Quote: ThunderEggyes activism is good, and yes silence can be bad.
but saying everyone who is silent is bad isn't necessarily correct. you have to understand why someone is being quiet. if someone is quiet bc they're against human rights, that's 100% bad. but some people are silent because they don't have a complete understanding of a situation and don't want to promote false information. some people are in situations where their lives will be ruined if they speak up. some people don't have a platform that would be effective for promoting good causes.
some people *ahem, me* are quiet because they're not sure if they can deal with the fallout of promoting something. heck, protests are even hard for me bc i hate crowds. saying "everyone who is silent is bad"; is a harmful simplification. it puts people who might agree with a cause but are unable to speak in danger of being purged.
that being said, i personally agree with the acab sentiment. in general, i feel that our governing systems need to be more humanitarian in function and not only on paper. not sure if that nullifies my previous point, but i think i need to clarify that in case people think i don't want there to be change. i think i'm in the minority because i have issues that sometimes make even normal conversation difficult.
I can relate to this. Describes one of the things that's been on my mind recently.
Even when it comes to social media presence, I'm more of an introvert myself nowadays. In any case, it seems impractical for me to get involved in public life, even in light of recent events, for the reasons you mentioned. Plus given that I also live where the history and dynamics of race relations are, while similar, still weighed out a lot differently than in American society, and the short-sighted hypocrisy of those speaking on behalf of their cause can potentially be much more blatant.
I find that people too often let their personal baggage and bogus worldviews motivate their activism on online platforms, which then spirals down into a quagmire of cynicism which only serves bitter egos. So I decided to quit giving that type of thing any serious engagement, and redirect my attention towards building up happiness in more humble (but fruitful) pursuits. Sure, at first glance someone might take that as an excuse to just be passive and distracted in the face of injustice, but what passes for being active to them in most cases is pretty much the same if you think about it.
What I will say about this is, whatever people's views might be on whether the overall response to Floyd's death by protesters, such as if it's consistent with other deaths that happened under similar circumstances or if there are double standards at work, when you see them, along with people barely involved even, being assaulted and gunned down indiscriminately by men in uniforms, it should be damned obvious to anyone who's not a bootlicker where the real danger is. Even compared with everything else that has gone on under the Trump administration... Things have really taken a dark turn.