Maybe it's time we accept that S'pore's mainstream, moderate pundit class — long functioning as the PAP's auxiliary advertising department — is at best, a cluster of grifters desperate for relevance, and at worse, an insidious clog to democratic reinvention & critical insight.

Sure, this class of stargazers can still be of use. They serve as windows into our hegemonic, reactionary political culture.

But if you're looking for insight with more explanatory powers, or ones that cast wider horizons, then that group is a blackhole.

Imagine how servile & spurious one must be to urge folks to show empathy to an authoritarian regime that, although bitten back by the masses, took every opportunity to deprive & restrict their liberties to act.

Banality disguised as insight; apologia dressed as civility.

Where Bertha apologizes for being "totally wrong about the [S'pore] electorate", for insisting on the tired myths of bread & butter.

As politics expand, the pundit class will likely struggle with its postured neutrality & relevancy, and internal regime sympathies.

Now watch as state media (and aligned pundits, analysts, soothsayers) does its best to restore PAP innocence & power back into the national narrative, and to misrepresent the compositions & motivations of opposition voters.

"these damn youths!" "back in our day ah..." "si geena"