How Modern Politics Gaslights an entire Generation
The Internet Playbook!
If you have spent any time on the Internet recently you have probably noticed a change. What used to be places for jokes talking about exams and general chatter among people have turned into full-blown battles over ideas.
The “whataboutism” shield is a way of changing the subject.
When students or citizens ask for accountability over failures like paper leaks mistakes made by people in charge or buildings falling apart the response on social media rarely talks about the issue directly.
Instead the conversation gets turned into arguments:
“What about reservation? Why are you not fixing that first?”
“What about hydrogen trains and space launches? Why only talk about the things?”
This is a classic way of avoiding the real issue. It is great to celebrate the things a country does but using space launches to ignore exam leaks is not being optimistic it is trying to confuse people. A country can build trains and still want its education system to be good.
The “foreign hand” and “anti-national” labels
Whenever a protest starts to gain support people start saying:
“This is being funded by foreigners.”. “They are trying to start a rebellion like in Nepal.”
This is a trick that works. By changing the conversation from the issue to the intentions of the people protesting you do not have to fix the problem. You just have to make the people asking questions look like they are against the country.
Focusing on who is funding or supporting a protest is often a way to distract from the question: Is the problem real? If a ship has a hole in it it does not matter who pointed it out the ship is still in trouble.
weaponizing the “politicized” label
Telling them "This protest was fine at first. Now it has become political " is not a good argument. Ofcourse it is political. Everything to do with government policies, ministers quitting and holding people in power accountable is, by definition. The idea that citizens should only care about an issue long as it stays "apolitical" is a myth that is used to keep people quiet. When opposition parties or political organizations join a cause it does not automatically make the cause invalid. It is how a democracy works.
The recent protest also raised some concerns: Where do we draw the line?
It is also worth pointing out that if student movements want to be taken as neutral and non-partisan they need to hold all parties accountable with the same intensity whether it is the ruling party or the opposition parties.
We live in a time where people are trying to control what we care about. The moment you start asking questions they try to make you feel bad for asking them.
You do not have to choose a side to demand that the people in power do their jobs.
You should question the government question the opposition and most importantly do not let a clever comment trick you into forgetting what the real problem was, in the first place.