Delete and Repent

In the hallowed halls of the Digital Court of Final Appeals (formerly known as Facebook), a new miracle has been recorded. 

It involves neither bread nor wine, but rather the transmutation of a complete fabrication into a million "Heart" reacts—the gold standard of contemporary truth.

At the center of this theological event is a humble devotee who, in a moment of algorithmic ecstasy, shared a quote from the actor Dingdong Dantes. 

In this version of reality, Dantes—a man who usually spends his time being impossibly handsome or delivering packages—was suddenly moonlighting as a political sycophant, offering gushing praise for a specific political scion.

What followed was a masterclass in the New Epistemology: a belief system where the veracity of a statement is directly proportional to how many middle-aged aunts hit the "Love" button.

The Heart as Peer Review

In the old world, we relied on "journalists" and "primary sources"—relics of a slower, more boring era. 

Today, we have Affective Metrics. When the post reached 78,000 heart reactions, it achieved what scientists call Emotional Facticity.

"If 78,000 people love this thought, it would be rude—perhaps even unpatriotic—for the thought to be false."

The irony, of course, is that the spectacle of engagement became its own verification. 

The "Heart" isn't just a reaction; it is a notarized seal of approval. 

By the time the post hit the million-react stratosphere, the actual Dingdong Dantes was merely a secondary character in his own life story, an "inadvertent object" floating in a sea of red icons.

The Liturgy of the "Sorry Po"

When the inevitable collision with reality occurred, we witnessed the most fascinating ritual of our age: The Strategic Equivocation.

The apology—a terse, linguistic masterpiece consisting of "Sorry po"—was not so much an admission of error as it was a tactical retreat. It followed the standard "Algorithm's Prayer":

1. The Shift: "I am sorry, but..."

2. The Crowd-Sourced Defense: "I saw it on TikTok and Threads first."

3. The Absolution: "Since everyone else was wrong, my wrongness is actually a form of community participation."

This is the brilliance of the modern rumor reality. 

The apologizer doesn't just say they were wrong; they suggest that they were simply a victim of a "Collective Assertion." 

In this framework, being the 5,000th person to share a lie isn't "spreading misinformation"—it's "engaging in a trending conversation."

Course Syllabus: Advanced Fact-Ignoring 101

One can only hope that local universities will soon offer a degree in Post-Veracity Communication. 

Suggested modules include:

• REPOST 201: Converting TikTok screenshots into legislative evidence.

• EMOTE 304: Using the "Care" react to bypass the need for a bibliography.

• APOLOGY 101: The art of the "Sorry Po" as a shield against accountability.

Ultimately, the Dantes Episode serves as a comforting fable.

 The celebrity witnesses the adjudication of his own identity in real-time, the fans perform the "social ritual" that restores their standing, and the algorithm—the true god of this machine—continues to reward the loudest voices with the most data.

We are left with a simple, chilling takeaway: In the kingdom of the viral, the man who asks for a source is a heretic, but the man who offers a "Sorry po" after a million lies is a saint.

Next time you see a quote from a celebrity praising a politician, don't check a news site. Just check the heart count.

 If it’s high enough, it’s not a lie—it’s just a "truth that hasn't been deleted yet."