Thread by @Anupam_Guha

"sunlight is the best disinfectant"

I've read this phrase in three different Indian political contexts recently, each time expressed with a certain degree of confidence (you would have guessed at least one and yes courts are political). It is a remarkably flawed sentiment. 1/n

This sentiment is rooted in the "just world fallacy", which assumes a level playing field, a marketplace of ideas, and thus the only problem being biases, corruptions, malfeasance, incompetence, etc.

Root out the bad apples and things would be fine. Thus, "disinfectant". 2/n

That is the problem.

Biased/bad individuals (or algorithms) are not the problem. Or rather, they are not THE problem. The problem is often a system, a structure (in case of humans a political-economic ideology they inhabit generally). The narrative of disease/disinfectant... 3/n

...completely erases political systemic thinking about the problem. It takes the spotlight away from power and how it operates, the first thing which needs to be stared at when things go bad. It also takes away guilt from the system.

The metaphorical sunlight is convenient. 4/n

I would go far as to say that the sentiment is solutionist. Not the techno-solutionism which is rightfully criticized these days but a much more insidious and harmful version, political solutionism if you will. 5/n

This is the same kind of thinking which fetishises anti-corruption movements targeting individual polticians as some kind of radical idea in politics or worse the sort of environmental movements which keep piling on the consumer the responsibility for saving the planet. 6/n

When relatively respected institutions like the courts embrace this sentiment it becomes harder to bring to convince liberals/centrists how the systems are oppressive themselves, how quick fixes like cctv cameras are not lasting solutions. 7/n

The same with technology ('bias' rather than 'power', 'class' being oft discussed in AI), with social movements (environment, police reform), and all the time with politics.

Transparency is important. But no amount of transparency will fix a broken engine. 8/n

Resist the individualisation of politics, any politics. Be skeptical when persons, civic qualities, and "apolitical" dignity are valourised. And analyse how power operates in any social system if you really want to fix it.

Essentially think like a socialist, not a liberal. n/n