Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra
There’s a growing appetite for sensationalism in digital commentary. A good time for non-policy players, eager for a quick buck on Instagram. It’s also a reflection on what sells. However, none of it is reflecting on the elections on the ground.
Yes, true, but why is that the Left does arguably better policy analysis than the Right? And these days, a new wing has emerged. FEW (False equivalence wing). Every argument they make ends with NDA-3 = UPA-2. Hence, the sensationalism.
https://x.com/Tushar15_/status/1979639857128648777?t=mKvo7JSkEScjHjrBck8_iw&s=19
Policy-making in India remains in a tight circle. Congress mein it used to be certain darbari elites and that godforsaken council. Under the BJP, it remains with consultants and the babus.
The left speaks better English than the right. Iskeliye, their analysis sounds better. But beyond a point, policy discussion in India is extremely subpar. Beyond a few people, I barely see good policy analysis. The reason for that is that post-COVID, there is a hatred for expertise. I feel we need domain experts. But social media has literally incentivised sensationalism over balanced expert analysis. You cannot have a good old back and forth. No one clicks a video or a reel that doesn't stand out. You need crazy thumbnails, crazy titles and then yell and scream.
https://x.com/kushal_mehra/status/1979646197997466051?t=qJNy4F_x5RFbdqis8vKBuA&s=19
The politics of datafication come into sharp focus when we ask not just how much data is collected, but what kind of data is deemed valuable, how it’s extracted, and for what purposes it’s deployed. In computer vision, the answers are clear: data about human bodies and behaviors is most prized, it’s captured through pervasive monitoring, and it’s used to serve corporate and state interests.
As Kalluri’s research shows, this isn’t paranoia or pessimism. It’s documentation. The systems are working exactly as designed. The question now is whether we’re willing to accept a world where being seen means being reduced to an object—or whether we’ll demand technologies that recognize our full humanity.
https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=5093790&post_id=176502242
