Maybe you are right and nobody should be spoon feeding people information. In a world where all information was objective and readily available, you would have a valid point. But we live in a world where religious goups, global corporations and governments
are already predigesting the information and spitting it out in neat bullet points.
Why else would authorities in places like Saudi Arabia and China try to control the internet? Why else would religious people come here and demand that atheists shut up? Why else do US fundamentalists battle so hard to have their ideas about science, etc. taught in public schools?
The crucifixion stuff is just an example, not necessarily the most serious or vital issue in everyday Filipino life. But people's decisions, about cultural practices like re-enacting Christ's crucifixion, don't come out of nowhere, and often don't even originate with the people themselves.
Powerful institutions try hard as they can to control and slant the info people get. If much of the information people in a given country get about say, birth control, is controlled by the Catholic Church, how are people supposed to make an informed decision about it? If a conservative government controls all information about (and access to) alcohol or cannabis, how are people supposed to make informed decisions about them?
If most of the info people get about what they should smoke, eat and drink, comes from companies trying to sell them harmful or unhealthy products, can you say that people are actually making decisions "on their own"? Critical thinking has to be taught-- it doesn't just appear out of nowhere. And there are many who benefit from people
not thinking critically, just going along with what others are doing.
I just heard a report about a miracle shrine place in Mexico where thousands of people travel on foot in a yearly pilgrimage. Whatever, right? But when they interviewed the townspeople, turns out that
a major part of the local economy is based on selling religious stuff to the pilgrims.
Who in that town would dare say that the shrine was bogus and people should not spend their money on useless religious stuff? So much for objective information.
