Every week I get a demonstration of what a hazardous influence Whatsapp is for public health in india. This time, it was in a relatively benign context. A relative who is almost 70, went to a doctor because his family told him, your hearing seems to be getting really bad. /1
The doctor, an actual FRCS doctor, not a homeopathy or alternative medicine type quack, ran a bunch of tests and said, it's just age. Can't fix this with surgery. You have to wear hearing aids. They are very small and inconspicuous now. Hardly anyone will notice, I promise.
My relative was like, cool. Hook me up. Said relative is awesomely rare in not really caring log kya kahenge. Ordered the best hearing aids for both ears. Him happy. Family happy.

This is when Whatsapp groups, neighbors, relatives etc kicked into high gear.
"Is it really necessary? My uncle said he found it annoying."

"Why wear it in both ears? You can hear okay even by putting it in one ear."
(🤦🤦)

"I heard that hearing aids make your hearing even worse with dependence."
(Lies)

And so on. None of them doctors btw.
But on Indian Whatsapp, rules are different. The West has made such a big deal about having lots of Indian doctors that every Indian assumes he/she knows as much as doctors if not more. The confidence with which they will spout pseudoscience is unreal.
Thankfully said relative shrugged it off. But I know people who actually take these earnest but utterly unscientific health recommendations from whatsapp groups seriously in India. Sounding eloquent is more important than domain knowledge in health issues.
The bizarre or rather bizarro thing about indian whatsapp is that any pseudo science nonsense, from homeopathy to coronil, they become instant cheerleaders for, no evidence needed. But actual clinically tested modern medicine, they have a thousand "I heard that" objections. 🤷🏽‍♂️

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More from @gauravsabnis

26 Jan
Our species will go extinct because we didn't understand or value the concept of a Republic (where public is above the rulers) as much as the concept of a Democracy (where elections choose rulers).

India is still a Democracy. I don't think it's a Republic anymore.
Being a functioning democracy does not ensure individual freedom or rights. Being a functioning republic at least aspires to.
A Republic says the public is the main thing and yes we have a government, but the government better not cross these these these these lines. You can't just arrest someone without explaining why. You can't just kill someone! Etc.

Does not sound like today's India.
Read 8 tweets
26 Jan
2021 has been a great year overall except that I had to quit a group of very lovely nice people because of one persistently abusive dude. That hurt. Literally, one guy ruined it for everyone else. Despite several gentle Shishupal type reminders that you're being a Shishupal.
Context. A few days ago, I tweeted about how IIM Lucknow alumni whatsapp groups are mostly run and dominated by bigots and sanghis. Obviously, it led to my batchmates closing ranks, acting ultra outraged etc. Typical of the geedad gang that hunts in packs.
Said dude, fellow puneri and fellow manhattan resident who claims to be liberal but seems to always be picking fights with feminists over "political correctness" and never actually arguing with right wingers.

He sends me this. From an anonymous account that goes by "deep state" Image
Read 7 tweets
26 Jan
So much #FactCheckBait being put out by IT Cell today and so many people biting.
What is #FactCheckBait? Fascists putting out tweets or messages with very obvious rebuttal properties. So non-fascists are distracted by rebutting or fact checking them. And the fascists get more name recognition. What have the top sanghi twitter accounts done other than provoke?
Why are so many sanghi bigot handles famous & well followed on Twitter despite having no notable quality other than getting called out by liberals? Cos that's all it takes. If they can fool liberals into QTing or even screenshot-ing them, they become heroes and then are like
Read 7 tweets
26 Jan
I've done this before and I'll keep doing it every time a #MunawarFaruqui type case happens. Because other than just being blatantly bigoted and fascist, it also seems bizarrely self-destructive. So here's a paraphrasing of one of Shakespeare's best. /1
He is a Muslim. Hath not a Muslim eyes? Hath not a Muslim hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Hindu is?
If we prick them, do they not bleed? If we tickle them, do they not laugh? If we poison them, do they not die? And if we wrong them, shall they not revenge? If they are like us in the rest, they will resemble us in that.
Read 4 tweets
25 Jan
He gets headlines. That's how Trump & Cruz went 1-2 in the 2016 GOP primaries despite being non factors in 2012. Get attention through easily demonstrable hypocrisy and easily debunkable lies. Name recognition is the biggest hurdle for a a politician with national ambitions.
It's the global right wing playbook. Social media and 24 hr news have made it more effective than ever before. It was easier to bash Trump's outright fascist bigotry than Scott Walker's old school conservative policies that gutted Wisconsin. Who even remembers Walker?
Even now, CNN etc are regularly having on random insurrectionist members of congress and the anchors grill them looking very indignant and then people indignantly make clips of it viral. Like Trump and birtherism. Win win for them. Lose lose for us and the country.
Read 7 tweets
25 Jan
Most elite Indians (primarily savarna white collar urban english medium educated folks like me) land on Western shores convinced that we are just as advanced and developed as these countries as a people. It's just "corruption" in India holding us back. Then reality hits. /1
We see that the West works better on a daily level, but not because of some mythical genetic or societal immunity to this mythical "corruption" villain. Cos there is corruption in Western politics too. They seem to have institutions and systems built over ages to minimize it.
But most Indians who reach these shores are engineer/mba/doctor types. Trained in secondary vocational type disciplines. So our default approach is to find a quick engineering type solution. We have almost zero exposure to sociology, psychology, economics, anthropology, etc.
Read 18 tweets

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