Thread by @asuph

#MiniBlogAsTweetStormAlert.

Sometimes I wonder if Twitter gets the worst out of us, or does it just provide an x-ray vision to our deep-rooted bigotry/hate? The 280 character limit leaves no place to hide our bigotry. With longer pieces, one gets ample opportunity for that 1/n

But in one or more tweets, one has no real protection. Plus, while it was a virtue to be "middle-of-the-road" person with earlier mediums, the nature of social media has taken away that advantage. Now, the more you cling to the edges, the better the response - RTs and likes. 2/n

So there is no tax for being openly extreme, but there could be a windfall -- sometimes even those who totally hate your point of view (the "other" extreme) will RT your tweets, with an outrage, but RT is RT. The counts go up. You're suddenly "viral". 3/n

Try going viral with common-sense, old-world wisdom. Yes, it *can* happen, if you've gathered influence before social media went asinine (however I hate that word). But the new age currency for influence is definitely not subtle wisdom. 4/n

And so, people like #MadhuKishwar, who long back seemed sensible intellectuals (I'm sure there are parallels from the left, by no means is this left vs right thing) are suddenly shown for what they really are: extreme bigots, who intellectualize their prejudices. 5/n

In that sense, Twitter and the rest of social media, is doing a great service in outing such trash. But, I'm not sure that takes us anywhere. Because the "outing" doesn't cost anyone. It just cements their place as ideologues of this/that side. 6/n

After all, it's this phenomenon that has given us everything from Brexit to Trump/Modi. Hate is now mainstream. All these years, we thought people are more or less tolerant and good, it's just politics that is broken. But come the SM and we've to question that assumption. 7/n

We have to accept that we're broken as a people, and that's why our politics is broken. That our ideas of "decent human being" were never really fully developed. That the same person can be an angel to some and a complete devil to someone else hasn't internalized. 8/n

That our friends and relatives could be "peach of human beings" could be true at one level, and yet could be xenophobic/<xyz>phobic bigots who could choose based on that deep-rooted hate, is something we've not really acknowledged -- deeply. 9/n

Twitter/facebook can't make us what we are not. They just allow us to be what we have been, openly -- for the validation that was covert all these years is overt now. And so, people are "coming out of the closet" -- and I use the phrase deliberately, for its irony 10/n

Like I said, I don't know if this is good or bad. On a philosophical level, maybe it's good. But on a sociological level, this avalanche of open hate could destroy us as a society. 11/n

We're not just the children of the enlightenment. We're also the children of the dark ages. The angels and demons are both within us. But the veneer of civilization that was shielding the demons is wearing out. 12/n

What we are facing isn't the "war of civilizations". It is, literally, the war *for* civilization. The war, that we're losing to our inner demons right now. 13/n

There is an urdu/hindi saying: umeed par duniya kaayam hain (it's the hope that holds the world afloat). But I'd add: "par duniyaa pe kise umeed hain?" (but who has hope from the world?). Who will heal the world opening at the seam -- across the cultural fault lines? 14/n

Our naive hope that "the revolution will be tweeted" has fallen flat -- the Arab springs have dried up. The bridges are burnt. The broken shards of hope of "super-connected" humans finding a common humanity (the promise of the internet) lie shattered all over social media. 15/n

That technology will make us better human is another naive assumption that lies broken -- for it has seems to have worked just the opposite: it has allowed us to be, unapologetically, our worse. n/n <end of rant>