I despise those infographics. They all feel fake and hollow. It doesn't help that I see the same 5 ones reposted a dozen times across different accounts. Not just that, it's very rarely more than overly simplified propaganda. I don't see a big "social justice infographic" account as an actual force for positive change, I view them as exploiting a major world event for clout.
@@TheANSONATOR I swear, more people on the world wide web now act like they're always having a bpd episode and are splitting. But it's encouraged to put something that is provably, by design, destructive to mental health for the purpose of profit and control, before ones own basic needs, because that is apparently what social awareness is. That same social awareness is so often xenophobic, ableist, virtue signaling, Freudian, social darwanist, authoritarian, loyal to hypercapitalist values, actively marginalizing of the people it swears to protect like magnanimous white knights, et cetera. I, a mentally ill androgyne who caught the autism virus from gay frogs or something, just absolutely love being treated like a lesser lifeform by people who preach tolerance, compassion, and understanding.
I wanted to say something similar like that in one of her video i couldn't make myself do it so idk but is it because i have ego problem i don't just simply know anything about it actually i feel kinda non egotic rn cus i saw your comment so that's helping me type this..... I don't know what to sy anymore
@@oliSUNvia Broken down into simple terms, every issue is concerning what’s fair; what seems fair in your eyes, what seems fair in my eyes, how anyone can have a fair shot at life (or a good life). For all of these reasons, I think that taxes are the single most important issue. When you think of any issue, whether having to do with conflicts in the Middle East, housing rights, environmental racism, etc, they all come down to a fight for resources, and most don’t feel they are treated fairly. As the old trope goes; the rich keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer; and so it seems to me the impactful way to address most people concerns is to implement a universal tax system in which billionaires and trillion aires cannot launder away their money (which are really just arbitrary denominations for the worlds finite resources, the resources which should be shared amongst everyone).
Even today this remains true. We need to stop treating current events and human rights issues, like geopolitical conflicts, genocides, and wars as spam fodder, infographic aesthetics, or trends.
i think that we should superficially care about what we think is bad, but we should leave the proper activism to the proper activists that really want to solve the problems that they are advocating for. I think this will be more efficient because these activists know that problem will still exist even after when it is acknowledged by the masses. The idea that we can all be activists is so problematic and unrealistic.
I won't challenge you, but I'll leave you with some thoughts: what is 'proper activism'? Does the existence of 'proper activism' validate the viewpoints of these groups?
@@josephl447 i wouldn't define what is proper activism instead, i would define what is a proper activist (of course according to my opinion), simply put a proper activist is someone who is greatly educated about his cause and is open minded to all different opinions concerning his cause. that's it. i believe what follows from such a person could be defined as what i call proper activism. of course this is also my opinion.
@@Amal-kz6yi I agree, I believe a proper activist is when someone is willing to create a change in an injustice and has a passion for it not because of guilt or the fear of being seen as ignorant
I wish it was that simple. Let's not forget that there are a lot of "activist" foundations like the gate's foundation, where the sole purpose is to use donations from themselves to fund themselves in a way that turns their profits into tax-exempt corporate investment.
It's brilliant to hear such a level headed person speak about something i've thought about for so long! Especially with the lack of social media 'activism' surrounding the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan at the moment, an issue as serious as any other.
@@kittykittybangbang9367 you should watch the video badempanada made, he does his research and that video is next on my list to watch. From what I understand, it's not as cut and dry as I thought of it before
well wow. youre information is very well put, i completely agree, you cant be completely immersed into every single social justice issue, like how blm came out, its faded, the same thing with asian hate. when we post these things to our followers, while on onehand its great, but the question is how can we really help? and also i really liked how you brought this up because nowadays, i think people feel the need to post to seem like a good person rather than actually wanting to change something about the issue. when i found out about asian hate, i got really interested, part of the reason because im south asian and it caught my attention, and i rushed to sign petitions and stuff, im 14, thats really all i can do. it all comes back to if you actually care or youre just doing it to look good. in this age of social media, it all comes back to trends and popularity. like the india farmer protest, gained more popularity after rihanna spoke about it (correct me if im wrong about this) and the covid situation in india, was a pretty popular topic when it first started, but as more issues came out it faded in the background, and as an indian i can say that when it died down, it was actually still pretty bad. so yeah its all about whats popular, and what people show. and the media doesnt help because, they at the end of the dayy report on what would get them money.
As a Palestinian who lives in Palestine, I have things to point out. Palestinians have been under the Israeli occupation since 1948 with ongoing various opressive actions from the Israeli army(which is considered as one of the strongest armies in the world) upon the Palestinians who don’t even have a proper authority, that’s why it’s not a “conflict” rather than “ethnic cleansing”. It’s not okay to apply selective empathy towards certain groups and ignore others,even us Palestinians we do support people who’ve experienced oppression in any form and we share about them. However, we see a lot of people try to raise awareness about Palestine because there are very limited news channels that shows the truth as it is,in addition to that the META apps supports the Israeli part and marks anything related to Palestine as “sensitive content” or “harmful communities” and takes down A LOT of accounts as a try to lower our voices, therefore, the Palestinian case remains a “trend” to a large extent of people. So we consider activism on social media and sharing awareness as an essential way of resistence. I’m writing this comment a year after the Israeli forces murdered the journalist Sherin abu Akleh while covering jenin camp in Palestine, that’s why we share daily about Palestine, because there is daily oppression towards kids,women,men,journalists or whoever is Palestinian to them.
So hello, I am not sure whether you're alive or not given this is March 3rd aka the day after the Global strike day and there's so many deaths around your country. I just wanted to tell you that many individuals both young & old are trying their best to spread awareness both online & in real life. I am praying for your safety given what's happening to your country & if you aren't alive then rest peace
Controversial? No... this is a breath of fresh air in a world full of noise, devoid of understanding and trending toward virtue signaling over genuine social activism and awareness. I love your videos and look forward to your intelligent reflections.
As someone who has fought for the Palestinian cause for as long as I can remember it felt refreshing seeing people other than Muslims and Arabs (and Middle easterners in general)talk about this issue, but then I noticed that people started to care less which proved to me that they probably didn't care as much in the first place and I felt disheartened it showed me that some people just post these things for the likes and engagement or just so they feel some sort of satisfaction or fulfillment, and I'm not saying raising awareness online is bad but sometimes people post things they didn't even read which spreads misinformation and it's disappointing to see such important causes be used as an engagement booster, spreading awareness online is very useful indeed but treating real serious issues (that could literally cause people's lives) as trends is just harmful in so many ways
I felt the same last year with everything that was happening in sheikh jarah , and then a month later no one is talking about it anymore it angered me so so much
This reminds me of how whenever I hear that an alleged example of a social justice example was actually a hoax or the event was just misrepresented, the booming response is often "we're trying to start a conversation". No, you're not. You're trying to jump in and take the spotlight and lead a conversation you are just now hearing about and/or are unprepared to contribute to.
I wanna like this more than just one time!! I completely agree w you, I'm getting annoyed when many (especially young people) repost those Instagram infographics. Every day they touch on a new topic and never really understand the context or even the conflict itself...
I have never seen someone as empathetic and Insightful. You give such unique and through explanations that help viewers challenge their original preconceived notions. I enjoy seeing how my opinions change with contrasting views. You are also so so so well spoken and crisp making you incredibly convincing.
I agree with your point as well as an activist myself I see too many people engaging in this social justice cycle. I was once someone who fell in this trap. Keeping up with the cycle is not good for you as it’s simply too much information. I had to learn its okay to focus on one issue. As that doesn’t mean you don’t care about other issues or aren’t a good person. Because I chose to focus on work on one issue I’ve been able to build a community I 144 followers on Instagram dedicated to the issue of girls education and womens rights.
This is me on 2024! I have similar stance with you in this video, however i think it’s still important to have some stance about social justice, because people still tend to be ‘abstain’, ‘neutral’, ‘apathy’, and avoiding the hard topic. but i do agree it’s not always necessary to show it at social media that you care, as it tend to lead on residual trend cycle, shaming, and judgement!
Hi, I really enjoyed this video. I think your video really resonated with me, as that is how I felt about activism growing up with social media. Like, I had felt pressured for a long time to care about issues on trend, however I felt like because I lacked knowledge on the history I wasn't really making my own thoughts and opinions. I felt like my care for activism was half hearted. I agree that dedication to an issue is important and an effective way of activism. Thank you for this video. I love your channel and you deserve more views!
