8 ms·
I don't use IG, nor any social media, and I have never had a desire to do so but this statement underscores just how overtly and far reaching the term 'activism
by Melting_Harps 6y ago
I don't use IG, nor any social media, and I have never had a desire to do so but this statement underscores just how overtly and far reaching the term 'activism' is used these days:
> And then in the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor's killings, it was primed not just for information, but activism.
Spamming peoples feeds or posts with your rants is hardly activism, it's easily ignored/filtered is and never as impactful as if you actually got active on the ground because you will NEVER get a true grasp of the situation behind a keyboard--these situations are often wrought with confusion.
This is my main gripe with the so-called SJW forms of 'activism,' whose main form of action is bringing about 'awareness' on social media platforms and engaging in never-ending feuds Online that amount to nothing than a waste of time and energy. And then if they do attend in person refuse to engage with the parties they oppose in open discourse and will seek to 'cancel' the other side. This has had so many dire implications, be it in academia to other things like actors and their career prospects.
It's hard for me to think that people honestly think that posting about an issue is as valid as actually being on the ground and involved in the process in order to try and (ideally) come up with alternative solutions to the problems they're trying to solve with those who have also come out to manifest. In this case Police Brutality, that as unpopular as it might seem is not solely limited to just the Black Community, but has been pervasive and incredibly outward in heavy-handedness since 9-11 under these false pretenses of Terrorism. People seem to forget that during the Occupy movement the same amount of violence was being used against what were mainly a white, college educated, (lower to mid) middle class cohort. They, too were deemed terrorist groups and cells for dissent and were infiltrated by Intelligence Agencies. [1]
And while I'm glad many people finally saw this for what it is, as this time Police violence was used against journalists and innocent bystanders alike, and in the case with Portland and Seattle you have unmarked vehicles essentially kidnapping people, you get a real taste what activists of all leanings have seen all along. I hardly see what some celebrity posting on IG with a sign has to do with activism. Moreover, we saw how quickly they are to retract it if they face scrutiny, during the HK's National Security Law limbo Billie Eilish tweeted out a message in support of HK, only to remove it moments later when the Wumao Army came down on her and she saw some backlash, showing just how feckless and entirely pointless these kind of affairs really are for even 'influencers.'
1: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/29/fbi-coordinated-crackdown-occupy https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/29/fbi-co...
- lifeisstillgood 6y agoAwareness does matter, as does agreement in the same set of facts. And sadly most people, celebrities or not, do not have the time for the deeper activism you talk about and usually do not have the same mental model of what the problem is if it exists at all. And having gone through that activism in the UK back in day, from grassroots meetings to media and then advocacy to policy makers, what really really helps is a movement - ordinary people making a noise. And a noise on twitter is heard in the corridors of power today (tomorrow it may change.) So if you want something to change at a local or national level, social media is a big part of your arsenal (but I agree not the whole part)
- Melting_Harps 6y ago> And a noise on twitter is heard in the corridors of power today (tomorrow it may change.) And is listened by who? Other social media users who are equally as unlikely to get involved? This is what happened during the Blueleaks drop in my opinion. Moreover, what is the turn-around in the news-cycle today for even 'newsworthy' events, especially when calamity and Rage are the plats du jour by the Media and served by the 100s a day. I highly doubt you can attribute seeing police budgets get slashed if it weren't for the mass protests, and rioting in the US and the wide-spread violence we saw that followed. Claiming that Social Media's role to be anything but act as a source of the real-time video footage of these events would be really over-reaching its impact. I mean even now, as Portland has removed DHS officers, what can you say the Social Media crowds did to ensure that occurred, because it was mainly a collective of present Human will that did that from what I've seen. I'm open to be convinced, mind you, as I think IF Social Media could fulfill its potential it could be a very useful tool in Activism, instead it just seems like another apparatus of the Panopticon. Which if they can infiltrate a Telegram channel [1], just imagine what they can do on open non-encrypted mediums like Facebook/IG etc... 1: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-dhs-intelligence-report-showed-the-department-had-collected-and-analyzed-messages-between-portland-protesters-a-new-report-says/ar-BB17qOUb?li=BBnb7Kz https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-dhs-intelligence-report-...
- site-packages1 6y ago