Troll nation

 

Recently I quit a WhatsApp group. I have been reflecting upon the conduct of the group and its members. 

The group was called “democratic.” 

One single person, late in the night, DECIDED that since there’s an option in WhatsApp called ‘timer,’ it should be tried. And, he did. Because, he could, as he was one of the admin members. He didn’t bother to consult the other admin members. He didn’t bother to find out whether that was what the other members wanted. He just did it. Because, it was his version of democracy. And, he had DECIDED. 

Some of the other admin members pushed back. Ultimately, one of the (very) lowly members (viz., me) pushed back. But, in the name of democracy, this one person held firm and stuck to his stand. Because, he had the power – he was admin, no less! When push came to shove, he did what every bureaucrat in the annals of history had done. He organised a poll. Not “before,” but “after,” having blocked all the other members from saving their individual preferences. He also suddenly remembered democracy again. There was one type of democracy before he peremptorily blocked everyone else from individual ‘saves.’ Under this second type of democracy, members had to now vote before his “democratic” action could be revoked. Even though the concerned admin vigorously rang up other members to support the timer, more members voted ‘against’ the timer than ‘for.’ So, there had to be a third type of ‘democracy.’ Poll extended for a week, extendable for a fortnight, a month, a year, or so on, ad infinitum (the time period decided by him), until enough times the coin dropped ‘heads.’ Meanwhile, that “democratic” decision to block the saves continued. 

Such is the basis upon which “democracy” is built. Amen! 

There was another member whose world began and ended with a non-biological being (NBB). So, whatever NBB decreed had to be defended at all costs. So, if NBB committed the country’s Air Force to battle under some “cloud theory” of escaping radar detection, that was a masterstroke! Obviously, there was plastic surgery which made Lord Ganesha’s elephant head possible. The 2,000 rupee notes had chips embedded (wonder what happened to the chips since the notes are now gone). Shivaji statue had laser eyes to detect terrorist movements in the sea – the statue has now collapsed so we all are quite vulnerable. 

There was another guy for whom everything reminded of caste. If someone even posted a nice painting or said the sky was blue, he would rave and rant and splutter about how Brahmins have been so evil. And, heavens forbid, if anyone even mentioned reservations … I tried telling him everything reminded me of sex but at least I didn’t put it in ALL my WhatsApp posts but the irony passed him by. 

One guy thought that he was “the chosen one” to spread the outpourings of the toxic IT cell and try and fashion the group in its image. It was not even acceptable to him if nobody responded to his rants. He would cast serious aspersions on the intellectual abilities of his batchmates if others remained silent. 

Two guys once got into a heated argument and then the admin (used to be a lone person then, the creator of the group) was asked to intervene. The admin did so but it was apparently not acceptable that the admin had not taken a stronger stand. The then lone admin quit the group – for more than a decade, he had worked assiduously to keep the group together, … and civil. 

The problem is not with WhatsApp as a platform. The problem is not even with most of the WhatsApp group members. The problem is with the systematic injecting of the venom that has made us into such a hateful nation of trolls that “hatred” is our default option. The bigger problem is that the “injecting” has been SO successful that highly educated people (IIMs are the pinnacle of educational excellence in India) and people who have seen the ins-and-outs of government and politicians and their seamier sides at play (civil servants) have been mesmerised into idolatry. I quit my IIM batch group in the past. I’ve now quit a civil services group. I’ve also quit a retired people’s group. I guess, I self-enforced my social media ban. Other governments en-forced social media bans from the outside, with disastrous results. With time, they’ll probably pivot to the Indian model (of immersing social media with so much venom from the inside and creating so many trolls that no ban would be necessary). Just a hope – India will learn from these incidents. It’s a small, dwindling, now-barely-flickering hope. We live in dark times.