How to make a bigot feel really bad

Its not often in a writers life that something they wrote goes viral There is no definition of viral for when it is not being used in an epidemiological sense but I assume that it means lots and lots and lots of people have seen it More people than you could fit into a legislative assembly or convocation hall More people than a rock concertIt turns out that my column last week Where women lead the virus loses was widely shared and elicited what is known in French as a kickass response It is unusual to get notifications on Facebook about any post even 48 hours after it has been posted but I have been receiving share notifications of this story till today a full six days laterAccording to SharedCountcom the story was seen a total of 33800 times About 3400 people shared it and about 3000 people posted comments about it Thats about as viral as a small journalist like me could hope to getTodays column however is not about how splendid a writer I am but about a couple of comments that caught my eye While the majority of readers sounded chuffed that women were wiping the floor with men as far as the coronavirus went some were terribly upset A few were bothered that I was applauding women others were fuming that I had praised other countries when I should have been singing elegies to my motherland IndiaOne reader called Sumit his real name bludgeoned me with an email asking if I was a beta male hoping to get brownie points from women by bashing menAnother fellow called Harsh also his real name sounded pretty worked up that I was badmouthing his favourite country India Just compare the population of these countries compared to India or rest of the world In spite of such big population the percentage of patients in India is much less deaths are much less and recovery is about 50There was a sting in the tail Only positive people can appreciate Indias efforts I was not positive peopleI responded on Facebook to Mr Harsh explaining that India despite its massive 13 billion population had only 4186 tests per million persons and so the numbers were bound to look rosy with fewer infections and fewer deaths In fact stopping counting the damage is a worldfamous way of proving that a situation is improvingYoud have thought that Mr Harsh would have been humbled or perhaps illuminated by this But I had only aggravated him further He doubled down on my treasonous behaviourSome people are never proud of India and always feel proud of fair skin only he retorted If US and other countries you are praising are so efficient then why so many deaths occurred At least Im proud that our deaths are much lower and recovery rate is about 50 percent Still you dont feel proud who caresIm sure youre familiar with this kind of conversation Someone makes a sweeping false assertion example India has managed coronavirus wonderfully Or perhaps he makes an openly bigoted statement example Muslims will overrun this country if we dont take steps to control them Being reasonable you wait till he finishes ranting and then present him with facts and figures that show why he is terribly terribly wrong To your horror he seems now to be even more convinced that he was right and that you are slimeAlas such arguments are commoner than ever these days where Google cheerfully points you to websites that can prove anything you already believe such as the earth is flat vaccines are part of a global plot to kill babies and 5G phones are an underlying condition for infection by coronavirusIf you search for ways to deal with an unreasonable or misguided person enough websites will advise you to be calm react to the argument rather than the person present evidence be logical try to understand the other persons point of view and so on Ive come to realise that none of these techniques works in todays bizarro worldThese days therefore I recommend dealing with it somewhat differently Since logic is useless against opinionated minds the better way to handle a bigot racist nationalist or bhakt is to mercilessly bait them Here are some questions guaranteed to get under their skin mdashBeaten up any Dalits recentlyWhats the fifth line of the Gayatri MantraI heard you steal mutton from Muslims ReallyIs your wife still beating youFor the coup de gracircce mdashI am so proud that India will soon be the worlds number one again mdash in coronavirus infections Were 4 now but no one can stop usMr Harsh ought to be happy with thatHere viewed from there C Y Gopinath in Bangkok throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai the city that raised him You can reach him at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel 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