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Why Slacktivism Bothers Me
May. 13th, 2017 04:18 pmEarlier today, I was doing my usual daily perusal of my FB feed. I'm considering sending my Mom, my sister, and a few FB-only friends my email and just deleting the stupid app. Anyway.
An acquaintance who shares many of my political views, and who also suffers with chronic physical and mental health problems posted an interesting internal debate she'd been having. Namely that she wants to go out and be more active in the resistance community and such, but her anxiety and fatigue won't always let her. What stuck with me hours later was that she berated herself for being a "slacktivist." That term bothers me for a number of reasons.
It seems like it's "the thing" now to put people down as slacktivists. But I would love to go back and find her post just to remind her of a few things I have to remind my own self of on occasion.
She lives in an area where there are actually organizations, protests, and other "boots on the ground" opportunities to get involved. Not everyone does. For example, I have to drive thirty minutes to get anywhere, and if a meeting or something is in Jacksonville or Gainesville, that's at bare minimum an hour of driving just to hit the city limits. That's kind of a lot of gas and time to burn. Not everyone has that. For example there was a political meeting I wanted to attend in Jax, down in Riverside, but they changed the time from 2 p.m. (totally doable for me) to five p.m. Five is late for me because I have animals and plants to care for, and they are on a schedule. The plants maybe not so much, but animals depend on their humans for food, water, and sanitation at a particular time. My garden needs watering and the fences need inspecting to make sure deer and bunnies don't spoil it. I'm trying to grow food here, so I'm not just being vain about some flowers. Anyway, I'd have needed to leave around 2:30 and depending on how long said meeting ran, might get back home at eight at the earliest. That's also not taking into consideration the fact that police departments are MUCH more inclined to treat these things like riots, so even a peaceful protest carries a risk of being beaten and/or jailed.
Not everyone enjoys perfect health. If you're exhausted and having a poor mental health time, pushing yourself to go out might not be a great idea. You could make yourself worse. You could collapse and require emergency care. You could use up your last few spoons and then be unable to do anything else for a couple of days. If you've ever had a day where you had to decide between taking a shower and making some food, you know how this can be. In that situation I'd probably trot out the old saw about "you can't pour water from an empty vessel."
And then, how is typical slacktivist stuff not important? It's still important for people to sign petitions, share news articles, and conduct online activism. Collecting signatures, donations, and support doesn't have to be done face to face to be valid. There should always be an ongoing process of educating and raising your consciousness, and even if that doesn't visibly help anyone right this instant, it'll help down the road. Becoming aware of issues and sharing them with friends can be helpful because that link you posted might wind up kindling a real fire in someone's heart and be their calling.
I guess what I mean is that every effort helps. Just because you can't physically be on the front lines doesn't mean that your work is unimportant. And everyone needs a day off now and then.
And totally OT but, HALLELUJAH! It's raining :D
An acquaintance who shares many of my political views, and who also suffers with chronic physical and mental health problems posted an interesting internal debate she'd been having. Namely that she wants to go out and be more active in the resistance community and such, but her anxiety and fatigue won't always let her. What stuck with me hours later was that she berated herself for being a "slacktivist." That term bothers me for a number of reasons.
It seems like it's "the thing" now to put people down as slacktivists. But I would love to go back and find her post just to remind her of a few things I have to remind my own self of on occasion.
She lives in an area where there are actually organizations, protests, and other "boots on the ground" opportunities to get involved. Not everyone does. For example, I have to drive thirty minutes to get anywhere, and if a meeting or something is in Jacksonville or Gainesville, that's at bare minimum an hour of driving just to hit the city limits. That's kind of a lot of gas and time to burn. Not everyone has that. For example there was a political meeting I wanted to attend in Jax, down in Riverside, but they changed the time from 2 p.m. (totally doable for me) to five p.m. Five is late for me because I have animals and plants to care for, and they are on a schedule. The plants maybe not so much, but animals depend on their humans for food, water, and sanitation at a particular time. My garden needs watering and the fences need inspecting to make sure deer and bunnies don't spoil it. I'm trying to grow food here, so I'm not just being vain about some flowers. Anyway, I'd have needed to leave around 2:30 and depending on how long said meeting ran, might get back home at eight at the earliest. That's also not taking into consideration the fact that police departments are MUCH more inclined to treat these things like riots, so even a peaceful protest carries a risk of being beaten and/or jailed.
Not everyone enjoys perfect health. If you're exhausted and having a poor mental health time, pushing yourself to go out might not be a great idea. You could make yourself worse. You could collapse and require emergency care. You could use up your last few spoons and then be unable to do anything else for a couple of days. If you've ever had a day where you had to decide between taking a shower and making some food, you know how this can be. In that situation I'd probably trot out the old saw about "you can't pour water from an empty vessel."
And then, how is typical slacktivist stuff not important? It's still important for people to sign petitions, share news articles, and conduct online activism. Collecting signatures, donations, and support doesn't have to be done face to face to be valid. There should always be an ongoing process of educating and raising your consciousness, and even if that doesn't visibly help anyone right this instant, it'll help down the road. Becoming aware of issues and sharing them with friends can be helpful because that link you posted might wind up kindling a real fire in someone's heart and be their calling.
I guess what I mean is that every effort helps. Just because you can't physically be on the front lines doesn't mean that your work is unimportant. And everyone needs a day off now and then.
And totally OT but, HALLELUJAH! It's raining :D
