Took 12 years to get to 15K. Thanks to gobar and his fellow sanghis QTing and SSing and "he blocked me ๐Ÿ˜ ๐Ÿ˜ "ing so much, about to hit 16K in just 7 more days. ๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿคฃ
Make it happen people ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜‡
As I said in my Spaces session today, just a little bit of smart thinking and you can make them work to spread and amplify you instead of the opposite, which is what happens these days with revolver rani, sanghihotri, etc throwing out bait. ๐Ÿค“

On popular demand, here are main points I made today.

1. Types of Sanghi Troll attacks

Tho whataboutery, sealioning are broadly used by neo-fascists like Trump and traditional fascists like RSS, the latter has a more specific and structured attacks to harass or distract
This rough typology is based on partial analysis of a couple of million sanghi tweets and responses to tweets and QTs collected since mid 2016. For a research paper that will be a follow-up to this paper from ISR last year.
1A. The RaGa Raga
First sanghi attack in response is to accuse you of loving Rahul Gandhi or Congress. It's not a serious accusation. If so many were into RaGa, congress wouldn't have so few seats.
The main purpose is to put you on the defensive and leave your original point.
Protip - Block instantly. Whether you support congress or not, this is the hallmark of THE dumbest and most abusive sanghi trolls. Not even mute. Block.
2. Looks, Weight, DP
The slightly less dumb troll will call you ugly, fat, thin, dark, bald, etc. They will typically QT your criticism of Modi with your DP and insult your appearance. I'm a lifelong fatty so doesn't bother me. But it can trigger some people. That's their plan.
Often the person hurling the insult will themselves not exactly be Idris Elba in looks. They're not clueless. It's a tactical half-volley. They WANT you to insult their looks or whatever in return and for your followers to like and RT. Increase their engagement numbers.
Pro-tip: Don't QT or RT or even ridicule them. But no need to block either. You can mute. That way they can keep QTing you, improve your visibility, and as long as your skin is thick, let them.
This only works if you can shrug off insults though.
3. "What have YOU done?"
They know you and the Prime Minister have vastly different jobs. But they will try to get you to talk about how you're making a difference to solve a problem created by Modi in the first place. They know you don't have 2 brand new 777s but still.
So you will earnestly start talking about what you are doing. I've done that often. It's hard to not respond to accusations of inaction or armchairing if you're actually doing something. But in the process, the focus shifts away from Modi again.
4. "It's crisis... Not the time to fight within indians... Support the PM now. Work out differences later"

Which is sheer chutzpah because they keep creating those crises regularly. Khudko 1940 ka FDR samajhta hai.

Protip - Block. Sounds polite but is sleazy.
There are a few other sub types but these are the big ones. Notice how utterly simplistic they are. But carefully planned and taught to IT cell employees and Telegram vultures to get you to do something in response to get them visibility and traffic. And we walk right into traps.
Other protips.
- Never QT or reply
- If screenshot, never show handle or DP
- If a mutual has not responded to a troll attacking them, resist jumping in to support your friend. Maybe they are ignoring on purpose and your well meaning reply gives the troll engagement numbers.
Notice how much Trump is driving the narrative these days? Zero! Because he no longer has twitter so no longer has well meaning but naive people QTing him and doing his work for free. Of sowing chaos, hatred, distrust. Which are the fuels of fascism.
But Trumpism and maga etc are still being attacked on US twitter everyday substantively. He just can't drive the news cycle anymore.

Modi's own twitter game is faux avuncular so he's not going anywhere.

But his minions can be defanged with some collective common sense.
Let me be clear. Their lies and misinformation and propaganda have to be countered. Can't just ignore them or you cede the discourse space to them. Fight, counter, fact check, ridicule,
BUT
without name, handle, DP.

Samajhane waale samajh lenge, na samjhe woh...๐Ÿ˜
Most days, IT cell drives trending topics at peak twitter times in India. By just doing the repetitive hateful things to throw you off.

