FINALLY!
There’s a graphic to describe this disturbing trend I’m seeing all over Tumblr and sometimes on Twitter too. Have you noticed it?
What is it?
I call it outrage addiction.
Here’s how it works.
One person has a pretty angry opinion about, let’s say, the celebrity worship of Miley Cyrus. And they do a post about it. They ask people to “signal boost”
So those people “signal boost” until it is everywhere.
Filling up people’s timelines, and generally just going all out with the sniping comments attached to it.
Like let’s say someone says, “Sinead O’Connor! Miley Cyrus! Demonizing sex workers!” Sure, okay. That seems reasonable.
But just posting about it on the internet isn’t enough. You actually have to go do something more if you want something to happen about this particular issue.
Then immediately after that, let’s say someone says, “Rape is wrong!” Yes, it is. Rape is wrong. So everyone signal boosts this.
It makes the rounds. People keep talking but then what? Then they’re on to the next terrible thing 5 minutes later.
There’s always another terrible thing. And another. And another.
Their blogs and tumblr streams become endless streams of things that you agree DO matter, but they are not taking action about ANY OF THEM.
It’s a feedback loop with the same people all being upset and posting.
It’s a loop that says, “Let’s all get angry and frustrated together!”
Then these people wonder why they’re so upset all the time!
What’s the point in simply reacting to ALL OF THE BAD THINGS? I don’t get it.
Has being this upset about anything before gotten anything done in the past?
Is your signal boosting effective in any meaningful way in stopping a problem?
I am not saying you shouldn’t have interests and things you care about. Of course we all should have these. But you’re not getting anything done when you focus solely on what’s wrong with the world, without offering solutions, or taking action. It’s a formula for making you feel exhausted and ineffectual.
Let me ask you this. Do you think people who green-light the celebrity gossip that gets on the news or people who rape are really going to be convinced by your endless endless whining?
You are not convincing anyone who is making these things happen.
You’re just making a negative feedback loop that makes your friends irritated.
Nobody likes a shitty cupcake!
You can’t bully your way to a better world.
So here’s the deal.
I’m not attacking you for being a (insert oppressed group here) person, I’m attacking you for being pointlessly angry about stupid shit all the time.
You MUST focus if you want to do something about EVEN ONE of the issues that you’re upset about.
Start a petition. Take donations. Go volunteer at a rape crisis center. Volunteer at a nonprofit media center where you can make news about things that matter.
Whatever you want to do, do it. Don’t waste your time dividing your attention on ALL OF THE INJUSTICES in the world.
Because there are a lot of them. Rather, focus on what you want to change. Then work to change it. That’s how working at nonprofits works. We FOCUS on a mission and hopefully make a change.
Complaining about it all of the time and signal boosting is NOT going to get anything done.
And of course you complain because you care. So focus and maybe you can do something more about the issue you focus on.
If you keep your stream full of a litany of complaints, pretty soon no one is going to want to follow you, or engage you in conversation, because seriously, what is the point?
You’re looking for oppression everywhere and you’re finding it!
I’d rather hang out with activists who actually get things done instead of engage in things like this.
How about you?
Do you know a lot of people like this?
How do you deal with them, if so?
0 Responses
Ooh man I know exactly what you’re talking about. (I hang out a lot on Tumblr — mostly in fandom, tho — and read a lot of body-positive/acceptance material.) I can get caught up in the being unproductively-angry thing reeeally easily. I stopped reading a lot of feminist blogs when I was going through a stressful period a while back because they were full of “let’s all be angry together!” stuff, which is neither productive nor good for my blood pressure. I haven’t gone back, either. “Outrage addiction” is a really good way to sum it up.
The one thing I think is an exception when it comes to pointlessness is attitudes. I think it’s important to point out things like photoshopped ads, comic-book women that have no spines, people’s assumptions about things, etc (I adore the Escher Girls tumblr for just this reason). I’m a big believer in calling people out in the moment on forums, for example. Things like the “don’t be that guy” campaign really work – reframing the issue where the right people see it makes a huge difference.
I actually got a guy I knew on a forum to stop driving home from his neighborhood bar after drinking and while still buzzed — he literally hadn’t thought about the fact that even if he could do the driving fine, his reaction time would be impaired and if someone ELSE did something unexpected he wouldn’t be able to avoid it. He said it actually freaked him out to realize that the only reason nothing had happened was that he’d been lucky.
Of course the big difference here is that it’s actually an ACTION. I talked *to that guy,* not about him elsewhere where he wouldn’t see it.
I think the conversations about Miley Cyrus’ appropriation of black culture in her VMA performance were important because they might have convinced some readers to think about this stuff (hell, just exposing some folks to the idea of cultural appropriation is a big and useful thing). The best pieces I read had zero expectation of Miley giving a crap, they just wanted their readers to see what was going on.
Social justice warriors on Tumblr/Twitter are really annoying, no doubt. I think they often do harm to their own movements. BUT I also think it’s important to talk about things that aren’t okay, if only so that people can articulate more clearly to actual folks they know why these things aren’t okay.
I didn’t have a good “why this is wrong” explanation around Native American appropriation until I started following @nativeapprops on Twitter and reading her blog. I knew in my gut that “Indian warrior” Halloween costumes and “ironic” hipster headdresses aren’t okay, but I couldn’t explain why. Now I can.
But just making an echo chamber to yell about how wrong things are and not DOING anything (like, say, talking to the people in question, donating to a political movement, emailing/calling your govt reps, etc) is ont only useless, it’s unhealthy. That shit’s bad for your stress levels!