So much more pertinent now. I think the best we can do is be deeply informed on these issues and learn about the ways we can help in our offline lives (boycotts, divestment protests, less water use, whatever) and then commit to them.
It really makes people more passive too, many share so many infographics, etc. and the capacity that that takes can‘t be used for actions with more impact. I realised that it doesn’t really make sense that I feel pressured to share infographics/other stuff to my 200 Instagram followers who mostly share exactly the same stuff. It’s just virtue signaling, a pat on my and their back to make myself believe that I am on the right side without having to risk anything.
you put everything i was thinking perfectly in this video. to add/expand on what you said, most things people consume in the name of activism is through the lenses of America, and therefore there is a lack of accountability when it comes to issues like the taliban takeover of the Afghan government. it is alarming to see, as someone who doesn’t live in America, when Americans “advocate” or “raise awareness” for the situation in Afghanistan, but fail to look into their own governments horrific impact on the country. i could only imagine the feeling of betrayal when the US army pulled out of Afghanistan. the country that involved themselves in wars that should never have been fought, the country that starved Afghanistan of resources, the country that provided arms and training to the wrong people in the name of power and international influence, are now removing themselves from the situation they planted and leaving innocents to suffer the consequences of their actions. and now people in that same country, that caused immeasurable amounts of suffering, posting it on social media to save face, then going back to live their privileged (and I don’t use that word lightly) lives. it’s truly alarming and it seems many are lacking in self awareness when addressing such issues.
What's really sad is that I've heard that America actually used to be an isolated country, and I felt like it would have been better if it stayed that way.
A great video! This is something I wish more people would talk and be aware of. I personally got a bit traumatized from all the blm stuff and I get overwhelmed easily so this kind of activism isn't for me. What you said about graphic footage is very true and people should learn to put trigger warnings where they're meant to be. For me atleast it's very confusing when first were advocating for mental health and the next week were expected to care and be educated on a million different issues on the other side of the world. What I most hate about this is how these posts try to make you feel guilty and like you're the problem (and some teenagers actually genuinely think that) and a bad person for not posting. I personally don't want to post because it's draining for me and feels completely pointless since all of my followers already follow each other and have seen and reshared the post so what is me just following along going to help the actual cause in the end. For me it always feels wrong and performative. As a child I also don't think middle schoolers need to be all knowing. I've noticed that there's a specific type of people who will do their research and actually care and then there's the problematic ones who don't. After I had gotten a mental breakdow I tried to take a break from social media but my friends kept going on about it at school. I was usually just sitting there uncomfortable trying to guess which words they were going to use this time. It was literally the same conversation over and over again which kind of sums what bothers me about this up. There were four of us and we had agreed that we all agree the first time we talkedamongourselves. If someone they saw as a "normie" said something something phobic they would call them out. Now I don't have a problem with that itself but it often escalated very cuikly into a heated debate where the point wasn't to get an understanding but rather to just win an argument. I personally think that having a deeper heart to heart with these "normies" would do much more than just labeling them toxic in the end. As for me I sometimes wished to rather be with these so called "toxic" people because many "woke" ones tend to have the exact same bad mindset as them. I have also noticed that the adults I follow post much less about these things. Which I choose to interpret as them being mature and knowing how to take care of themselves. It also makes me chek the stuff that they do post because it's more likely to be informative and something that they actually care about. Anyways this is my opinion about this stuff right now. I am a teenager myself trying to find the golden middleground. I just tjink that the negative should be talked about more which is why we need more great videos like these! I just don't think that a savior complex is going to save anyone.
Literally during BLM people (and businesses) were cancelled for not posting black squares on Instagram. I quit social media at the time not because I didn't care about racism but because I knew if I posted I wasn't adding to the conversation in a meaningful way. Instead I would be posting to try and prove I wasn't racist and to try and avoid being cancelled. Which is the wrong reason to post. Btw in my country I vote for progressive parties and also donate over $300/month to multiple charities, including Indigenous charities and climate change organisations.
@@ladyreverie7027 THIS! But it's great that you're donating! I personally am not old enough to vote yet and don't have the money to donate, but I will I the future!
This is honestly an amazing video 🙌🙌 I'm Israeli however I do not support my government and I 100% believe people should be speaking out of Palestine. However most of the social media 'activism' I've seen in action was performative harassment and micro aggressions towards random Jewish people, which not only doesn't help Palestine but is also deeply antisemitic. It definitely feels like people are joining a trend rather then trying to find ways they could actually help
FINALLY SOMEONE TALKS ABOUT THIS!! Personallyy for me all the issues I either talk or like in most cases repost come from me geniuienly caring but I find it so hard to find more posts about for example yemen since everyone´s always talking about the new "trendy" social issue.
thank you so much for this video! you've said all i was thinking about but couldn't put words into. i was actually really confused about all of the 'performative activism' thing because after blm there were protests in Belarus and it was so much harder for me to handle since i exist in "russian speaking post soviet info field". eventually i ended up in a circle where i felt guilty for caring more about thing that is closer to me and being angry because i could hardly see any of english speakers care about it. now i kind of get why
A tip on pronouncing Kabul if you're afraid of mispronouncing: put together "kaa" (the snake from jungle book) and "bull" (the animal) Hope this helps!
@@oliSUNvia may I just take this opportunity to thank you how massively you've changed my perspective on the world? You're truly doing people a service 💜
I loved this video. You made so many great points I have been trying to articulate for years in the social media realm. People that follow the trend cycle are essential being emotionally manipulated by the media. They are waiting to be told when to feel sad or frightened or outraged. Once the cycle moves on, these emotions dissipate
Good point on the cost of diluting your care. When we flow instantly to the next issue, we don't dig deep enough to impact the prior issue. This is Adam Smith's point on specialization and division of labor. One thing I wonder though: does the jumping around of social media's attention really have to be a problem? What if some environmental cause is hip this week and then gets millions in funding then some discrimination issue is hip the next week and then they get millions of funding. If we see the social media apparatus not as a collection of DOERS who will actually go solve the problem, but instead as compassionate bystanders who can together make a real financial change, then it seems to me that we don't have a problem. So long as there ARE doers who specialize like Gretta, we don't need everyone to.
I totally get where you're coming from. I've noticed this phenomenon too, where certain issues tend to rise to the forefront of the public's attention, but I had a different explanation for it. Simply, it seems to me like it's impossible for every ongoing issue to be reported at once. (I'm sure you've seen comments under videos like "why are you spending time talking abt X when Y is also an issue.") The way I think abt it is that when events such as the bombing in Ghaza occur, they are reported on because that's how the news/media works - it's based on current events. And because there's an oversaturation of media in our lives, our timelines are flooded with posts related to the particular current event. So it's not that we cycle through caring about different issues; rather, what we post about is related to current events, and it's impossible to post about everything at once so we prioritize the most jarring event and then return to talking about other topics after our attention span runs out. (I hope I phrased things clearly but it's also 2.30 am so like, do with this what u will.)
I’ve been subscribed for a little while but I just started binging your vids and I love your channel!! You are so intelligent and well spoken, but most importantly I love that you look at thing from all aspects and really focus on getting people thinking and starting a conversation rather than proving a point. Keep being amazing!!
I think posting stories that follow the current "activist trend cycle" is only detrimental because it encourages complacency in thinking that you have done enough to mitigate the issue. However, posting still raises awareness and can make a difference by informing the people who may actually pursue change.
that no one person can fight for every issue at once, is why the people working on these different issues need to organize together, because all of these problems are interlinked. none us us will be free until we all are. the trend cycle is part of how we get divided and conquered.
I discovered your chanel just a few days ago but every time, you put words on impressions that I have but don't know how to talk about. I'm really glad you are making these videos, even if I don't always agree with you, because your point view is really intersting. Espacially on this topic
You provide some of the most refreshing and thoughtful commentary on really under-discussed points in the world. You are doing inspiring and phenomenal work with this, keep it up!! ☺👏
I found your channel last week and every video I have watched until now has been amazing. Extremely articulate and thought through. Love it! Thank you for this content, and please never stop making these kinds of videos, we really appreciate it ^^.
