Also, the people who are doing the most good are—I cannot stress this enough—working to fix things that are PHYSICALLY CLOSE TO THEM
And as a Kentuckian this is exactly why i fucking hate the portrayal of small town and rural areas in the US as backward shitholes no one would want to live in because it's not enough to recognize that good people live here.
You have to recognize that each and every small town MATTERS and if you invested your ENTIRE LIFE into this "shithole" rural place no one cares about it would MATTER.
people are trying to do the activism thing while being like "ugh i hate living here in this small town full of racists"
So....they're not getting politically involved on a local level
They're not paying attention to their local unhoused population—their NEIGHBORS, their OWN
They're not paying attention to the creek downtown with pollution in it
They're not helping the disabled lady across the street get to the store
They're not writing letters to people in their local jail
They're not finding people in THEIR OWN community who care about the same things they care about
They're not contacting their OWN homeowner's association
They're not donating to organizations that are headquartered in cities and towns close by
And I know some people can't do these things, and I know I come off as a hypocrite because I haven't even been in my hometown very much lately, but I have done volunteer work and let me tell you.
When you physically are there to see the difference you make in the life of ONE person, it changes you. There is no room for despair or paralysis. You realize that simply helping in the way you can, in the amount you can, is SO INFINITELY worthwhile. It will change you forever as a person. Seriously