You have got to hand it to some woke snowflake libtards for a defense mechanism that, many times, really effectively stymies legitimate criticism from their opponents: The victim card.

This is how it works: Someone (say, a lawmaker who looks like leftist Sarah Elago) throws invectives at a public figure (say, former President Duterte), calling him a maniac or a pervert. Then someone defending Duterte fires back at Elago. Perhaps they may even accuse her of breaking the law and file charges in court.

At this point, Elago begins acting all hurt and offended, saying she is being attacked because she is a woman, and the scathing tirade is an attempt to silence her because she is the embodiment of an empowered woman, blah blah blah.

The hypocrisy is, of course, apparent right there. Here is someone who is used to the rough and tumble of politics (no one would have gotten into the House of Representatives otherwise), who marches in the streets on a regular basis and plays push and shove with the police.

Yet, a few strong words and they hide behind their gender. In Batangas, there is a pejorative word for that — nana, the slimy pus that develops inside a wound that easily hurts and then oozes out. The modern term, as I have stated above, is “snowflake,” so tender and fragile.

There is the worn-out saying that if you can dish it out, you must be able to take it as well. He (or she) who mingles in the fray of political debate is like a boxer: once you step into that ring and start slugging, you are bound to get punched back. Hard. You cannot throw uppercuts and right crosses, and when the other guy starts counter-punching and connecting, hide behind the referee and cry “he’s hurting me!” To use another cliché, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

People who play victim all the time are not only hypocrites, they are also immature at their very core. Mature people realized, long ago, that in a free country everyone is entitled to their opinion and has the liberty to express them in whatever manner they deem fit, as long as their pronouncements do not outrun the bounds of the law.

There will be times when you will not like those opinions, or they may be extremely hurtful. And sometimes, the persons who state those painful opinions are a**holes. That is the “trouble” with democracy. But if your solution to this problem is to annoy, vex, or harass the people who offend you, then you are an even bigger a**hole. Your solution should be to move to Thailand — where they have lese majeste laws — and try to become king.

I have never — not once — sued anyone because I felt offended about any sort of criticism, fair or foul. In fact, I am for the decriminalization of libel. But that’s just me. Evidently some people do not want to fight fair, because they know they cannot win if they do. They always want to have the option of playing victim when they begin to feel they are losing the argument.

It’s the big theme of their existence in the world: Playing victim when on the ropes. Cowardly…