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A comment on A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry. Parent comment

Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by HexDecOctBin on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @12:08AM (#36207966)
India is currently ruled by a conservative-nationalist party (indulging in both Trickle Down Economics and mass-scale welfare) that represents the largest block of idol-worshiping pagans on Earth, is opposing China while being circumspect about Russia, and is gaining relevance in international arena just as Europe is losing it. Oh, and Indian are brown-skinned.

This combination of attributes means that India can be seen as rival/adversary/enemy/evil by pretty much all socio-political circles in the West. Expect to see many such articles, trying to box it in an agenda-driven box.

Good thing that Indian officials have decades of experience with threading the needle – non-alignment and all that – or it would be in a real trouble.

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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by SanderNL on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @01:47AM (#36208643)
> idol-worshiping pagans

That came out.. wrong?

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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by HexDecOctBin on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @01:59AM (#36208727)
Why? In the view of the descendants of Mediterranean civilisations — "the West" (Christendom) and West Asia/North Africa (Ummah), Hindus are the last remaining large group of pagans, and idol-worshippers to boot. Everyone else like them has been "saved" by hook or crook, stick or carrot.

Am I wrong?

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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by egeozcan on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @02:24AM (#36208887)
The term "pagan" historically referred to individuals who practiced polytheistic religions outside of the major world religions and Hindus worship Brahman ultimately. Also the "idols" are not seen as the deity but a physical representation that helps worshiping the deity.

But I'd love to be corrected as my knowledge is very superficial.

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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by HexDecOctBin on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @02:54AM (#36209131)
> The term "pagan" historically referred to individuals who practiced polytheistic religions outside of the major world religions

Not really, all nature worshippers have been called pagans by followers of Abrahamic religions. "Major/minor" is a modern concept, the original idea was of true believer and heathen – Religion was never a democracy

> Hindus worship Brahman ultimately. Also the "idols" are not seen as the deity but a physical representation that helps worshiping the deity.

Talk to 10 Hindus and you will get 20 definitions of Hinduism. Not surprising, when considering its 4000 year old roots and its practice in an ultra-diverse society.

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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by thatloststudent on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @04:22AM (#36209797)
>Hindus worship Brahman As a Hindu, some people see this as the ultimate truth, while quite a lot of others don't. There are a lot of paths to salvation, depends on whom you ask.
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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by delta_p_delta_x on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @04:37AM (#36209904)
* * *
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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by egeozcan on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @05:05AM (#36210106)
I knew that I didn't know too much, now thanks to your comment, I'm searching for books about Hinduism and its history. Very interesting!

Thank you very much for the detailed answer!!

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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by SanderNL on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @11:32AM (#36214408)
Not disagreeing per se, but I find it interesting to regard Hinduism as anything other than a major world religion.
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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by Tade0 on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @04:57AM (#36210060)
I don't know about the rest, but you're wrong in the assumption that religion today has any relevance in how someone is perceived in the west.

Well, except for islam.

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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by HexDecOctBin on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @05:28AM (#36210252)
It does for evangelical christians, who form a large voter base and wield lots of political power.
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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by Tade0 on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @07:12AM (#36210945)
I don't think even to them this stands out more than India having an order of magnitude lower GDP per capita than western countries.
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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by ssnistfajen on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @11:04AM (#36213925)
Evangelical Christians dislike anyone who are unlike them in any way. This isn't some sort of special targeting against Indians.
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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by ssnistfajen on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @11:04AM (#36213913)
Nativity scenes, as well as the countless number of icons and statues seen in Catholicism and Orthodoxy, would count as a form of idol worship under strict interpretation of Abrahamic religious texts too. So yes, you are wrong.
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Re:A Confession Exposes India’s Hacking Industry by delta_p_delta_x on Tuesday June 06, 2023 @04:43AM (#36209939)
I think the parent commenter was trying to portray Indians from a Western perspective, to highlight the disdain that the West has supposedly held for India.

They're not wrong, by the way; Nixon was reportedly vitriolic in his racism against Indians[1].

[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/opinion/nixon-racism-indi...

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