No, no, but why don’t you speak up?

The unintended tragedy of an active life on the Internetmdashexpressing oneself nonstop which is already outpacing real lifemdashis that by temporarily withdrawing from your private self you have chosen to become a public figureYou do the same things such as making public declarations even addressing the nation on important days And must be held to the same standards that actual celebrities do Only that celebrities make crores from public presence earning tonnes of conditional love in return You only receive the flip side of holding an opinion Which isDealing with an insane barrage of character assassinations and counterquestions along predictable lines ldquoBut who are you tohellip What abouthellip Where were you whenhelliprdquo Even the Sikh Gulzar mistaken by the unlettered as Muslim and Amartya Sen perceived as unlettered instead havenrsquot been spared on social mediaAnd so you go ldquoScrew it what goes of my daddyrsquos mere baap ka kya jaata hairdquo and back to scrolling foodcatseminudes on InstaYouTube Unless imagined generations before you are under direct attack Or you are yourselfmdashwhether socially even economicallyAnd the whole world feels like a khap panchayat doling out faux judgements In which case what choice do you have but to speak for yourselfThis is when silence from the likeminded hurts most You rightly seek lsquoallyshiprsquo thatrsquos dictionarycomrsquos word for the year 2021 Feel let down further when purported allies indulge in bothsideism still when everything doesnrsquot have two sides Hate speech classified as exhortation to violence doesnrsquot Neither do unfair laws and so much else Many do speak up constantly saying the same things all dayA lot of them are wellmeaning activists risking possible harassment even from the state This is no more zerostake virtue signalling There is freedom of speech as Idi Amin saidmdashnot necessarily freedom after speechLeft exposed over issues that arenrsquot personal these activists professional or amateur scream the loudest over why everyonersquos gone quiet instead There is safety and merit in an opinion spreading among larger numbers after allThe only issue with some activists at least among friends I know is that they anoint themselves to be sole repositories of good faith all else being sellouts in their eyes Their purity test will hardly win friends and influence people when most are perhaps selfcentred fencesitters minding their own precious business As they always will Politicians are more persuasive in that regard More so those in power They command a flock of cronies over spoils to distribute Itrsquos impossible to match such opportunistic commitment Theyrsquore frickinrsquo at it every moment Itrsquos a job Which is why best to mute such social media handlesprofiles engaged in this lsquospoils systemrsquo Unless you like visiting people at their workplaceHow do you get rid of politicians who get your goat They can only be beaten on the day of an election which is what some believe democracy solely is Winner takes all Every adult gets an equal vote Otherwise like absolute human equality is a social mirage all speech ainrsquot equal Some are more equal than others Measurable online by the size of your following Or the Rnaught of your potentially viral tweet for it to infect beyond immediate acquaintances through community transmission as it wereWhat variant usually spreads fastest As per algorithms opinions tagged to the outlandishextremes for against There is incentive therefore by way of dopamine hits for online likesshares to deal in extremities alone whether Trump or KRK neither is a flukeYou sense that foremost among Indians on social media over matters of rights for religious minorities Not that these things are dictated by logic but Indians by default ought to be most sensitive about any kinda discrimination and insultabuse on religious lines Overwhelming majority 80 per cent of them are Hindus who would be a minority in every part of the world besides NepalAs it is minoritymajority let alone HinduMuslim isnrsquot a permanent construct Every majority is a minority elsewhere Itrsquos plain selfpreservation as a collective human instinct to side against marginalisation But that kinda boring speech it appears doesnrsquot travel Dealing in entertaining wokebhakt binaries going back in history doesmdashand how far back in history does one goEven if one acknowledges that the political conflict online isnrsquot always between fact and fiction although a lot of it is From either end it is also about a set of facts versus a bunch of other facts Forming two factions if you may Where do those standing on neither pole goQuiet Naturally Protecting their izzat Saving their skin among those with too much skin in the game Avoiding a mudfight Calming their nerves Evading conflict Being apolitical on partisan lines is also a political choice Listing that in their dating app bio Knowing their limits to influence anywayI see them all around I know they care Getting told their silence is complicity Forget about why they donrsquot speak up I wonder more about Regular Rameshes who domdashwhy do they Only one explanation doing that makes them feel honourable about themselves Yup feel honourable gotta be a good feelingMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper