{"id":19124,"date":"2020-10-29T12:28:43","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T06:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dorjegurung.com\/blog\/?p=19124"},"modified":"2021-08-16T10:39:31","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T04:54:31","slug":"hold-up-a-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/hold-up-a-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"Hold up a Mirror to a Closed and Inward-looking People, They’ll Shatter It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Nepalis on average are a pretty closed and inward-looking people. Of course, we are NOT the most closed and inward-looking people on the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open and outward-looking people and societies use information and knowledge to free people. Such people and societies have formal and informal education systems that set the minds of their children free — to think, to imagine, to create, and to explore, unfettered, in order help them prepare to get as close to realizing their human potential as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, closed and inward-looking people and societies, like us and ours, use information and knowledge to control people. To that end we tame and rein in children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taming and reining in children, closed people and societies like ours end up producing people with very narrow and limited views and understanding of their own selves (as well as others, life, and the world in general too). Such individuals have an unhealthy, strong, and intimate attachment to — and invest a lot in — that which is attached to their limited identity (such as their ethnicity, caste, rage, religion, nationality, gender, sex, or sexuality etc.). The narrower and fixed one’s identity is, the more insecure a person is. Closed and inward-looking Nepalis are no exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, naturally, when the proverbial mirror is held up in front of Nepalis, unable to accept the reflection, they shatter the mirror instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intellectually caged, confined, constrained, and constricted, having a very narrow sense of self, insecure, thin-skinned, and incapable of taking criticisms, whether constructive or otherwise, Nepalis are generally unable to take a step back and reflect. Instead, anything negative or unflattering things said or written about them — or about anything associated with them — they take personally. Emotionally hurt, they react in one of the only two ways they know how — either by making an emotional argument or by going on the offensive. Going on the offensive involves “killing” the messenger, or discrediting the messenger, that is, shattering the mirror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such place where you can see all that happening often is on the social media, like Twitter. The reactions to the tweet below is ONE example of just that, something I saw not long ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Incidentally, I have NOT bothered to redact any names or handles because the platform is completely public AND none of the reproductions of the tweets I am sharing here are protected. They are still there on Twitter<\/a>, visible to anyone and everyone interested in viewing them.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(For your information, the OP is someone I know personally and follow on Twitter.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To begin with, the few reactions displaying an understanding of what the image is depicting and trying to convey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The above user felt so strongly about that that he even went to the extent of retweeting the tweet with a comment reinforcing the above response of his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As far as I could tell, those were the only contributions that weren’t off the mark. What follow are the ones that were and reveal just how reactionary, closed, and inward-looking Nepalis can be, completely missing the point and, inadvertently, even making a fool of themselves!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ad Hominem (Personal) Attacks<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This is the classic tactic. Unable to digest the “message,” they go on the offensive and try to “kill” or discredit the messenger. I have discovered that ad hominem<\/em> attack and whataboutism (next category below) are the two most popular “rebuttle” Nepalis offer to any kind of argument others make about practically anything. Our education system — both formal and informal — has yet to teach our children that if you engage in ad hominem<\/em> attack, you have lost the argument, period!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The user Jitpur declares, “This is the way of the c#nt f#cker!” (Incidentally, I used the “#’s” instead of the “‘s” because doing so, instead of reproducing the “<\/em>” symbol, changed the letters between them into italics!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The user below labels the OP, “mentally ill.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The user below also characterizes the OP as “sick.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another one who calls the OP “Sick.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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According the user below, the OP is a “pedohile” and makes some hard-to-interpret statement about “rape” and “hinduism.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another personal attack. Characterizes the OP as a “Waanabe cool Nepali.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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User below, in the first sentence, declares, “C*nt, this coward does not seem to know that to attack another’s faith is extremism, where does Hindusm teach this?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“You get a pass to do anything just because you are an atheist, c*nt? What kind of a comparison is this?” says the user below. The user uses the most informal and derogatory form of the pronoun “you” too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Whataboutism<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

To reiterate, along with ad hominem attack, this is one of the two most  popular “rebuttle” Nepalis provide to arguments. The reason behind that, I think, is that Nepalis are ACTUALLY taught to use it when countering an argument whether in schools or at home. And as such, Nepalis don’t understand why this is essentially a deflection tactic and therefore wrong and has NO merit as a rebuttle! Anyway, here are some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following one asks if other religions say what apparently Hinduism says, namely, “Where women are honored, there the gods rejoice….” etc.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is depicted “is happening in every other nation \/ religion…” declares the user below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another one who starts off by saying, “I won’t blame one specific religion” which, in light of what the image depicts, makes absolutely no sense. She ends by saying, “Every religion is sexist and mysogynist.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Apologists\/Defensive Reactions<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The user below basically declares, “You have got freedom that doesn’t mean you can post anything. Hindiusm is the most liberal religion. It’s the religion that has the most respect for girls. It’s the religion that elevates girls to the highest position in every aspect.