Marcos Forever

Apologists’ Resistance to Anti-Marcos Persuasion and Anti-Disinformation Efforts

Abstract

The late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.’s declaration of martial law in the Philippines involved thousands of enforced disappearances, executions, and torture incidents. Despite the countless atrocities, the late dictator and his living family have been regaining their socio-political acceptability largely due to historical denialism and systematic disinformation in the form of fake news. Even with the anti-disinformation and anti-Marcos persuasion strategies of various scholars, activists, and news organizations that aim to counter the pro-Marcos propaganda both outside and inside digital spaces, there still is an alarming number of Marcos apologists among Filipinos carrying pro-Marcos sentiments. This research paper sought to investigate the possible ineffectiveness of such strategies and to view them through the lens of the persuasion resistance framework proposed by Fransen, Smit, and Verlegh (2015). Using a multiple case study design and in-depth semi-structured interviews, the study inquired into the resistance of purposively sampled Marcos apologists to representative anti-Marcos persuasion and anti-disinformation messages. The participants belong to different generations, including Generation X, Millennial, and Generation Z. Results showed that the participants exhibited the resistance motives of distrust, inertia, and reactance through their adopted strategies of contesting, biased processing, empowerment, and avoidance. The multiple case analysis—composed of within-case analyses and a cross-case analysis—also elicited the emergent resistance motive of antagonism, and emergent resistance strategies of dismissal and redirection among Marcos apologists.