”]Moral narcissism makes one blind. You can’t have your world power clout and eat it too.
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Duterte’s outbursts invariably illustrate the exact opposite of the point he’s trying to make, viz, Filipinos are smart, resourceful, and can stand on their own foot (the other one having been blown off during an unfortunate shooting incident).
[quote]“Look at these monkeys, the 26,000 firearms we wanted to buy, they don’t want to sell,” Duterte said during a televised speech.
“Son of a bitch, we have many homemade guns here. These American fools.”[/quote]
So, Mr President, one might legitimately ask why you’re not using your “homemade” guns. I mean, aside from the fact that they’re all made by illegal gunsmiths and tend to blow up in one’s face, or (I would guess) not work at all. I certainly wouldn’t trust one of those rusting contraptions toted around by ‘security guards’ that look like they’re made from a length of gas pipe and a bolo handle.
It’s also not a good idea to openly show your contempt for people you wish to buy stuff from, because other people you might wish to buy stuff from will assume you have the same attitudes towards them. The Chinese are probably having a good laugh over brandy and cigars right now and deciding exactly how they’re going to fuck him over.
Rule 0 of any engagement, Mr President: never assume your enemy is an idiot. “Friends” likewise.
Somewhat unrelated, but on the general theme of narcissism: Filipinos re-invented from scratch the entire discipline of psychology, fundamentally misunderstanding what the word means, on the basis that Filipino brains don’t work like everyone else’s brains. I dunno, maybe they’re right. Check it out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_psychology
In Western terminology, this would probably be termed ‘social anthropology’ or similar, with a focus on one specific culture.