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Same guy saying “…some people are bad that doesn’t mean whole Hinduism religion is bad. In Hindu religion, we put girls in the highest position, we respect them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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User below says, “The accomplishment of secular Nepal is the attack on religions everywhere. Nepal is the country where the highest percentage of conversions take place. Where in Hindiusm does it instruct people to rape. I sense now that dollar will replace [Nepali] rupees in Nepal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Roshan thinks that whatever is depicted as the way females are treated is NOT “related” to “religion [i.e. Hinduism]” since “Violence against girl\/women is everywhere and has nothing to do with religion.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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User below declares, “A woman’s place in Hinduism is higher than in other religions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another apologist. I am not sure what he means by, “blame to any particular religion for crime and terrorism just hate attitude and illusion.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Bashing Other Religions or Those Following Other Religions<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This is a whole another kind of whataboutism. The complete and utter lack of self-awareness in these responses — the (missed) irony in them — is just…devine…if you’ll allow me that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Convinced that the image is stating that Hindus are rapists and offended by that, the user below goes on to say, “Hey bro. the most rapes in the world are likely committed in Muslim countries, who are you to blame Hinduism for this.” He rounds it off adding, “Rubbish post.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The user below declares, “Only in the corrupt brain of a Christian born with Hindu blood do such lowly ideas grow. Only the stupid connect crimes with religion.” Of course, he’s also made a personal attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“This c*nt of the gutter is a Christian for sure” is what the user below declares!   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The response below speaks for itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Which of the Vatican popes were accused to raping?” I don’t understand what the second sentences is saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Utterly Clueless<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I don’t even know what Anup is really saying apart from wanting to just make a sick joke about “sucking,” “Pastor” and “ring” followed by a wink emoji!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The following two responses by one user make absolutely no sense. He concludes by saying, “You see rapist and you are same.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another one who talks about “rapist.” He starts by asking, “Are you against the human race because the rapist was human?” I can’t even begin to guess what s\/he (likely a he) thinks the image represents. Oh, it didn’t escape me that he also makes a personal attack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another one who talks about rape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yet another one who talks about rape and also makes a whataboutism argument in a roundabout way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another one who talks about “rapist” but also turns out to be an apologist for Hinduism. Starts off by asking a rhetorical question: “Just because you can, you post what you want??” He continues, “Had you done this in a Muslim or Christian community[,] people would have come for your head. If you don’t like Hinduism, just follow another religion. Who is stopping you? Where does it say that just being Hindu means you rape?” He concludes by saying, “A rapist has no race, gender, or religion.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More who made the above image exclusively about rape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another clueless user who comments thrice — one of which appeared above — but all three comments reveal his cluelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yet another clueless user. Says, “You write Hinduism, you depicted a Goddess, there’s a trident next to it. But in the comment you say I am not pointing fingers at any religion. If you don’t like Hinduism, just say it, why are you hitting around the bushes.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another utterly clueless one!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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User below starts off by asking, “Only those who follow Hinduism rape?” Then follows that up by saying, “It’s wrong to connect rape to religion.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I must confess, I have absolutely no clue what the user below is saying. Here, maybe I<\/em> am the clueless one! LOL!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another clueless one who talks about “rape.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And another clueless one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And another one. Tags and asks others to, “look at this rubbish post.”                       “.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And another one who associates “rape” with the post. Says, “What planet did this man come from to post something like this? Are all rapists to this day followers of Hinduism??” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The following user has, clearly, no clue what the post is about nor does he seem to care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“C*nt like argument” declares the user below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There you go, examples of the closed and inward-looking Nepalis shattering the metaphorical mirror when it’s held up in front of them unable to deal with or accept the image reflecting back to them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, a lack of a culture of introspection, reflection, and questioning means that Nepalis struggle to view, objectively, anything critical of anything connected to them or about them. Far from it. Not only do they make the mistake of misinterpreting what the image represents or demonstrates, they take it personally, and go on the offensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nepalis on average are a closed and inward looking people. And because of that, when the proverbial mirror is held in front of them, offended, disappointed, or not liking what is reflected back, they generally shatter the mirror. In this blog post, I document one such example from Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":19312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"What happens when you hold up d figurative mirror in front of Nepalis? #Nepal #Religion #Hinduism #AdHominem #Whataboutism #GenderIssues","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[152],"tags":[576,613,428,485,429,612,623,294,287,304],"class_list":["post-19124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kathmandu-mustang-nepal","tag-gender","tag-gender-issue","tag-gender-issues","tag-gender-based-violence","tag-hinduism","tag-nepali-culture","tag-nepali-education-system","tag-religion","tag-social-media","tag-twitter"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/hinduism-vs-reality-featimage.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Jbro-4Ys","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}