I've been going through and watching all your videos. I love the thoughtfulness of your insights and your explanations are very eloquent. Thanks for the quality content!
You’re point proven… no one is talking about Israel Palestine when it’s still on going the same as ever. People care about sensationalized topics only.
You know what is sad? We will focus on one specific issue and virtue signal to all hell on social media. But when something new happens, we all just give the middle finger to the issue we were focusing on and move on to this new conflict. Did we just forget about Afghanistan???
this is such an important topic!! i feel like some people (that i'm friends with or that i know) only reposts and do not take time to learn more about the issue, as if only reposting is helping. when i started to learn more about social justice and the problems of this world i did many things wrong and i believe many people only cares about things on the surfice level bc we are led to believe that if we share we are doing something - we are helping. i'm doing an essay that i feel like can open up a new conversation to this perfomative activism and its about how we use things that capitalism produces as a form of activism (such as buying clothes that says "girl boss" or "im a feminist), when its not actively helping in anything, but people believes that by buying such things they are doing their part on the fight. maybe some of the things i said didn't make sense lol anyways the video is a really good one and i think everyone should watched to see from a different point of view.
I just found you and I adore your channel. I don't watch most popular commentary videos because I find too many people caught up in semantics and the feeling of doing something rather than actually providing nuance and objective insight into a matter. Yours certainly tick the boxes I'm looking for. You're calm, coherent and reason things out well. I really enjoy your work! Please keep making videos
The loudest people are heard most. And these influencers who post and do nothing are quite loud. As much as I want to support spreading awareness, it feels like everyone's trying so hard to be an empath for internet points.
So pick something and dedicate your abilities to that issue, and build the community around your knowledge, research and experience in that field will do I genuinely appreciate this video and will figure out where and how I can/ want to help
A huge issue on social media is when you advocate for something, people are like, "do you don't care about ___?" or "why aren't you talking about ___?"
as to say with people who comment & post regarding their favorite social influencer, "you need to talk about this issue!" when it is a trending topic makes an echo-chamber of opinions, always repeating what the most popular opinion circulating is. Can anyone really give their true & honest opinions on something that is trending, when it begins to trend so heavily, wouldn't having an opposing view literally threaten the platform they stand on, as an influencer? Your video just made me think!! That's why I love watching them so much :)
Real change often happens when a person dedicates their life to an issue. The media "issue of the week" carousel should be a way for people to find their one issue, not used entirely for its own sake.
I love how respectful you are and I want you to have a podcast My opinion: I generally agree the whole Kabul thing broke my heart and of course the Isreal and Palestinian thing is really sad.
I feel so bad not being able to do more than like and comment and share on my social media. I don’t have a car or people to take me to protests and I want to do so much more. I know I’m probably doing more than nothing, but I still feel weird about it even if I’m doing as much as I can. I really do hope in my heart tho that these real tragedies that have turned into trends are somehow eased or made more thoughtfully aware to the public. There is so much terror going on right now, and I can’t and won’t stop trying to do my best to call attention to it. I hope more people do as well so that it will get to the point where real change happens.
True two years ago, and just as true today. But I will say that intersectionality demands that we learn about more than one issue to avoid the errors of previous era’s social movements. Furthermore, I think it could be good to ask folks to dig deeper and work outside their comfort zone. After all, climate change and trans-antagonism and demonizing immigrants of color and rolling back reproductive freedom etc etc are actually completely interconnected. I agree that we’re ending up with a lot of performative activism, but if it’s because it’s a side effect of building movements that are respecting intersectionality-and teaching more folks to see our struggles for what they truly are-then I’ll take it!
While I support Palestine, after going to a recent March where a whole bunch of spicy libs from nonprofits got involved, I distance myself from it because it is becoming more performative and trendy and people stop caring about local issues
There is very little you can do to help someone that's thousands of miles away. Tweets, hastags, challenges. They solve nothing in the problems that you're in. Awareness doesn't equal activism when people are just spectators Businesses also love to profit of someone else's suffering by starting "charities"
Heya, I love your channel so much! One thing I wanted to say was that I think you forgot to emphasize the misinformation social justice trends can cause, as well as how there is only one “popular” side of the equation and people don’t bother to even research the other side of hot topics. The issue with not researching the other side is that there is an automatic hateful response to anyone who disagrees with the current trend or people ignore victims of the other sides who are directly affected by issues such as war I know you lightly touched on the misinformation these reposted instagram infographics can disperse across the social media platform, but I think it’s a huge issue that should be covered as well
Remember during March 2022 when everyone was posting about Ukraine? Do you wonder where all of those posts went? The 'trend' was over, but the war still persists, but the likes are the target, not the awareness.
I'm one of those ppl who tries to repost a lot of educational posts in social media and I always felt like unfairnes when ppl suddenly stop talking or posting about one issue when the excitement on media is gone, but now I really feel the importance of this matter, as ukrainian I feel that ppl supported my country and talked about war while it was trandy and it makes me feel sick))) But as a person who lives in the middle east for more less 4 years I feel even worse when ppl talk about our conflicts without realy getting to know the reasons and history behind them. Especially when its going trendy and confuses more and more ppl like palestinian and israely issue, its so fu**king complex Karen, you can't just decide one day to support one side bc Gigi Hadid or Joe Biden told you what's right
🙌🙌🙌 1. It's unrealistic for everyone to be deeply invested in every single issue 2. It impacts the quality of activitism 🙌🙌🙌 Again, such great points. When you gonna be on Joe Rogan? 😂💞
i agree with you and a couple of the comments on here!! I think the thing about performative "activism" is that it seems to make everyone an "activist" but to be honest, if everybody is an activist, nobody is (i really love the points you gave here btw!! The way your word your thoughts is really good and in a way that i can understand easily as someone who didnt grow up speaking english as their first language)
I think another major reason though that people focus a lot on Israel as opposed to somewhere like Afghanistan is that Afghanistan has no contentions that it's anything more than a theocracy of tribes and warlords so atrocities happen there and people don't care anymore(also the war there has been going on for over a decade n just ended a couple weeks ago). Israel is a westernized, first world, democracy with a lot of industrial capabilities (especially in cyber technology) so people tend to hold it to a higher standard especially when backed so heavily by the US. Anyways nice video :)
I totally get where you're coming from and I'm not really sure about the specifics of the incident brought up in the video but I think the argument that Israel is westernized is unfair. The US have bombed and killed so many civilian families in Afghanistan to the point where our lengthy involvement has done much more harm than good. We have contributed to the destabilization there and led to civilian deaths. I think that speaking out against Israel is super important, but that using our voices against harmful US military actions is equally as important.
the worse about all of this are conflicts that were never ever posted on social media. very few people know where ethopia is, very few people know whats going on at tigray, and nothing is posted on social media about the atrocities being committed to the civilians caught in the cross fire. a huge portion of what determines the activist trend style is geography: first we have Africa at the bottom of the pit, never ever appearing on the news; then we have Australia, Asia and the middle east at the middle of the pit; then Europe and America on the surface when it comes to receiving attention
This video could've been made today fr, very insightful video fr - would recommends peoples to do as an alternative to start small in yo communities with a prominent issue n shit and go from there. Talk to shit to the local gov, conduct a book club, mutual aid, smthn fr, these are the best of times but the worst of times. Also read book! They are lovely and can lead to lovely actions.
