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Re: Commodification and Responsibility
Sep. 14th, 2020 09:12 amI guess what I’m trying to say with all of this is that there is real shit going on in the world right now. People are still dying in a pandemic, Black people are still getting evicted and being shot at, and enormous parts of the country are literally on fire because of climate change that has not abated even a little despite major social shifts. It’s extremely distressing to see people devote so much attention to bullshit that doesn’t matter.
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I just don’t think this sort of scapegoating is an effective exercise of social justice. It’s exhausting, and it’s not helping anyone.
Also, Twitter bears a large portion of the blame for facilitating this sort of mess in the first place. If I could say one thing to young activists and socially engaged creative people, it would be to take care to use the platform while not being used by it. Sharing your voice on Twitter is empowering, but you can’t let Twitter take advantage of your anger to compel you to do meaningless work in order to increase consumer engagement with the app and website.
I’m writing about this because I saw the effects of this sort of discourse on Hillary Clinton, and now I’m starting to see it with Joe Biden. Neither Clinton nor Biden is blameless, and we all deserve better, but that’s just how American politics currently works, unfortunately. These politicians aren’t and shouldn’t be treated as religious icons; they’re imperfect building blocks that we can use to build a more perfect system. When I see the sort of discourse surrounding Stevenson and Biden on social media, and I think about all the shit we’re living with right now as a result of the 2016 elections, I just get so fucking angry.
Like, can we do a Netflix Sign Five BIPOC Showrunners Every Month 2020 Challenge. Can we play a fun Inktober style game where we tweet art and memes directly at our representatives every day for a month to reform the electoral college because it’s the fucking twenty-first century already.
Can we all just, for the next two or three months, stop wasting our collective energy on treating public figures like idols and scapegoats and start actively working to dismantle systems of injustice and inequality.
( Read more... )
I just don’t think this sort of scapegoating is an effective exercise of social justice. It’s exhausting, and it’s not helping anyone.
Also, Twitter bears a large portion of the blame for facilitating this sort of mess in the first place. If I could say one thing to young activists and socially engaged creative people, it would be to take care to use the platform while not being used by it. Sharing your voice on Twitter is empowering, but you can’t let Twitter take advantage of your anger to compel you to do meaningless work in order to increase consumer engagement with the app and website.
I’m writing about this because I saw the effects of this sort of discourse on Hillary Clinton, and now I’m starting to see it with Joe Biden. Neither Clinton nor Biden is blameless, and we all deserve better, but that’s just how American politics currently works, unfortunately. These politicians aren’t and shouldn’t be treated as religious icons; they’re imperfect building blocks that we can use to build a more perfect system. When I see the sort of discourse surrounding Stevenson and Biden on social media, and I think about all the shit we’re living with right now as a result of the 2016 elections, I just get so fucking angry.
Like, can we do a Netflix Sign Five BIPOC Showrunners Every Month 2020 Challenge. Can we play a fun Inktober style game where we tweet art and memes directly at our representatives every day for a month to reform the electoral college because it’s the fucking twenty-first century already.
Can we all just, for the next two or three months, stop wasting our collective energy on treating public figures like idols and scapegoats and start actively working to dismantle systems of injustice and inequality.
