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5 signs you met a softboi (or… the President)

by JV Ardidon

I’m not interested in describing how a softboi dresses, what his hobbies are or what starter pack humanizes him. You can check the softboi spectrum here for yourself. But amid the hipsterisms and mystification of the softboi figure, there is something absurd when it’s displayed by state figures themselves…like the highest state figures themselves.

Beyond musing on why softbois are actually more desirable than fuccbois, bear in mind that the attention-seeking, emotionally manipulative personality itself is not normal. Here are five signs you’ve already met one and why you should run if you still haven’t.

Makes pointless statements

The softboi has his way of clouding the judgments of people by bringing up random topics and statements. Others take this as entertaining or comical, but it’s actually just bad rhetoric.

#NasaanAngPangulo? Ito ang sagot ni President Rodrigo Duterte sa kanyang public address ngayong Huwebes, kung kailan hinahagupit ng Typhoon #UlyssesPH ang Pilipinas. pic.twitter.com/ny1sLYsMUV

— ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) November 12, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Resists accountability, cries foul instead

The true manifestation of a softboi is his resistance to accountability for bad behavior and poor actions. Instead of striving to be better, everything’s taken as a personal attack and thus never applies to them.

President Rodrigo Duterte accuses Vice President Leni Robredo of starting the #NasaanAngPangulo on social media.

But Robredo never actually made a statement about Duterte’s whereabouts or what he was doing during the height of typhoon Ulysses.

More: https://t.co/xcLb6tRRxX pic.twitter.com/AG3Fw5CPsa

— ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) November 18, 2020

Guilt-trips you until you fall for the act

Although considered a stock character of humanity itself, the softboi figure on the verge of toxicity will guilt-trip you into believing that everything’s fine. He’s an expert in exploiting emotions like a true populist figure who thinks he still has the regard of a public oblivious to its faults.

Duterte: Wala e, kung ano ano kasi pumapasok sa isip ko once na inatake ako ng sadness kaya if u cant handle me, better leave kasi ako yung type ng person na hindi mo maiintindihan kasi ako mismo di maintindihan sarili ko.

— :0 (@hotIinemijares) November 16, 2020

Constantly nags

The tantrum-throwing attitude is an example of the softboi’s constant nagging. The need to be superior in taste and power makes him defensive of criticisms so he turns the table on you.

Tinawag na sinungaling ni Pangulong Duterte si Vice President Robredo matapos umano siya nitong hanapin sa kasagsagan ng Bagyong #UlyssesPH.

Gayunpaman, wala namang naging pahayag ang bise presidente tungkol sa paghahanap nito sa pangulo. https://t.co/Ttrso4BZB1 pic.twitter.com/Ga6fhwuUn3

— GMA News (@gmanews) November 17, 2020

Destructive behavior

Lastly, the softboi exhibits a pattern of destructive behavior. He repeatedly does things that could lead himself and others to danger, turning violence, expressed or hidden, into a habit.

President Duterte threatened to defund the University of the Philippines over calls for academic strikes to protest the government’s alleged failure to respond to the calamities.

The campaign, however, originated from Ateneo de Manila University, not UP. https://t.co/Amf9RDCdPd pic.twitter.com/mgorTfpylE

— ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) November 17, 2020

If anything, we should unlearn the charm in emotional masculinity. A fairly simple message to all who has met a softboi once in their life: If mature people really wanna do better, they will act on it.

Art by Yel Sayo