Absolute respect for pointing out such an important issue, as someone who generally focuses on social issues and behavioral issues, this is a really important point that needs to reach more ears. As a right leaning centrist living in Cali, I have a lot of very outspoken leftist friends, every other week there's some "big issue" that flood my insta stories and are almost immediately dropped. I feel that this is a much bigger and far reaching issue than even your video makes it to be. It often feels like all you need to move the public opinion is to have a corporation like google or twitter put a manipulative headline on the front page and just let the young "social activists" spread it like wild fire. This only makes problems worse for not only those who are involved in the event itself, but also made people very biased. People are starting to get used to following what ever is trendy and believe anyone else who disagrees to be wrong, even if they offer a civil discussion. I personally believe this is the reason why the nation is so divided right now, the left are willing to disagree with the right just to "not agree with the 'wrong' side" and it genuinely makes me sad at how easily manipulated everyone who over-consume media are. it feels like people are being brainwashed into thinking that agreeing with the trending hashtag is being correct and majority opinion is more important than deeper analysis. People want to talk about oppression, but wont mention the active destruction of free speech for the sake of ridding "hate speech". People wanna talk about corruption, but not the explicit photos found on Biden Jr.'s laptop. Or even the suspicious ending of J. epstein's life. People say that propaganda is rampant, but will hate Trump and love Biden. Some of these feel like people are agreeing for the sake of blending in. My opinions may not align with yours, but I genuinely do admire you for having common sense and wont fall for media sensationalism. I pity those who are so convinced that they are helping by just regurgitating what they saw for 10 seconds in someone's story. In fact, I myself am aware that my political stance is the combined result of sensationalism and disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing, but I just happened to land on the other side of the shore. sometimes i would even find myself getting annoyed at your stance that I might not agree with. And a friendly reminder to all sides of politics in the comments: YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO PROPAGANDA. people need to stop solidifying their positions based on 1 article or some infographic. Stop being afraid to disagree, stop being rude to people who disagree with you. Compromises need to be made. Things are not black and white.
@@sleepingtom9337 personally, I just do not condone the debauchery that the left is falling into. Porn addiction at record high, morals are thrown away and we aren't conserving white american traditions and stories. It sometimes feels like the left is intoxicated with villafying the right or even the country in which we live. It just infuriates me when I see people burning the American flag because they forget the values the flag stands for. Systemic racism and all those issues are caused by the government, not the values of freedom that our flag stands for. I also hate how anyone labeled a racist is immediately dehumanized. The left just tends to make every issue black and white, and don't listen to the arguments of the right or most of the time just opting to ridicule conservatives as "racist, bigot, boomers" I also tend to agree with the right a little more on issues of taxing albeit I know little about the Republicans in the government, for all I know, I might hate the republican congressmen if I knew more abt what they stood for. But as a person, I find that my values tend to lean towards the right more.
@@GaryGao-l6b oof. I’m on the left and I see it the other way around. The right calls everything “CRT”, “socialist” or “Cultural Marxism”. I’m going to be straight forward with you. “Protecting white American values” is a red flag for racism. Not trying to ridicule you. I want to know what exactly are “white American values”. Again not trying to label you. I’m keeping an open mind.
@@sleepingtom9337 if u genuinely believe that erasing American history by tearing down statues and monuments or refusing to teach old American folk tale is a red flag for racism, you are too paranoid. Racism was a dying ideal, in fact if not for the hypocrisy of the BLM riots, there wouldn't be any new generation "racists". America was founded upon the religious idea that God guarantees us rights as human beings, and this idea should be taught to us to remind us of our freedoms that the government shall never impede upon. Look at the government, the amount of taxes we suffer, the sheer, incomprehensible amount of tax money they waste, rampant corruption. Yet ppl are too caught up on stupid sht to notice. Social media floods younger generations with sensationalist propaganda and everyone just eats it up.
What this video makes me think about is when all of the Palestinian-Israeli events were in the peak of the media, how stan twitter took it. the only things they'd do (which for some is all they can do) is make threads. While it's helpful to spread awareness, there were many people who took it as a task to retweet and disappear otherwise. Saying things such as "If you take time to post about trivial things on your account besides spreading awareness, you were a bad person and deserved to be cancelled." It came to the point where people who were truly affected by the situations couldn't even tweet about their own things because people who knew nothing about the heat of everything were trying to be influential. I also remember when someone who we'll call milk wanted to tweet about topics other than the Palestinian-Israeli topic. They got cancelled and something along the lines of, "I'm not home right now, but once I get home, I'll retweet more threads." Like how stupid is that? The topic was never supposed to be "just a trend", and sadly, that's what it turned into.
The points brought forth in the video are good, and salient, and much needed in the western context. Few caveats: While activism is not a trend, some urgent issues do need broader support that just the people who singularly care about them, e.g. in BLM and ongoing genocides - this is the way to organise masses and create pressures on the powers that be. You may not be able to invest time all year round in these issues, but you do still care about them. People who truly care about things like social, environment and other justices understand that these issues are interconnected a lot of the times. So, when you deeply care about one thing, it spills into another automatically. These issues do not occur in vacuum so while the efforts one can dispense in all these connected issues may be limited, it does not mean one does not care about other issues and it is simply a performance.
Now that is a bold title, and you raise some interesting points. If we devote our selves to one thing, should we expect others to create an even distrubution of social-activism inspired devotion to other causes, so that it balances out? Tricky, and that's why social media is so tempting in this sense; because it promises that you can do exactly what I just outlined. In reality, I think it's impossible for any one person to inflect impactfully on all social events. Now, there is a definite difference between 'impactful' and 'meaningful' because you can care for an event, sure you can. But do not be fooled by your screen - it's not a tool, its a microphone, from hundreds, and sometimes, thousands of miles away. And worse, the people you are trying to speak to might not be able to hear you.
If more people thought like this then the social fabric of America might actually change for the better. I see people of all political backgrounds make themselves look stupid by being loud, misinformed, and regurgitating the rhetoric of whatever the latest "in" issue is.
My biggest kinda-critique of your analysis is with how you characterize the element of political/Western involvement as being "news loves to bash politicians". I think that a big part of the focus on US politicians involvement in these tragedies is the idea that it is our responsibility as part of these societies to call out our own. If my Canadian tax dollars are going to funding the Israeli military, and the Israeli military is using those funds to bomb Palestinian land, I have a higher moral obligation to speak out against things happening in Kabul, especially with years of experience regarding what western military intervention has done to Afghanistan and the Middle East. I may not have the same moral authority to demand that other governments act in the interest of their own people. This idea of proximal moral consideration is why I think that issues that issues that are closely tied to Western political policy tends to garner greater social outrage.
I also think that people have a tendency to see things as if they are black and white, people just separate into teams like team Israel team Palestinian as if its a love triangle or something like that, and like a love triangle that sort of thing gets hype people approach this like it's a book or something instead of a real life issue that is so so complicated people think they see one post and know the whole story while there are people who research about this and still don't know the entire story
I also realize a lot of people have the mindset of black and white. For those who have a middle ground or can bounce back and forth from black white and grey, they're automatically "this or that". Not gonna lie logic left in 2020 maybe even longer than that... but definitely ever since the pandemic critical thing and logic has not been used for a while and it shows through media and talks you have outside of social media
I've had to unfollow some folks on IG because their Stories is like clockwork every day -- matcha, the sunset & something new (& popular) to be mad at that day.
this is so true. i also feel like people get shamed for not caring if they don’t repost infographics abt the “trending issue” at the time
I despise those infographics. They all feel fake and hollow. It doesn't help that I see the same 5 ones reposted a dozen times across different accounts. Not just that, it's very rarely more than overly simplified propaganda. I don't see a big "social justice infographic" account as an actual force for positive change, I view them as exploiting a major world event for clout.
yea right, like those people who post infographics on ig stories, asking for repost and then captioning "i see who isn't reposting"
@@itsgeet really irked me when they started making the infographics with “silence is violence/complicity.” Such an unfair stance to take.
@@TheANSONATOR I swear, more people on the world wide web now act like they're always having a bpd episode and are splitting. But it's encouraged to put something that is provably, by design, destructive to mental health for the purpose of profit and control, before ones own basic needs, because that is apparently what social awareness is. That same social awareness is so often xenophobic, ableist, virtue signaling, Freudian, social darwanist, authoritarian, loyal to hypercapitalist values, actively marginalizing of the people it swears to protect like magnanimous white knights, et cetera. I, a mentally ill androgyne who caught the autism virus from gay frogs or something, just absolutely love being treated like a lesser lifeform by people who preach tolerance, compassion, and understanding.
All of the points you put forth are such insightful takes on social justice; honestly I am in utter and complete love with your channel
i'm truly grateful for that
me too really & i’m a philosophy student as well, love from delhi 🤍
I wanted to say something similar like that in one of her video i couldn't make myself do it so idk but is it because i have ego problem i don't just simply know anything about it actually i feel kinda non egotic rn cus i saw your comment so that's helping me type this..... I don't know what to sy anymore
@@oliSUNvia
Broken down into simple terms, every issue is concerning what’s fair; what seems fair in your eyes, what seems fair in my eyes, how anyone can have a fair shot at life (or a good life). For all of these reasons, I think that taxes are the single most important issue.
