26 August,2020 06:09 AM IST | Mumbai | Mayank Shekhar
Block, block, block, day in and day out. Because it is then easier to ignore - which, foremost, equals self-care. You owe it to yourself. Pic/Getty Images
Desi stars/celebrities do that, when up against faceless 'faulaads' acting familiar. These embodiments of soft power, which only means soft target, hide inside rat-holes, because they have much (or many fans) to lose. Public shaming against them comes with dire threats of professional/economic ruin.
They sit scared. Because that's how individuals are muted inside ghettos by mobs with sardars lording over them. Of which Facebook/Twitter/YouTube etc can become online versions, with self-styled keyboard warriors hiding behind amorphous flag/community/ideology and other fake binaries developed to annihilate free thinking.
What do regular Rameshes (like me) do? Instantly place a counter-point to the detractor over who is the bigger duffer/hypocrite after all! Because that's what these slanging matches on social media are about anyway.
Net result is upping of temperature, with no hope of either side cooling down. Arguments stem from a position of belief. We can engage with facts, not beliefs. Especially, when one's identity online is solely based on it. There's nothing to learn. You'd change your mind - only if it was active, rather than outsourced. Also notice that with mooh-boli dushmani on social media - there is no sorry, no thank you; only f''' you!
Chalo phir, what to do? I'd say block abusers and handles that don't treat/wish you well - as the absolute first, and not the final resort. In the same way that you'd instantly run the other way, with a similar person in true life - instead of talking to them still. Block, block, block, day in and day out. Because it is then easier to ignore - which, foremost, equals self-care. You owe it to yourself.
But we fit ourselves into a bubble then? No; look around, the bubble already exists. We save it from bursting, by unnecessarily bloating up. We also reduce the size of other bubbles, pumped with poison. But thereafter forced to blabber and bump into self alone.
For, you only troll the point/person you hate. Which is subconscious admission of the fact that you deeply care. Surely it doesn't feel good to be 'blocked', as a human being, by another you cared enough to mentally hurt? Is this response similar to celebrities, post social media, rendered impotent by their love for fame, realising that millions apparently hate them among the same masses they work their butts off to please?
How does this blocking sit well with the freedom of speech/expression (FoE) argument, though? By the fact that FoE is a democratic tool to empower the feeble - against the actually mighty/powerful. FoE loses its meaning/purpose if misused to make/create foes among private citizens, by private armies - seeking accountability for their speech - but leaving alone, therefore in the same minute, the establishment for their overt/covert moves.
Accepting innuendoes/insinuations from news, but demanding journalistic accuracy from fiction! Potentially ending up in jail for punching up - at heavily protected judges/politicians - but becoming famous for punching sideways, at unarmed, fellow nationals! Blocking that relentless distracter frees the clouded space online, to see the horizon/system/democracy, clearer.
In any case, without an exception, everyone advocates free speech. Most of us fail the test if the speech is somebody else's. What about hate-speech? Is it part of free speech? Has to be. How else will you know a YouTuber or minister for exactly how/what/who they are/feel? And that you can never look at them beyond it for?
Unless, of course, there is a direct instruction being issued for marked, physical violence. In which case it isn't speech at all - only causal-effect evidence for a committed crime. You report. Rather than share, share, share⦠Acting on impulse, only widening the supply for hate, because all groups display a negativity bias, creating 'Streisand Effect' on the Internet. Immorally calling attention to a bloke, who you should have personally blocked!
There is at present little incentive in being a moderating influence from any end - in terms of likes, followers, comments and retweets. Todo phodo, ban them, screw you, and I speak the truth, you sold out soulless pieces of shit - that's more fun, rewarding, and a rampantly charged-up exercise for dulled brains.
Takes the sharpness of Gandhi to make passive resistance and non-violence look sassy. And if the Mahatma was alive, he would indeed get trolled incessantly. For God's sake he was shot dead for his views. So who are you, and who am I? And what good is my :-) and the haha! Tried it; failed.
Where does that leave desi non-politician/activists online? Media/art/entertainment folk will share their work and leave. Gated wall is the future of social media for the public figure. WhatsApp group is sorted haven for the intellectually aligned. For the working professional, LinkedIn - where a 'deputy general manager' or 'executive assistant' has something to lose - is the future of Twitter. Rest can carry on with cat videos. It's the only thing human about social media anyway.
Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14
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