Strategist: Expletives don’t bother me, extreme hate does

PETALING JAYA: Technology strategist Dinesh Nair knows first-hand how cyberspace can be a “war zone” instead of a safe space for people to have a peaceful discussion.

In March last year, he created and posted a spreadsheet on Facebook to show how the Goods and Services Tax (GST) could be balanced out with income tax reductions.

“The spreadsheet showed that if you look at the amount of money you save on lower income taxes, you could still afford to spend one third of your salary on GST items and there will be no difference compared to pre-GST.

“Some people looked at it, some commented on it, and others disagreed with me. But at least they did this in a civil manner,” he added.

But last week, someone whom Dinesh did not know personally got angry with him, dug up the spreadsheet, and flew off the handle.

“I guess he had been angry about a lot of things. I don’t know him personally, but he has seen me commenting on other posts on Facebook before.

“He just got angry and dug up a post of mine from last year and went ballistic on that,” he added.

Dinesh said the man posted about 10 “nasty comments” on the GST thread, which Dinesh said he had replied with dripping sarcasm.

“He’s a doctor, urban and well-educated. It’s hard to say that he is ignorant,” he added.

The man did not just target Dinesh, but also went off on others who commented on the post, using vulgar words against those who disagreed with him.

“He has done this on other threads and posts as well, it’s not just me being targeted,” he said.

But it was not the expletives that bothered Dinesh. “The extreme hate does.”

Although the incident did not affect Dinesh personally or professionally, he was still taken aback.

“I was surprised by the type of hate people have when it comes to things like this. It’s very prevalent.

“I’ve seen it happen many times before. Usually, they come from the anti-establishment types,” he said.

Dinesh is worried that such behaviour will create a culture of fear where people will be afraid to air their views in cyberspace.

“The Internet is supposed to be a place to exchange views. It doesn’t matter whether you agree or disagree,” he added.

“It is one thing having politicians exchange hate speech, but another matter when ordinary people do it to each other.”