When you think of any issue, whether having to do with conflicts in the Middle East, housing rights, environmental racism, etc, they all come down to a fight for resources, and most don’t feel they are treated fairly.
As the old trope goes; the rich keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer; and so it seems to me the impactful way to address most people concerns is to implement a universal tax system in which billionaires and trillion aires cannot launder away their money (which are really just arbitrary denominations for the worlds finite resources, the resources which should be shared amongst everyone).
@@sivanandhinisangeeth551 u should probably smoke more weed
2 years later and the cycle continues still
Even today this remains true. We need to stop treating current events and human rights issues, like geopolitical conflicts, genocides, and wars as spam fodder, infographic aesthetics, or trends.
i think that we should superficially care about what we think is bad, but we should leave the proper activism to the proper activists that really want to solve the problems that they are advocating for. I think this will be more efficient because these activists know that problem will still exist even after when it is acknowledged by the masses. The idea that we can all be activists is so problematic and unrealistic.
I won't challenge you, but I'll leave you with some thoughts: what is 'proper activism'? Does the existence of 'proper activism' validate the viewpoints of these groups?
@@josephl447 i wouldn't define what is proper activism instead, i would define what is a proper activist (of course according to my opinion), simply put a proper activist is someone who is greatly educated about his cause and is open minded to all different opinions concerning his cause. that's it. i believe what follows from such a person could be defined as what i call proper activism.
of course this is also my opinion.
@@Amal-kz6yi I agree, I believe a proper activist is when someone is willing to create a change in an injustice and has a passion for it not because of guilt or the fear of being seen as ignorant
I wish it was that simple. Let's not forget that there are a lot of "activist" foundations like the gate's foundation, where the sole purpose is to use donations from themselves to fund themselves in a way that turns their profits into tax-exempt corporate investment.
@@rumplstiltztinkerstein i know, sadly i am speaking of what it seems as an ideal world. sadly we don't live in one.
It's brilliant to hear such a level headed person speak about something i've thought about for so long! Especially with the lack of social media 'activism' surrounding the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan at the moment, an issue as serious as any other.
I also see a lack of "activism" on the uyghur g3noc1d3
@@kittykittybangbang9367 you should watch the video badempanada made, he does his research and that video is next on my list to watch.
From what I understand, it's not as cut and dry as I thought of it before
well wow. youre information is very well put, i completely agree, you cant be completely immersed into every single social justice issue, like how blm came out, its faded, the same thing with asian hate. when we post these things to our followers, while on onehand its great, but the question is how can we really help? and also i really liked how you brought this up because nowadays, i think people feel the need to post to seem like a good person rather than actually wanting to change something about the issue. when i found out about asian hate, i got really interested, part of the reason because im south asian and it caught my attention, and i rushed to sign petitions and stuff, im 14, thats really all i can do. it all comes back to if you actually care or youre just doing it to look good.
in this age of social media, it all comes back to trends and popularity. like the india farmer protest, gained more popularity after rihanna spoke about it (correct me if im wrong about this) and the covid situation in india, was a pretty popular topic when it first started, but as more issues came out it faded in the background, and as an indian i can say that when it died down, it was actually still pretty bad. so yeah its all about whats popular, and what people show. and the media doesnt help because, they at the end of the dayy report on what would get them money.
well i'm glad that even though you're 14, you're already trying to take action and learn about these important issues!
As a Palestinian who lives in Palestine, I have things to point out.
Palestinians have been under the Israeli occupation since 1948 with ongoing various opressive actions from the Israeli army(which is considered as one of the strongest armies in the world) upon the Palestinians who don’t even have a proper authority, that’s why it’s not a “conflict” rather than “ethnic cleansing”.
It’s not okay to apply selective empathy towards certain groups and ignore others,even us Palestinians we do support people who’ve experienced oppression in any form and we share about them. However, we see a lot of people try to raise awareness about Palestine because there are very limited news channels that shows the truth as it is,in addition to that the META apps supports the Israeli part and marks anything related to Palestine as “sensitive content” or “harmful communities” and takes down A LOT of accounts as a try to lower our voices, therefore, the Palestinian case remains a “trend” to a large extent of people. So we consider activism on social media and sharing awareness as an essential way of resistence.
I’m writing this comment a year after the Israeli forces murdered the journalist Sherin abu Akleh while covering jenin camp in Palestine, that’s why we share daily about Palestine, because there is daily oppression towards kids,women,men,journalists or whoever is Palestinian to them.
So hello, I am not sure whether you're alive or not given this is March 3rd aka the day after the Global strike day and there's so many deaths around your country. I just wanted to tell you that many individuals both young & old are trying their best to spread awareness both online & in real life. I am praying for your safety given what's happening to your country & if you aren't alive then rest peace
That sounds awful, are you in a safe city/village? Hebron?
Controversial? No... this is a breath of fresh air in a world full of noise, devoid of understanding and trending toward virtue signaling over genuine social activism and awareness. I love your videos and look forward to your intelligent reflections.
As someone who has fought for the Palestinian cause for as long as I can remember it felt refreshing seeing people other than Muslims and Arabs (and Middle easterners in general)talk about this issue, but then I noticed that people started to care less which proved to me that they probably didn't care as much in the first place and I felt disheartened it showed me that some people just post these things for the likes and engagement or just so they feel some sort of satisfaction or fulfillment, and I'm not saying raising awareness online is bad but sometimes people post things they didn't even read which spreads misinformation and it's disappointing to see such important causes be used as an engagement booster, spreading awareness online is very useful indeed but treating real serious issues (that could literally cause people's lives) as trends is just harmful in so many ways
I felt the same last year with everything that was happening in sheikh jarah , and then a month later no one is talking about it anymore it angered me so so much
this is a really underrated channel. you're speaking the truth here!!
This reminds me of how whenever I hear that an alleged example of a social justice example was actually a hoax or the event was just misrepresented, the booming response is often "we're trying to start a conversation". No, you're not. You're trying to jump in and take the spotlight and lead a conversation you are just now hearing about and/or are unprepared to contribute to.
I wanna like this more than just one time!! I completely agree w you, I'm getting annoyed when many (especially young people) repost those Instagram infographics. Every day they touch on a new topic and never really understand the context or even the conflict itself...
i’ve been thinking abt this for so long !! this message is important i hope this reaches more ppl
I have never seen someone as empathetic and Insightful. You give such unique and through explanations that help viewers challenge their original preconceived notions. I enjoy seeing how my opinions change with contrasting views. You are also so so so well spoken and crisp making you incredibly convincing.
I agree with your point as well as an activist myself I see too many people engaging in this social justice cycle. I was once someone who fell in this trap. Keeping up with the cycle is not good for you as it’s simply too much information. I had to learn its okay to focus on one issue. As that doesn’t mean you don’t care about other issues or aren’t a good person. Because I chose to focus on work on one issue I’ve been able to build a community I 144 followers on Instagram dedicated to the issue of girls education and womens rights.
This is me on 2024! I have similar stance with you in this video, however i think it’s still important to have some stance about social justice, because people still tend to be ‘abstain’, ‘neutral’, ‘apathy’, and avoiding the hard topic. but i do agree it’s not always necessary to show it at social media that you care, as it tend to lead on residual trend cycle, shaming, and judgement!
Hi, I really enjoyed this video. I think your video really resonated with me, as that is how I felt about activism growing up with social media. Like, I had felt pressured for a long time to care about issues on trend, however I felt like because I lacked knowledge on the history I wasn't really making my own thoughts and opinions. I felt like my care for activism was half hearted. I agree that dedication to an issue is important and an effective way of activism. Thank you for this video. I love your channel and you deserve more views!
So much more pertinent now.
I think the best we can do is be deeply informed on these issues and learn about the ways we can help in our offline lives (boycotts, divestment protests, less water use, whatever) and then commit to them.
interesting to watch this two years later after the coverage of Palestine has skyrocketed
I’ve really been waiting to see a video like this, so well put and addresses a lot of things some people are afraid to voice. Great video
It really makes people more passive too, many share so many infographics, etc. and the capacity that that takes can‘t be used for actions with more impact.
I realised that it doesn’t really make sense that I feel pressured to share infographics/other stuff to my 200 Instagram followers who mostly share exactly the same stuff.
