User:CertifiedMinority

= Bio =

About me
I am a student who is interested in political theory, philosophy, and psychology. I enjoy partaking in debates about religion and politics. Due to the current political climate of the world, I am interested in the process of political radicalization and extremism, and have read books written by far-right leaders in order to investigate the reason why people would identify with far-right ideologies; I have read "A Handbook for the Right Wing Youth" by Julius Evola, "The Philosophic Basis of Fascism" by Giovanni Gentile, and "The Political Doctrine of Fascism" by Alfredo Rocco. I am also planning to read more books written by notable far-left leaders to understand why people radicalize into the far-left; I have started reading "The Communist Manifesto" by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx and hope to find the time to read for others. I am an aspiring psychiatrist and by combining my interests in politics and psychology, I would like to learn about the psychology behind political extremism and find any relation between the two subjects as I full wholeheartedly believe the direction society is headed towards is in the route of political extremism and needs to be addressed. Excessive moral superiority, intolerance, indulging in echo chambers, and the willingness to use violence to advance one's goals are signs of political extremism. Society can start by understanding why people embrace these ideologies in the first place in order for any solution to be formed.

My Wikipedia interests
Since I am new to Wikipedia, I would start by doing minor edits in grammar or adding reputable sources to articles relating to political theory, philosophy, and psychology. Especially when discussing and writing about controversial topics, it is important to address these issues from an objective standpoint and not from the confines of any ideology which is something I will hold my standards to.

= Article Evaluation = In an attempt to stray away from its colonial identity and more towards its ancient past, there is a popular Filipino movement advocating to change the name of the Philippines to "Maharlika". There are multiple connotations attributed to "Maharlika"; Former President Ferdinand Marcos considered the word synonymous with "royalty" and Former President Rodrigo Duterte attributed it to "peace" and "serenity". I decided to go to the Maharlika page and found three aspects worth commenting on: irrelevant sentences, its reference to unqualified authority, and its lack of citations.

Irrelevant sentences
At the end of the section titled, "Etymology", it discusses how the name of the Mardijker people of Batavia came from the same etymon as Maharlika. Although "Mardijker" and "Maharlika" came from the same etymon, referencing the Mardijker people is irrelevant because they are from Batavia and they didn't have any impact on the development of the word "Maharlika" in the Philippines. Unlike The Merdicas which originated in Indonesia, they eventually migrated to the Philippines and brought their culture, influencing the word "Maharlika" as a whole and had an impact on the development of the word in the context of Filipino society. However, the paragraph on the Mardijker people is only brought up due to the fact that the Merdicas and Papangers were captured by Moro raiders. I acknowledge that it's important to study the relationship between words since the section is titled, "Etymology", however, there is no large connection between Mardijker people in Indonesia and the society currently living in the Philippines; the article should focus on people who immigrated to or already lived in the Philippines that had an impact on the development of the word.

Its reference to unqualified authority
The Maharlika page referenced a website created by Paul Morrow to cite facts listed in the article. However, upon reading his website, Morrow didn't receive any formal education regarding Filipino history or even study etymology; he specializes in film and sound engineering as shown in the resume he listed on his website. Therefore, using historical facts written by Paul Morrow is invalid.

Lack of citations
In the middle of the "Overview" section, it mentions the act of Rajah Humabon to draw contrasts between the Maharlika and Timawa. As labeled correctly in the Wikipedia article, the fact needs to be cited as there is no evidence regarding whether or not Humabon did what he did. Until the fact is verified through a reputable source, which hasn't been verified since the article was last edited in March 12, 2022, it should be deleted.

Conclusion
The Maharlika article is satisfactory. There are plenty of reliable information cited in the "Reference list" but there are changes that need to be made. In order to improve the article, the article must focus on the etymology of the word in the nation the word was developed in and exclude any group that didn't have much contribution to the development of the word, remove Paul Morrow as a source since he is a sound engineer and is not a historian which doesn't give him the authority to be referenced to when stating historical facts, and all facts must be cited. These changes would greatly improve the Maharlika article.