Over the last few months, I have been cutting ties (mostly online; in some cases, personal communication as well) with many people for being either Trumpists or Bhakths/Sanghis. These are people I have worked with, have been friends / neighbors with, have gone to school with, and in one case grew up together with.
The Trumpist angle is easy for most people to understand, so let me begin there by first elaborating on a connection between Conman Dotard's election & my brain tumor incidence.
Conman Dotard was announced as the winner of the 2016 US Presidential Election on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. This race-baiting and racist asshole with questionable morals being elected as President caused so much anguish and fear of the future for me that by next Monday, November 14, 2016, my brain tumor had grown rapidly and my head was being cut open to remove a size-able tumor.
If people are still supporting Conman Dotard now even after what has been revealed about him by himself and by others before and after he became president, those people are one or more of the following:
- Totally ignorant about what is going on in the world.
- Willfully dense/stupid.
- Have no empathy for others. Especially those less fortunate than themselves.
- Too selfish & stuck in their own world to see what is happening to others.
- Racist as fuck.
I don't want to have anything to do with these people.
Bhakth is a derogatory term for the fans of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is related to Sanghi - a derogatory term for the members of a Hindu nationalist group in India. These people have been very vocal online and offline especially after Modi came to power, and have generally been being a pain in the butt by stroking religion based hatred with anti-muslim rhetoric mixed with a dose of Hindu supremacy.
It is in this context that I have been very concerned seeing many of my friends, schoolmates, and work colleagues from India turn out to be Hindu Nationalists with a vengeance.
All the books I have been reading about cancer, and my own experience has driven home the importance of emotional well-being in keeping cancer at bay. And conversely, the harmful impact caused by emotional turbulence. As explained in Anti Cancer - A New Way Of Life, while mental stress and anguish doesn't cause cancer, it does provide a fertile terrain where tumor/cancer can prosper. I am fairly sure that is what happened between November 8, 2016 and November 14, 2016.
With the goal of maintaining my emotional well-being, I have been cutting off Trumpists and Bhakts at the littlest provocation.
The most recent incident happened when one of my friends posted the following image on facebook:
This image pissed me off making me unfriend the friend on facebook, and cut all ties with him in real life.
An explanation about this image for those not in the know:
One major news item in India in recent times is about a child - belonging to Muslim religion - being held captive in a Hindu temple and being raped regularly before her battered dead body showed up somewhere. This caused a lot of controversy with some blaming it on Narendra Modi's constant anti-muslim rhetoric.
There was a lot of sympathy for the victim. This does not sit well with the Hindu Nationalists because it means:
- There is sympathy for a Muslim, and Muslims in general,
- Muslims are to be treated as neighbors and fellow countrymen, and can't be de-humanized and painted with a broad-brush as Pakistanis and Terrorist sympathizers.
- This does not reflect well on Modi and his Anti-muslim rhetoric.
So the Bhakth propaganda machine kicked into high gear, made up a similar incident which portrays the Muslims in the familiar role as villains, and started sending out such meme images.
Even if there is a real case of the nature described in the image, we as compassionate humans are capable of being angry at the perpetrators in each case, and demand justice in both cases and not make it a Hindu-Muslim thing like the Bhakths are doing.
What is sad - and scary at the same time - is that it is the well-educated and well-to-do people who are falling for this propaganda. Not just the poor and the illiterate.
At some point in the future, I may have the time and the mental capacity to sympathize with the Trumpists and Bhakts, and be able to have a one-on-one conversation to understand their view points or try to change their thinking. Right now, I don't have the time or the energy to deal with it.
So if anyone brings such filth into my life, they go right out of my life without any second thoughts.