With just a little coordination and common sense, we can control the narratives instead. Will need work. But it's very doable.
I have a dream. That one day my mutuals will completely stop giving influencer oxygen to these sanghis online whose only skill is get a rise out of you. If Sanghana gets no hate QTs, why would anyone care what she says? She will go retire with Trump in maralago.
P.S. A data point that underlines that the only purpose of the BJP IT Cell is to attack opponents, not help people. Stop playing into their hands by amplifying every whine of theirs with QTs. And to criticize, do it like Nandini. Without tagging.

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More from @gauravsabnis

27 Apr
This! So much this!

Muslimphobia is a real thing.
Anti-semitism is a real thing.

There is quite literally no such thing as "hinduphobia" outside the intentionally misleading sangh propaganda. NO. SUCH. THING.

The non-Hindu world does not even think about Hinduism.
I have lived outside India for 15 years and visited 30 countries. Sometimes I've been discriminated against because I'm brown skinned. But not once, ever, remotely, have I been discriminated against because I'm Hindu.

It's a completely fabricated canard like love jihad!
No one in the world except the Sangh Parivar has actual Hinduphobia.
Read 4 tweets
27 Apr
The most gratifying aspect of blocking a sanghi is thinking of the likelihood that they are using *my* block screenshot as a badge of honor. ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿคฃ
People often mute trolls instead of blocking thinking "i dont want to give them the satisfaction". Why not? They live such petty lives. Let them gloat about it for a minute. Then they will have to create alts or open an incognito tab to check your twitter. They lazily quit.
Many times, I am sent screenshots of sanghis saying "sabnis has blocked me! I never even interacted with him!"
๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚
Protip- Every few days, I go to the profiles of @Shehla_Rashid @saliltripathi @imsabbah @iamrana @BabaGlocal and prophylactically mass block anyone abusing them.
Read 6 tweets
27 Apr
This is such great work. Gonna send them a cash thank you through a friend who is collecting funds for this initiative. Government hospitals in India are overrun with people who are literally penniless because they are daily wage dependent.

This whole thread is just so life affirming. So many good people glowing everywhere even despite the darkness seeming to engulf us.

Read 14 tweets
27 Apr
A month ago when it seemed covid was no longer a threat to India but vaccines were scarce

Centrists: See Trump was so smart to monopolize all the supplies & do OWS. Smart businessman!
Me: He didn't want to do ANYTHING. This was others around him. Read newyorker.com/magazine/2021/โ€ฆ
India gets a second surge. Bhakts try to deflect by blaming US for the very policies praised.

Same centrists: Biden-Harris are being so selfish and cruel! Open up export restrictions!
Me: Give em a couple of days. They're busy with US pandemic.
Same centrists: No, tweet needed๐Ÿ˜ 
When about 48 hours later, as is a reasonable time for a president who works from the oval office not his TV room and twitter, US announces the help it can.

Centrists & Bhakts: Too little too late
Me: Wha...How...NOTHING in US policy impacted indian second surge! NOTHING!
Read 10 tweets
26 Apr
Serious answer. 95% of my streaming watching since quarantine is either Canadian sitcoms, black sitcoms, or David Attenborough narrated wildlife documentaries. They do wonders. I've actually measured my heart rate before and after.
Gone from a guy who rewatched The Wire and Sopranos 3 times to not having watched any drama episode in 14 months.
"Emperor penguin bodies are perfectly built for many things. Mating is not one of them."
Just that line and that penguin porn had wife and I cracking up for 10 minutes. Can't find the exact scene but how can this not make you relax?
Read 4 tweets
26 Apr
Our apartment lease was renewed for 2 years. With covid caused drop in the Manhattan rental market, we got a 13% decrease. Which is cool cos neither wife nor I missed a paycheck throughout. So this is like finding money. Monthly cut $$ x 24 sent to #CovidIndia in 3 days. ๐Ÿค“๐Ÿค“
If your income was unaffected by covid but spending notably reduced cos no eating out, movies, travel etc, you also have "found" money in your account. Consider donating it to orgs working for the neediest. Or if busy, just do this. Your own stimulus plan

Remember that India has hundreds of millions of people living on daily wages, often uncertain. And India had no stimulus. While many of us elites complain of zoom fatigue, many of them suffer from hunger fatigue. Even after this second surge plateaus, think of them.
Read 5 tweets

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