Being a youth in this country is like walking in a minefield. You never know which step will lead to a leftist/liberal propaganda explosion. Walking towards the theatre? Boom! You come out feeling less Hindu and more liberal. Walking towards a literary fest? Boom! You come out knowing less of actual history and more of colonized history.
Walking towards a comic show? You come out hating your Prime Minister and Nation and loving the secular minorities. Walking towards your University? You come out feeling less respectful towards our soldiers and in love with the urban naxals/azaadi gang. Walking towards…Well…I can never run out of examples on this one.
Chilling! Isn’t it? The leftists are a very smart bunch fully aware which products will be consumed by their target. A target audience that is innocent. Wanting the Ranbir Kapoor life (‘udna chahta hoon, daudna chahta hoon, bas rukna nahi chahta hoon’ influence). Break free from the clutches of the exam, job, peer and most importantly, family pressure.
An audience that is looking for entertainment, a dopamine rush. At present, the country is dealing with ‘clowns’ wanting to entertain the audience only by insulting Hindu gods, practices and leaders because they genuinely believe there is an audience for it. Because they think doing this would earn them not just the money, but also liberal approval. But do you know that’s not where they stop? That’s not all how they trick you to thinking Hindoos bad, Mudi fascist, India intolerant.
The most innovative and fascinating touchpoint (other than the obvious Instagram stories, posts and live shows) being YouTube live streams. They do not just live stream with their jokes or chat shows with fellow comedians, as one might think, but they live stream gaming. Be it something as chill as PubG or as serious as Chess.
The credit for this discovery goes to my friend. These live streams are protected and cannot be viewed if you are not a part of it. You might be able to find some snippets and from those snippets, one might just think what’s wrong with live streaming games? Well here’s how it starts. You join their private game rooms.
They make you feel privileged because you get to play and talk with them. They subtly plant political, religious and communal ideas and casually get back to playing. These live streams are full of abuses, vulgar names, crass passing comments on prominent leaders and subtle brainwashing against topics that can lead to potential violence or conflict (which is common in their stand up shows).
Here’s another video of these popular YouTubers playing ‘L*nd game’ and in another video, hurling non-stop abuses.
That’s not it. They also receive ‘super chats’ from young kids to the order of Rs 10,000 per stream. A prominent example is of the comedian Samay Raina (winner of Comicstaan) who live streams the game of Chess with eminent personalities like Vishwanathan Anand and International Chess Grandmasters like Magnus Carlsen and Judit Polgar. What is surprising is Samay Raina is popular for his controversial stands like supporting the protest against CAA, controversial statements on Kashmir, anti-Modi rants etc, and yet manages to share space with National winners like Vishwanathan Anand under the garb of making chess popular amongst the youth.
The lockdown has unfortunately given them a boost wherein these thugs of comedy randomly go live with their fellow comedians to chill (apparently). These chilling videos of them randomly mocking Janta curfew efforts, callously talking of the ruling government, abusing after every second word to sound cool get more than 5 million views with continuously flowing superchats.
Post a ban on PubG, Tanmay Bhatt can be seen mocking this decision. In one of his videos, he is seen requesting Prime Minister Modi to ban another Asian nation instead like a Singapore or Japan and unban PubG. The video also talks about their modus operandi and how they are left to survive on random live streams. Ok! Honestly, I envy them now. What’s easier than earning through abusing?
While we are on the topic of subtle brainwashing, here’s a classic example. In this particular sketch, a comedian named Daniel Fernandes mocks and shames a Kashmiri in the audience for supporting BJP. When the person from the audience says, “They (BJP) is doing a lot of work there and I support BJP”, a person from the audience yells, “Pagal hai kya?”. This is where Daniel jumps in and adds, “We cannot force people to be smart about their political choices.” He then reiterates his question when the person says, “he has been taught something by his parents” to which Daniel cross-questions, “Did they teach to agree with the ones who kill you?” very conveniently alleging BJP workers are murderers.
And then they want us to believe that ‘it’s all in the name of comedy’. Well, this is not where the buck stops. In fact, this is just one of the mediums used by the leftist to woo the young audience. Organizing fancy, woke and liberal protests, making them feel like a victim while calling them intellectuals, flaring speeches, cross-dressing, public kissing events are some other popular ways to trap the young minds. They claim to liberate them, only to cage them in their propaganda.
Another popular medium to engage with the young population during the lockdown period was the OTT platform. Releasing Hinduphobic content is almost a compulsion to be able to feature on an OTT platform. The signs are no longer subtle. Saffron clad mob chasing a man to lynch, dhongi pandit, angry Hanuman sticker on the car of the villain, it’s right in our face, fed forcefully till we are tricked into believing it. For the ones who do not consume video content, there are books by random authors available on Kindle.
A recent report suggested how Amazon Kindle Editions are selling porn and rape literature specifically depicting Muslim men and Hindu women. So here’s a definite trap for the ones who prefer books over series. This leaves me wondering, where are we heading as a society. What role are parents playing in the lives of their children? Is the new generation that gullible? What’s the solution to this? Is there a solution at all? Minefield. Remember? Watch your step.
(Note: The article has been authored by Akshita Singh Bhadauria with contributions from Ashutosh Sharma)