A few days ago, ScoopWhoop uploaded a post titled “Holi is the WORST festival that exists, and I can’t pretend to play along anymore”. Yes, first of all, those are some harsh words. Anyone of you who are closely related to this festival or who’s a hardcore religious person might feel offended. And he/she has every right to.
But what followed next, was something that has been going wrong all this time. Within no time, people turned it into a communal war saying the admin only posts such things only during Hindu festivals.
Can’t a person have their own opinion about something? Why do we have to shut down every voice that doesn’t share our views? There’s no concept of ‘agree to disagree’. Either you share the same opinion, or be ready to face some verbal abuse and violence in your way.
And, yes, there are some seriously wrong things with this festival. Men touching women without their consent, harassing them, throwing semen balloons, are some of the highlights. Even I don’t like it, and I didn’t participate in it. Does it make me a hater of the religion?
At least someone pointed out these problems on a public platform.
The only way to deal with these hate comments is to counter them. Talk to them, share the screenshots, shush them with logic and counter-speech. That’s the only way to save our online platform from this garb.
