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The article literally starts with a story about how “meme activism” (aka slogans) was effective.
by luffapi 5y ago
The article literally starts with a story about how “meme activism” (aka slogans) was effective.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoLiterally, it used the words “powerful”, “widespread”, “helpful”, “dark”, and “destructive”. Not the word “effective”.
- luffapi 5y agoThe very first paragraph: > A few weeks ago, in the midst of the latest Israel-Hamas conflict, Andrew Yang, a mayoral candidate in New York, tweeted in support of Israel. The backlash came fast, and by the next day, #YangSupportsGenocide was trending on Twitter. The aggressive public shaming worked: Yang backtracked and issued a follow-up clarification. And now, politicians with progressive constituencies will likely think twice before publicly expressing support for Israel.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago> aggressive public shaming worked Being the key. Does not imply that meme activism was effective at doing anything but making people think twice out of fear of shame, not out of reasoned principles.
- luffapi 5y agoIf it accomplished its goal, then it was effective. Are there other goals to accomplish? Sure, but to say this wasn’t effective is incorrect.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoI’ll grant that it meets the definition of being striking, but not that it meets the intended goals of activism. The entire point of the article is that this style of pseudo-activism debases activism, as a whole.
- luffapi 5y agoWhen you have to fight lobbyists, effective activism looks different. You try to cut off funding and political support. One could argue that there is already widespread support for these ideas, now it’s just a matter of doing battle against the establishment in real politik to achieve results.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago> Slogans and hashtags, used as shortcuts, give people the tools to express what appear to be clear policy goals, even though they have hardly grappled with the issue in its complexity. From the article. If there was already widespread support, it would already be an establishment position.
- luffapi 5y agoI wildly disagree with that statement. To suggest that money, political capital and many other things besides popular support are irrelevant, is disingenuous to say the least.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoI’m not sure where you are misreading me, but the authors point still stands that your “battle with the establishment of real politik” is evidence of the complexity of the situation not being fully addressed.
- luffapi 5y agoSomething doesn’t have to be fully addressed to be effective. You’re moving the goalposts.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoNot meeting the intended goals is the definition of ineffective.