Thread by @beastoftraal

A friend recently writes on Facebook and Twitter that he thinks most of his followers online have muted or blocked him already because of his political views.
Another writes that he thinks the fascists must be brought down at any cost even if it means all the existing crooks get

together to perform the task.
A third friend shares a patently fake news, one so obvious that I asked her why would she, an otherwise normal and perfectly sensible person even bother sharing such a silly and obvious fake news. She texts back, "It seemed right. They deserve it!".

A fourth one says she's not able to have a decent conversation with her own mother because invariably, the conversation veers towards political affiliations and it all breaks down from then on.
From 'friend', 'mentor', 'acquaintance', 'peer', 'brother', 'mother', 'classmate',

'colleague', 'boss'... we have moved to newer labels to identify each other - 'liberal', 'presstitute', 'liberandu' (don't ask), 'knickerati', 'chaddis', 'sanghi', 'bhakt', 'left', 'right'...
Politicians, across the years, have done good and bad. But they blame each other for not

doing enough and then when they come to power, like a cycle, do the same thing all over again - some good and some bad. They could do a whole lot more, but they love the status-quo. That keeps them busy, rich and in control, no matter who comes to power among themselves.
We all

love to blame social media networks and bots for spreading toxic nonsense in the society. But something more damaging is happening to us - we, perfectly sane and normal people, are dividing ourselves over political figures who don't figure in our every lives at all.
The same

leaders who, across party affiliations, do not care about petrol price rise and conveniently and hypocritically blame the other when not in power.
The same leaders who, across party affiliations, use wheeler-dealers to rope in criminals and super shady characters into their

parties and conveniently and hypocritically blame the other when not in power, for doing so.
The same leaders who, across party affiliations, employ minions for a fee to share fake news to incite enmity between us, and poison our minds every day, little by little.
The same

leaders who, across party affiliations, keep talking about bringing back black money, but don't do anything about it.
The same leaders who, across party affiliations, have reigned over pogroms and riots, and continue to blame each other for doing so.
Before social networks

became our venting boards for the world to see, we held our political views to ourselves, sharing them rarely and exercising them during elections. Unfortunately, with social media, we now want to feel the power of our views evoking reactions - all kinds of reactions. The

reactions and responses are almost instant and visceral, we like being drunk on that audience, much like how politicians like being drunk on power... power to lord over us citizens.
But we knew, and are fully aware, that we do not need politics and politicians to live our lives.

To care about each other.
To fall in love, fall out of love and then fall in love again.
To spend time with our family and children.
To enjoy our trashy and over-the-top movies.
To travel to the corners of our great country and the world and discover things.

To make friends, talk to them, debate with them, learn from each other and make our lives richer.
To pray to the God that appeals to us. Or not believe in the concept of God at all but still be open to appreciating the beauty of places of worship.

To earn a honest livelihood by doing whatever we do, and whatever we are good at.
To enjoy good food, appreciate beauty in everyday life, and to discover new tastes.
This is us. The real us. We have always been like this. The politicians, across party affiliations, know that they

need us to care about them more than we should. And we fall for it so easily. In the process, we started caring more for them and less for each other.
Politics and politicians do not matter to our everyday lives. They want to be, but we do not need to give it to them. We can be

as selfish as they are towards holding power. And show them their rightful place during elections. And go back to living our lives, with each other, for each other, and among each other. Like we always have.

Can we, please?