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I think negative sentiment towards Indians can be narrowed down to one dominant factor: the English language.
Indians are, what, 1 in 6 people on the planet? In the past this number didn't mean much as the vast majority rarely leave their home country, but the internet and outsourcing means you have a much greater chance to encounter Indians. The thing is, India's cultural issues and level of social niceties are no worse than any other developing nation. China has many of the same problems, with a vast underclass of people that have awful hygiene and manners, a massive scam industry, nepotism and dishonesty, and even the "incel" characteristics that are ascribed to indians can be found in many Chinese men.
But people will very rarely encounter Chinese people because they don't speak English. There are no Chinese call centres, and while there are plenty of English language Chinese scammers you are still much more likely to get a call from an Indian. And on the internet, the Chinese are essentially banned from many of the most popular Western sites, while Indians will likely soon become the majority on places like facebook, reddit, youtube, and tiktok. The majority of the time an average Westerner is encountering someone from China will be Chinese tourists, and they have a godawful reputation.
What's frustrating about Indians is their ubiquity combined with poor English skills. Tech forums are full of Indians answering questions with broken English that is painful to read and decipher. Call centres are staffed with Indians, many of whom mumble with thick accents and bad grammar.
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That's a great way of thinking about it. India and China aren't that different though I'd bet some money that India probably has worse median iq but more outliers than China perhaps.
Regardless being dirt poor is a death sentence. I can't expect people who live in a mudhut on 100 dollars a month to be able to afford meals, otoh Bhutan isn't that much more prosperous but is cleaner so maybe the government fucked up here.
English is a major reason why there are way too many migrants in North America , UK and Australia (the continent) who are Indian as the language is why the initial wave started going there and not Russia.
Perhaps if they had gone to Russia instead, the meme would have been Pajeetnov
I can't unsee it now kek
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