It’s just virtue signaling, a pat on my and their back to make myself believe that I am on the right side without having to risk anything.
you get down to the meanings of the topics really well
"who gets to decide what is relevant"
you put everything i was thinking perfectly in this video. to add/expand on what you said, most things people consume in the name of activism is through the lenses of America, and therefore there is a lack of accountability when it comes to issues like the taliban takeover of the Afghan government. it is alarming to see, as someone who doesn’t live in America, when Americans “advocate” or “raise awareness” for the situation in Afghanistan, but fail to look into their own governments horrific impact on the country. i could only imagine the feeling of betrayal when the US army pulled out of Afghanistan. the country that involved themselves in wars that should never have been fought, the country that starved Afghanistan of resources, the country that provided arms and training to the wrong people in the name of power and international influence, are now removing themselves from the situation they planted and leaving innocents to suffer the consequences of their actions. and now people in that same country, that caused immeasurable amounts of suffering, posting it on social media to save face, then going back to live their privileged (and I don’t use that word lightly) lives. it’s truly alarming and it seems many are lacking in self awareness when addressing such issues.
What's really sad is that I've heard that America actually used to be an isolated country, and I felt like it would have been better if it stayed that way.
these kinds of videos educate me so much. tysm for showing your insights; it really helps me learn to be more open-minded and aware of these things.
A great video! This is something I wish more people would talk and be aware of.
I personally got a bit traumatized from all the blm stuff and I get overwhelmed easily so this kind of activism isn't for me.
What you said about graphic footage is very true and people should learn to put trigger warnings where they're meant to be.
For me atleast it's very confusing when first were advocating for mental health and the next week were expected to care and be educated on a million different issues on the other side of the world.
What I most hate about this is how these posts try to make you feel guilty and like you're the problem (and some teenagers actually genuinely think that) and a bad person for not posting.
I personally don't want to post because it's draining for me and feels completely pointless since all of my followers already follow each other and have seen and reshared the post so what is me just following along going to help the actual cause in the end.
For me it always feels wrong and performative.
As a child I also don't think middle schoolers need to be all knowing. I've noticed that there's a specific type of people who will do their research and actually care and then there's the problematic ones who don't.
After I had gotten a mental breakdow I tried to take a break from social media but my friends kept going on about it at school. I was usually just sitting there uncomfortable trying to guess which words they were going to use this time. It was literally the same conversation over and over again which kind of sums what bothers me about this up. There were four of us and we had agreed that we all agree the first time we talkedamongourselves.
If someone they saw as a "normie" said something something phobic they would call them out. Now I don't have a problem with that itself but it often escalated very cuikly into a heated debate where the point wasn't to get an understanding but rather to just win an argument. I personally think that having a deeper heart to heart with these "normies" would do much more than just labeling them toxic in the end.
As for me I sometimes wished to rather be with these so called "toxic" people because many "woke" ones tend to have the exact same bad mindset as them.
I have also noticed that the adults I follow post much less about these things. Which I choose to interpret as them being mature and knowing how to take care of themselves. It also makes me chek the stuff that they do post because it's more likely to be informative and something that they actually care about.
Anyways this is my opinion about this stuff right now. I am a teenager myself trying to find the golden middleground. I just tjink that the negative should be talked about more which is why we need more great videos like these! I just don't think that a savior complex is going to save anyone.
Literally during BLM people (and businesses) were cancelled for not posting black squares on Instagram. I quit social media at the time not because I didn't care about racism but because I knew if I posted I wasn't adding to the conversation in a meaningful way. Instead I would be posting to try and prove I wasn't racist and to try and avoid being cancelled. Which is the wrong reason to post.
Btw in my country I vote for progressive parties and also donate over $300/month to multiple charities, including Indigenous charities and climate change organisations.
@@ladyreverie7027 THIS! But it's great that you're donating! I personally am not old enough to vote yet and don't have the money to donate, but I will I the future!
This is honestly an amazing video 🙌🙌 I'm Israeli however I do not support my government and I 100% believe people should be speaking out of Palestine. However most of the social media 'activism' I've seen in action was performative harassment and micro aggressions towards random Jewish people, which not only doesn't help Palestine but is also deeply antisemitic. It definitely feels like people are joining a trend rather then trying to find ways they could actually help
your vids are always so good omg you deserve 1 million followers, i’m recommending you to my friends!!
that means so much!!!
FINALLY SOMEONE TALKS ABOUT THIS!! Personallyy for me all the issues I either talk or like in most cases repost come from me geniuienly caring but I find it so hard to find more posts about for example yemen since everyone´s always talking about the new "trendy" social issue.
thank you so much for this video! you've said all i was thinking about but couldn't put words into. i was actually really confused about all of the 'performative activism' thing because after blm there were protests in Belarus and it was so much harder for me to handle since i exist in "russian speaking post soviet info field". eventually i ended up in a circle where i felt guilty for caring more about thing that is closer to me and being angry because i could hardly see any of english speakers care about it. now i kind of get why
what does russian speaking post soviet info field
A tip on pronouncing Kabul if you're afraid of mispronouncing: put together "kaa" (the snake from jungle book) and "bull" (the animal)
Hope this helps!
thank you!
@@oliSUNvia may I just take this opportunity to thank you how massively you've changed my perspective on the world? You're truly doing people a service 💜
I loved this video. You made so many great points I have been trying to articulate for years in the social media realm. People that follow the trend cycle are essential being emotionally manipulated by the media. They are waiting to be told when to feel sad or frightened or outraged. Once the cycle moves on, these emotions dissipate
your approach to this topic is amazing. I couldn't put my thoughts into words but you did very well.
Good point on the cost of diluting your care. When we flow instantly to the next issue, we don't dig deep enough to impact the prior issue. This is Adam Smith's point on specialization and division of labor.
One thing I wonder though: does the jumping around of social media's attention really have to be a problem? What if some environmental cause is hip this week and then gets millions in funding then some discrimination issue is hip the next week and then they get millions of funding. If we see the social media apparatus not as a collection of DOERS who will actually go solve the problem, but instead as compassionate bystanders who can together make a real financial change, then it seems to me that we don't have a problem. So long as there ARE doers who specialize like Gretta, we don't need everyone to.
I totally get where you're coming from. I've noticed this phenomenon too, where certain issues tend to rise to the forefront of the public's attention, but I had a different explanation for it. Simply, it seems to me like it's impossible for every ongoing issue to be reported at once. (I'm sure you've seen comments under videos like "why are you spending time talking abt X when Y is also an issue.") The way I think abt it is that when events such as the bombing in Ghaza occur, they are reported on because that's how the news/media works - it's based on current events. And because there's an oversaturation of media in our lives, our timelines are flooded with posts related to the particular current event. So it's not that we cycle through caring about different issues; rather, what we post about is related to current events, and it's impossible to post about everything at once so we prioritize the most jarring event and then return to talking about other topics after our attention span runs out. (I hope I phrased things clearly but it's also 2.30 am so like, do with this what u will.)
I’ve been subscribed for a little while but I just started binging your vids and I love your channel!! You are so intelligent and well spoken, but most importantly I love that you look at thing from all aspects and really focus on getting people thinking and starting a conversation rather than proving a point. Keep being amazing!!
I think posting stories that follow the current "activist trend cycle" is only detrimental because it encourages complacency in thinking that you have done enough to mitigate the issue. However, posting still raises awareness and can make a difference by informing the people who may actually pursue change.
OMG 😳
You are like reading my thoughts. I totally agree with you. Thanks for rising up this topic. Everything is very well structured. Cool video 👍
i loved your content
ok your videos on social/political topics are actually amazing!! keep it up
that no one person can fight for every issue at once, is why the people working on these different issues need to organize together, because all of these problems are interlinked. none us us will be free until we all are. the trend cycle is part of how we get divided and conquered.
I discovered your chanel just a few days ago but every time, you put words on impressions that I have but don't know how to talk about. I'm really glad you are making these videos, even if I don't always agree with you, because your point view is really intersting. Espacially on this topic
2024 and I had to check the upload date... we're still talking about Palestine-Isreal...its crazy because some people like this is necessarily new...
You provide some of the most refreshing and thoughtful commentary on really under-discussed points in the world.
