Decorative Activism

 

Dolos - was the spirit of trickery.

Commonly known as fake activism or slacktivism, it’s the practice of supporting a political or social cause through social media or online petitions. It is characterized as involving very little effort or commitment. 

My stance on this is unpopular: although fake activism is frustrating, it can actually help causes by creating a chain of reaction/domino effect.

Watching people who are commonly homophobic and xenophobic in their everyday life repost social justice threads on their social media platforms, for the very causes they find themselves bashing, has made me want to pull my hair out on multiple occasions. 

 

It took a while, but I began to realize that these reposts could actually be beneficial to the causes.

I mean, the person reposting it might not give a shit about the cause at hand but them reposting it still exposes the information to an audience of people that could find their interest piqued; people that may end up making positive contributions to the cause at hand.

Having said that, one important question remains:

does the good outweigh the bad? 

Does the character of the person really matter in their moment in time when they could have provided the movement with a new supporter that could be monumental to the cause?

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that participants of decorative activism deserve the criticism they receive, but I also believe that there is merit in their work. Even if they are doing it to appease their own egos.

I believe that, to combat the rise of slacktivism, we need to create ways in which people can find a way to get involved in a cause - whether small or big, donating tons of money, attending every possible protest, or signing petitions are all worthy work that people should engage themselves in. These actions, however, do not automatically make you an activist even though you are engaging in activism.

To me, an activist is someone who cares for a cause and dedicates their life to fighting for that cause. You don’t have to be an activist to be engaged in activism but you can not become an activist with no activism.

You don’t need to be the next Dr. Martin Luther King Jr or Malcolm X or Malala Yousafzai to make a change. 

You in your room or wherever you are reading this can make a change. a change that starts with you. 

If you’re not motivated nor passionate about it you can’t expect yourself to be the next change.