Echo chambers that have congested free thinking, to the point that disliking a popular movie, having a different take, and even expressing a different concern bring about benevolent trolls who flood the comment boxes explaining, regurgitating, and reiterating why you, an individual with a brain, should follow ‘group think’.

Orwell might have predicted mind-numbing obedience, but he couldn’t have imagined a society caring so much that they forget nobody cares about their thoughts back. Disliking something and just moving on isn’t part of the psyche anymore. Now, everyone is a priest proselytising over and over again till their fingers become as numb as their “free thinking” brains.

The weird part is, the so-called “right” or the Hujur class seem to be the minority among these benevolent group thinkers. Something I appreciate about them is that they see, they comment, warning of the ultimate fate of going to hell, and press unfollow.

It is the so-called open-minded ‘Dhakaiia’ elites who can’t seem to tolerate a bit of discomfort when it pokes fun at their own ways. The writing arena, more specifically the comment boxes of 1,000-word movie reviews and opinion pieces, as it seems, is the liberals’ loudest hideout.

A strongly worded title, a bit of name-calling, and a tone that goes against the grain is more deadly than kryptonite for the benevolent open-minded supermen spreading the word of gospel within the confines of Dhaka-based elites.

Why are we like this? The question eluded Orwell, and it does the same to me as well.

Reading this very sentence, our benevolent priests’ blood shall boil.

“You’re comparing yourself to Orwell you dope?”, perhaps they’ll write in the comments.

What they, in their blind fanatic behaviour, will not get the point is that they themselves preach wholeheartedly. Which is the difference of thought, tolerance, and the melting pot which is supposed to serve the soup of open-minded philosophies.

But no, they themselves cannot look beyond their own narcissistic mirror layered by apathy. The blinding ray of intolerance, especially of differently worded content, fuels their righteous fight in the comments, and anyone professing otherwise is immediately branded as unworthy of expression.

The intolerant anger spewing in their belly burns even harder when the strongly worded opinion piece is written in English, a language akin to the holy Latin in which their proverbial bible is supposed to be written.

So, what to do of these messianic figures inspecting speech in the realm of the elites?

Well, I’m doing it right now, just keep on writing.

Write your heart out, write because you want to write.

You shouldn’t have to like The Odyssey or any other biblical, all-encompassing, overhyped stuff of legend, you shouldn’t have to promote the 80s trend just because 40 other outlets are doing the same, you shouldn’t have to do anything other than write, write what you want, and forget those priests, F (forget) the priests who preach what they themselves don’t have the cognisance of following.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of The Business Standard and TBS Graduates.