[Reader-list] what is to be done?

[Aarti Sethi]

Dear all,

It is becoming more and more difficult to read the writing on the
reader-list. From misogyny, the likes of which I do not recall ever seeing
before, to threats of physical violence against women's bodies, to
right-wing Hindu vitriol, what is going on? It is actually now painful to
have to see 37 responses on a thread which deserves not even one, because
people are valiantly trying to talk rationally, reason with, respond to
people who should just be told to shut up. I know its very hard to keep
quite and let things go, especially when we have exemplars like chanchal and
vedavati on this list. But we are all just getting fatigued now with this
relentless barrage of invective and hate that the list is constantly
subjected to.

So now I am asking for solutions. What is to be done?, as Lenin asked many
years ago. What is to be done to save the reader-list? Can we have a
discussion on this? Clearly responding to them in any rational fashion is
not a solution. And I frankly have no interest or hope that anything any of
us can say will make any difference. This is not about me refusing to have a
conversation, because the fact is, they do not want to have a conversation
at all. And i think that is quite clear from the writing on the list in the
past two weeks.

This is a request to to please stop engaging with them. Lets ignore them,
lets not respond to them, lets please just mark all their mails so they go
into our collective trash folders, lets talk about other things, anything.
They can then keep talking to each other about the wonderful Hindu nation
they will build ad nauseum. But we dont have to listen to this. And of
course they will claim this as a victory etc etc. How we cant respond to
them, how we have nothing to say to their brilliant argumentation. I can
already predict the responses to this mail. But I have no trouble saying
that they are right. I am limited by my own linguistic incapacity to respond
to writing which is so poisonous.

And a final qualification about my use of "us" and "them" and any questions
regarding othering, insularity, assumption of moral superiority etc etc. I
can unabashedly say that I have absolutely no problems creating this binary
divide. I have no issues saying that these are people I want to have nothing
to do with, as far as I am concerned they are unethical and violent and I
dont see why they should have any purchase on my time at all. There are far
more interesting things being said and there are interesting people saying
them who I would much rather read, than the reams and reams of boring
hateful drivel that constantly issue from the likes of chanchal..

If anyone else has any other ideas please lets hear them. And if anyone has
forgotten how to make filters so you can trash the trash, here is a link to
Vivek's very instructive mail on the matter:
http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2007-November/011005.html

best
Aarti