You are doing inspiring and phenomenal work with this, keep it up!! ☺👏
This was food for thought. I might need to re-examine my approach to a few issues.
I found your channel last week and every video I have watched until now has been amazing. Extremely articulate and thought through. Love it! Thank you for this content, and please never stop making these kinds of videos, we really appreciate it ^^.
I've been going through and watching all your videos. I love the thoughtfulness of your insights and your explanations are very eloquent. Thanks for the quality content!
You’re point proven… no one is talking about Israel Palestine when it’s still on going the same as ever. People care about sensationalized topics only.
What you call performative activism, others call virtue signalling.
this is seriously becoming one of my new favourite channels
You know what is sad? We will focus on one specific issue and virtue signal to all hell on social media. But when something new happens, we all just give the middle finger to the issue we were focusing on and move on to this new conflict. Did we just forget about Afghanistan???
this is such an important topic!! i feel like some people (that i'm friends with or that i know) only reposts and do not take time to learn more about the issue, as if only reposting is helping. when i started to learn more about social justice and the problems of this world i did many things wrong and i believe many people only cares about things on the surfice level bc we are led to believe that if we share we are doing something - we are helping. i'm doing an essay that i feel like can open up a new conversation to this perfomative activism and its about how we use things that capitalism produces as a form of activism (such as buying clothes that says "girl boss" or "im a feminist), when its not actively helping in anything, but people believes that by buying such things they are doing their part on the fight. maybe some of the things i said didn't make sense lol anyways the video is a really good one and i think everyone should watched to see from a different point of view.
this video proves how the presence of evidence plays a huge role in influencing people’s beliefs and stances.
I just found you and I adore your channel. I don't watch most popular commentary videos because I find too many people caught up in semantics and the feeling of doing something rather than actually providing nuance and objective insight into a matter. Yours certainly tick the boxes I'm looking for. You're calm, coherent and reason things out well. I really enjoy your work! Please keep making videos
The loudest people are heard most. And these influencers who post and do nothing are quite loud. As much as I want to support spreading awareness, it feels like everyone's trying so hard to be an empath for internet points.
So pick something and dedicate your abilities to that issue, and build the community around your knowledge, research and experience in that field will do
I genuinely appreciate this video and will figure out where and how I can/ want to help
i’m binge watching your videos and it’s like you beat around the bush and never drive to a concrete point
This channel is severely under-rated
Social Justice is an aesthetic
A huge issue on social media is when you advocate for something, people are like, "do you don't care about ___?" or "why aren't you talking about ___?"
as to say with people who comment & post regarding their favorite social influencer, "you need to talk about this issue!" when it is a trending topic makes an echo-chamber of opinions, always repeating what the most popular opinion circulating is. Can anyone really give their true & honest opinions on something that is trending, when it begins to trend so heavily, wouldn't having an opposing view literally threaten the platform they stand on, as an influencer?
Your video just made me think!! That's why I love watching them so much :)
You articulated this in the best way. 💜
Real change often happens when a person dedicates their life to an issue. The media "issue of the week" carousel should be a way for people to find their one issue, not used entirely for its own sake.
I love how respectful you are and I want you to have a podcast
My opinion:
I generally agree the whole Kabul thing broke my heart and of course the Isreal and Palestinian thing is really sad.
I feel so bad not being able to do more than like and comment and share on my social media. I don’t have a car or people to take me to protests and I want to do so much more. I know I’m probably doing more than nothing, but I still feel weird about it even if I’m doing as much as I can.
I really do hope in my heart tho that these real tragedies that have turned into trends are somehow eased or made more thoughtfully aware to the public. There is so much terror going on right now, and I can’t and won’t stop trying to do my best to call attention to it. I hope more people do as well so that it will get to the point where real change happens.
Walk.
True two years ago, and just as true today. But I will say that intersectionality demands that we learn about more than one issue to avoid the errors of previous era’s social movements. Furthermore, I think it could be good to ask folks to dig deeper and work outside their comfort zone. After all, climate change and trans-antagonism and demonizing immigrants of color and rolling back reproductive freedom etc etc are actually completely interconnected. I agree that we’re ending up with a lot of performative activism, but if it’s because it’s a side effect of building movements that are respecting intersectionality-and teaching more folks to see our struggles for what they truly are-then I’ll take it!
While I support Palestine, after going to a recent March where a whole bunch of spicy libs from nonprofits got involved, I distance myself from it because it is becoming more performative and trendy and people stop caring about local issues
Exactly !!!
There is very little you can do to help someone that's thousands of miles away. Tweets, hastags, challenges. They solve nothing in the problems that you're in. Awareness doesn't equal activism when people are just spectators
Businesses also love to profit of someone else's suffering by starting "charities"
Heya, I love your channel so much! One thing I wanted to say was that I think you forgot to emphasize the misinformation social justice trends can cause, as well as how there is only one “popular” side of the equation and people don’t bother to even research the other side of hot topics. The issue with not researching the other side is that there is an automatic hateful response to anyone who disagrees with the current trend or people ignore victims of the other sides who are directly affected by issues such as war
I know you lightly touched on the misinformation these reposted instagram infographics can disperse across the social media platform, but I think it’s a huge issue that should be covered as well
Remember during March 2022 when everyone was posting about Ukraine? Do you wonder where all of those posts went? The 'trend' was over, but the war still persists, but the likes are the target, not the awareness.
Wow, this is first leftist leaning TH-camr who share almost the same views as me! Your channel is so underrated!
love your videos!! thanks for educating us..
I'm one of those ppl who tries to repost a lot of educational posts in social media and I always felt like unfairnes when ppl suddenly stop talking or posting about one issue when the excitement on media is gone, but now I really feel the importance of this matter, as ukrainian I feel that ppl supported my country and talked about war while it was trandy and it makes me feel sick))) But as a person who lives in the middle east for more less 4 years I feel even worse when ppl talk about our conflicts without realy getting to know the reasons and history behind them. Especially when its going trendy and confuses more and more ppl like palestinian and israely issue, its so fu**king complex Karen, you can't just decide one day to support one side bc Gigi Hadid or Joe Biden told you what's right
Це просто жах. А зараз усім похуй и думають що наша війна занадто документована 🙄 або що вона закінчилась
🙌🙌🙌 1. It's unrealistic for everyone to be deeply invested in every single issue
2. It impacts the quality of activitism 🙌🙌🙌 Again, such great points. When you gonna be on Joe Rogan? 😂💞
3:45 never though of it that way interesting take
i agree with you and a couple of the comments on here!! I think the thing about performative "activism" is that it seems to make everyone an "activist" but to be honest, if everybody is an activist, nobody is
(i really love the points you gave here btw!! The way your word your thoughts is really good and in a way that i can understand easily as someone who didnt grow up speaking english as their first language)
I think another major reason though that people focus a lot on Israel as opposed to somewhere like Afghanistan is that Afghanistan has no contentions that it's anything more than a theocracy of tribes and warlords so atrocities happen there and people don't care anymore(also the war there has been going on for over a decade n just ended a couple weeks ago).
Israel is a westernized, first world, democracy with a lot of industrial capabilities (especially in cyber technology) so people tend to hold it to a higher standard especially when backed so heavily by the US. Anyways nice video :)
I totally get where you're coming from and I'm not really sure about the specifics of the incident brought up in the video but I think the argument that Israel is westernized is unfair. The US have bombed and killed so many civilian families in Afghanistan to the point where our lengthy involvement has done much more harm than good. We have contributed to the destabilization there and led to civilian deaths. I think that speaking out against Israel is super important, but that using our voices against harmful US military actions is equally as important.
the worse about all of this are conflicts that were never ever posted on social media. very few people know where ethopia is, very few people know whats going on at tigray, and nothing is posted on social media about the atrocities being committed to the civilians caught in the cross fire. a huge portion of what determines the activist trend style is geography: first we have Africa at the bottom of the pit, never ever appearing on the news; then we have Australia, Asia and the middle east at the middle of the pit; then Europe and America on the surface when it comes to receiving attention
This video could've been made today fr, very insightful video fr - would recommends peoples to do as an alternative to start small in yo communities with a prominent issue n shit and go from there. Talk to shit to the local gov, conduct a book club, mutual aid, smthn fr, these are the best of times but the worst of times. Also read book! They are lovely and can lead to lovely actions.
this is what I’ve been thinking all along
Absolute respect for pointing out such an important issue, as someone who generally focuses on social issues and behavioral issues, this is a really important point that needs to reach more ears. As a right leaning centrist living in Cali, I have a lot of very outspoken leftist friends, every other week there's some "big issue" that flood my insta stories and are almost immediately dropped. I feel that this is a much bigger and far reaching issue than even your video makes it to be. It often feels like all you need to move the public opinion is to have a corporation like google or twitter put a manipulative headline on the front page and just let the young "social activists" spread it like wild fire.
