Glad we are angry about police excesses today. But we also look away - or actively cheer - when the police takes the law in their own hands, in cases where we disagree with or dislike the people they are beating up.
Isn't that what empowers some of them to always exert power?
If we turn into online mobs and celebrate videos of police beating up people - no matter how much we disagree with them - we are shunning the judiciary & dismissing human rights.
ALL police brutality is wrong. Police excesses in our country cannot come with *Conditions Applied.
If you want #JusticeForJayarajandBennicks, the next time someone is being lathi charged or 'encountered', don't cheer for the police. This bloodlust is what makes bad cops believe they can get away with brutality.
The job of the police is to apprehend, not to 'deliver justice'.
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Wow, so #PoonamPandey is alive. A friend of mine told me in private last night that this is a campaign by a digital agency, but I was skeptical. Because could we really fall this low? Looks like we have.
So many things wrong with this. #Thread
There are hundreds of thousands of people who die from cancer every year. To use a cancer-led death as a tool for a publicity stunt is one of the most insensitive, thoughtless, vile ideas anyone's come up with. You've diminished real deaths & suffering, and made a mockery of a terrible illness.
Beyond that, you've turned the HPV vaccine into a punchline. I really hope that every woman who was considering taking this vaccine after the news of the death yesterday, goes ahead with it, because chances are that this will have the opposite effect: people will not want to be associated with anything Poonam Pandey was.
Spoke to @shrutisonal26 for a @timesofindia piece on 'The rise of alpha males' thanks to films like Animal, Gadar & <name the South blockbuster>.
While I don't disagree that hypermasculinity has made big bucks, I have a contrarian view on its rise. The reason? @iamsrk
#Thread
If there's a trend about so-called alpha males, and the associated misogyny, aggression and violence, I urge everyone to look at another trend: the giant success of the 'softboy' masculinity of SRK's 500 Cr+ blockbusters of this very year, Pathaan and Jawan.
Some examples:
In Pathaan, the introduction to Deepika's character is through an action scene where she saves SRK's character. And at no point does 'Pathaan' try to 'take charge' (or even try to cut himself loose).. he knows Rubina is very well in charge, and she's kicking all ass!
#Thread on the memeification of the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp trial:
Alright, so I know I'm going to get hate for this thread, but I'm a bit fed up of seeing the hundreds of (mostly Heard) parody videos + memes from the trial, and I'm a bit sick about what they represent.
1/n
First: everything I know about the trial, I know against my will. I've never sought out, read up on, or watched videos of the trial - until it started seeking me. Until I wasn't able to escape it. Until it became pop culture the same way Trump did, *before* he was elected.
2/n
Second: I'm not going to get into the facts of the trial, because at this time, everyone has their own facts (her truth, his truth, the truth).
Irrespective of the trial's outcome, Heard has already lost. She's not a survivor, she's not even a perpetrator, she's a meme now.
3/n
I keep thinking about the 23-year-old software engineer from IIT Hyderabad, who has been caught and jailed for giving a rape threat to Virat Kohli's infant daughter.
I'm glad he's being held accountable - but it's disturbing and tragic to see: this is who we are now.
His background seems antithetical to his actions:
- He studied in a premiere Indian education institution
- He worked at a top-tier food startup
- He is a software engineer who was studying to do a masters in the US
- He is from a higher socio-economic background
- He is 23!
And yet, why would a young Indian, who was well on the path of achieving the Indian 'middle-class dream', peddle in and pursue such horrific hatred?
What's more disturbing is: this is not even a question being asked, because of how normalised and endemic this hate has become.
For the last few days, I've not been thinking of Aryan Khan, the son of superstar Shah Rukh Khan, but of Aryan, a 23-year-old young Indian, who was caught by an investigative agency for an alleged misdemenor. And I've been thinking about his mental health.
This is a young Indian, who has allegedly broken a law, with an offence that ultimately harms no one else but his own self.
Yes, there is no legal justification for what he did, but the criminal ramification of it must be a punishment commiserate with the scale of the offence.
But this young man is now the topic of discussion on every media channel, all debates, on trending topics, at homes, on Whatsapp groups and in some very mean memes. Everyone has an opinion on him. MANY want him to be held accountable for the allegeged misdemenor (still unproven).