>>17946753 (OP)
The internet has greatly changed the public perception and stereotypes of some nationality’s in recent years, sometimes for the better and in India’s case for the worst. India was imagined as a harmless and exotic nation mostly known to boomers through stories of hippies who went there blazed out their minds for spiritual reawakening. There was some awareness beforehand that jeets were poor but not seen as malignant or violent like say Mexicans. Pakis on the otherhand were almost entirely overlooked and ignored by most white people until 9/11 when their name kept coming up on cnn or bbc reports in relation to the taliban and bin laden, hence their association with terrorism. As anon points out
>>17946897 Indians widespread presence on the internet thanks to smartphones has now given them a reputation for being awkward and perverse, while also annoying many ordinary people through scamming (which was already happening before the internet).
It is interesting and should be worthy of actual research how the internet has hyped or ruined certain nations reputation or stereotypes through memes. Some countries have been recast as “badass” and others irreversibly ruined. The Irish were only mentioned in jokes about drunks, leprechauns etc. but the hyping up of the IRA memes since 2017/18 after brexit has convinced most zoomers they’re epic gun-toting insurgents. The UK on the other hand had most of its stereotypes about being posh gentleman replaced with being uncouth chavs in the 2000’s and is now a punching bag in culture wars for being too multicultural, cucked, authoritarian or imperialist, racist etc.
