my thoughts exactly. one of the biggest problems in contemporary times is politicians who pat themselves on the back (and encourage everyone who voted for them

my thoughts exactly. one of the biggest problems in contemporary times is politicians who pat themselves on the back (and encourage everyone who voted for them or who supports their party to also pat them and themselves on the back) for accomplishing something politically that Sounds Nice And Good On Paper but in reality doesn't change anything about anyone's situation. this problem long predated social media of course but it's pretty obvious that social media has only exacerbated things, because advocating for something that Sounds Nice And Good On Paper gets lots of user engagement (likes, retweets), which only goes to further the illusion that it's any sort of solution to any sort of problem. why spend lots and lots of money to actually attempt to fix institutional, structural, or otherwise endemic issues for any group of people, when hollow PR-friendly gestures get you reelected just as easily? in fact, it's even better to do make hollow, PR-friendly, Sounds Nice And Good On Paper-type gestures than to actually do anything, because in the process of promoting such maneuvers, you get to convince everyone "on your side" that you're doing something Necessary, Right, and Just, but, more importantly, anyone who disagrees with the empty gesture or calls you out for making hollow PR-friendly gestures to begin with can be easily dismissed as some kind of -ist Political Adversary! then you get to posture yourself against them and their -ism which leads to further back-patting (or, if you prefer, circlejerking). it's hard to see a way out of this mess—where would one even begin to try to change this metastructure that prevents the change of further structures by incentivizing ineffectual bullshit gestures over Actual, Measurable Change That Improves Peoples' Lives?