This only makes problems worse for not only those who are involved in the event itself, but also made people very biased. People are starting to get used to following what ever is trendy and believe anyone else who disagrees to be wrong, even if they offer a civil discussion. I personally believe this is the reason why the nation is so divided right now, the left are willing to disagree with the right just to "not agree with the 'wrong' side" and it genuinely makes me sad at how easily manipulated everyone who over-consume media are. it feels like people are being brainwashed into thinking that agreeing with the trending hashtag is being correct and majority opinion is more important than deeper analysis.
People want to talk about oppression, but wont mention the active destruction of free speech for the sake of ridding "hate speech". People wanna talk about corruption, but not the explicit photos found on Biden Jr.'s laptop. Or even the suspicious ending of J. epstein's life. People say that propaganda is rampant, but will hate Trump and love Biden. Some of these feel like people are agreeing for the sake of blending in. My opinions may not align with yours, but I genuinely do admire you for having common sense and wont fall for media sensationalism. I pity those who are so convinced that they are helping by just regurgitating what they saw for 10 seconds in someone's story.
In fact, I myself am aware that my political stance is the combined result of sensationalism and disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing, but I just happened to land on the other side of the shore. sometimes i would even find myself getting annoyed at your stance that I might not agree with.
And a friendly reminder to all sides of politics in the comments: YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO PROPAGANDA. people need to stop solidifying their positions based on 1 article or some infographic. Stop being afraid to disagree, stop being rude to people who disagree with you. Compromises need to be made. Things are not black and white.
Just curious. Why are you on the right?
@@sleepingtom9337 personally, I just do not condone the debauchery that the left is falling into. Porn addiction at record high, morals are thrown away and we aren't conserving white american traditions and stories. It sometimes feels like the left is intoxicated with villafying the right or even the country in which we live. It just infuriates me when I see people burning the American flag because they forget the values the flag stands for. Systemic racism and all those issues are caused by the government, not the values of freedom that our flag stands for. I also hate how anyone labeled a racist is immediately dehumanized. The left just tends to make every issue black and white, and don't listen to the arguments of the right or most of the time just opting to ridicule conservatives as "racist, bigot, boomers" I also tend to agree with the right a little more on issues of taxing albeit I know little about the Republicans in the government, for all I know, I might hate the republican congressmen if I knew more abt what they stood for. But as a person, I find that my values tend to lean towards the right more.
@@GaryGao-l6b oof. I’m on the left and I see it the other way around. The right calls everything “CRT”, “socialist” or “Cultural Marxism”. I’m going to be straight forward with you. “Protecting white American values” is a red flag for racism. Not trying to ridicule you. I want to know what exactly are “white American values”. Again not trying to label you. I’m keeping an open mind.
@@sleepingtom9337 if u genuinely believe that erasing American history by tearing down statues and monuments or refusing to teach old American folk tale is a red flag for racism, you are too paranoid. Racism was a dying ideal, in fact if not for the hypocrisy of the BLM riots, there wouldn't be any new generation "racists". America was founded upon the religious idea that God guarantees us rights as human beings, and this idea should be taught to us to remind us of our freedoms that the government shall never impede upon. Look at the government, the amount of taxes we suffer, the sheer, incomprehensible amount of tax money they waste, rampant corruption. Yet ppl are too caught up on stupid sht to notice. Social media floods younger generations with sensationalist propaganda and everyone just eats it up.
I can't believe you don't have more subscribes. the points you make are so great and mind changing. can't wit to see you blow up!
this is some very relevant content for 2022
Amazing video. Hank Green also talked about this in his "Sad Gap" video!
What this video makes me think about is when all of the Palestinian-Israeli events were in the peak of the media, how stan twitter took it. the only things they'd do (which for some is all they can do) is make threads. While it's helpful to spread awareness, there were many people who took it as a task to retweet and disappear otherwise. Saying things such as "If you take time to post about trivial things on your account besides spreading awareness, you were a bad person and deserved to be cancelled." It came to the point where people who were truly affected by the situations couldn't even tweet about their own things because people who knew nothing about the heat of everything were trying to be influential. I also remember when someone who we'll call milk wanted to tweet about topics other than the Palestinian-Israeli topic. They got cancelled and something along the lines of, "I'm not home right now, but once I get home, I'll retweet more threads." Like how stupid is that? The topic was never supposed to be "just a trend", and sadly, that's what it turned into.
I absolutely love your channel,, and your voice is really soothing
the word you are looking for is the overton window
The points brought forth in the video are good, and salient, and much needed in the western context. Few caveats: While activism is not a trend, some urgent issues do need broader support that just the people who singularly care about them, e.g. in BLM and ongoing genocides - this is the way to organise masses and create pressures on the powers that be. You may not be able to invest time all year round in these issues, but you do still care about them. People who truly care about things like social, environment and other justices understand that these issues are interconnected a lot of the times. So, when you deeply care about one thing, it spills into another automatically. These issues do not occur in vacuum so while the efforts one can dispense in all these connected issues may be limited, it does not mean one does not care about other issues and it is simply a performance.
A shedding of self-guilt. Brillant.
Now that is a bold title, and you raise some interesting points.
If we devote our selves to one thing, should we expect others to create an even distrubution of social-activism inspired devotion to other causes, so that it balances out? Tricky, and that's why social media is so tempting in this sense; because it promises that you can do exactly what I just outlined. In reality, I think it's impossible for any one person to inflect impactfully on all social events. Now, there is a definite difference between 'impactful' and 'meaningful' because you can care for an event, sure you can. But do not be fooled by your screen - it's not a tool, its a microphone, from hundreds, and sometimes, thousands of miles away. And worse, the people you are trying to speak to might not be able to hear you.
If more people thought like this then the social fabric of America might actually change for the better. I see people of all political backgrounds make themselves look stupid by being loud, misinformed, and regurgitating the rhetoric of whatever the latest "in" issue is.
My biggest kinda-critique of your analysis is with how you characterize the element of political/Western involvement as being "news loves to bash politicians". I think that a big part of the focus on US politicians involvement in these tragedies is the idea that it is our responsibility as part of these societies to call out our own. If my Canadian tax dollars are going to funding the Israeli military, and the Israeli military is using those funds to bomb Palestinian land, I have a higher moral obligation to speak out against things happening in Kabul, especially with years of experience regarding what western military intervention has done to Afghanistan and the Middle East. I may not have the same moral authority to demand that other governments act in the interest of their own people. This idea of proximal moral consideration is why I think that issues that issues that are closely tied to Western political policy tends to garner greater social outrage.
300th subscriber! i love your voice and the information you’re putting on youtube. also, YOURE SO PRETTY AND I LOVE YOUR STYLE SO MUCH
thank u for being 300 it means so much
@@oliSUNvia OF COURSE!! and that makes me happy too
I also think that people have a tendency to see things as if they are black and white, people just separate into teams like team Israel team Palestinian as if its a love triangle or something like that, and like a love triangle that sort of thing gets hype people approach this like it's a book or something instead of a real life issue that is so so complicated people think they see one post and know the whole story while there are people who research about this and still don't know the entire story
"Tend to the part of the garden that you can touch"
I also realize a lot of people have the mindset of black and white. For those who have a middle ground or can bounce back and forth from black white and grey, they're automatically "this or that". Not gonna lie logic left in 2020 maybe even longer than that... but definitely ever since the pandemic critical thing and logic has not been used for a while and it shows through media and talks you have outside of social media
I've had to unfollow some folks on IG because their Stories is like clockwork every day -- matcha, the sunset & something new (& popular) to be mad at that day.
May I suggest posting clips of this video on TikTok - it's so needed over there right now.
her voice is asmr to me
Cannot add any insights to the situation, but I love how you word this.
Thank you for this video.