On one hand, itâs a privilege to be able to choose to acknowledge these horrors or notâweâre going to acknowledge that privilege. On the other hand, I once attended a lecture by the explorerer-conservationist Jacques-Yves Cousteauâs daughter and son and they had a lot of opinions about what we could do to help the environment and the ocean and I talked about how in my country, we have to drink bottled water, because itâs a desert and thereâs only salt water all around, but weâre contributing to pollution and all of these thingsâŚ
And she looked at me and told me not to fall into the trap of âactivist guilt.â I couldnât remember the exact words, but, it was the first time Iâd heard the term and it took a weight off my shoulders.
We do what we can. Itâs so much better than giving up entirely or not doing anything at all because we canât do it perfectly. It doesnât benefit anyone in the end if we just sit around feeling guilty about every little thing in life. Iâd just joined tumblr back then (haha, so like, eight or nine years ago at this point?), I was being exposed to way more than Iâd ever been before (I was previously just into feminism and animal rights/wildlife conservation/environmentalism since I was a kid), and it was weighing on me.
As long as humans are humans and living flawed lives, many consumed by greed, there will not be anything in this world untouched by evil.
I usually avoid stuff that says it was made in China or other cheap looking knockoffs, out of fear of them being made in sweatshops (now, I know even a lot of big brands use thoseâŚ), itâs exhausting. Then, I read something about how people who actually lived and worked in those would still buy this cheap stuff and how this shocked the foreigner reporting on it, but they just looked confused like, itâs what they can afford and them avoiding consuming it isnât going to change the whole system from the ground-up.
⌠it went on about how âmoney talksâ and choosing where to put your money still feeds the whole capitalist system and is nearly a way of comforting yourself, but you not buying doesnât mean everyone else isnât. What needs to be tackled is at a much higher level than any of us can reach.
Of course, Iâd still, given the choice, give my money to companies I agree with and Iâll boycott what I know to support awful stuff, but I also feel no superiority over this and know now itâs not as black and white or easy as I thought it was.
This is the same reason that moral purity âyou canât enjoy [x] because itâs Problematic â˘â is such nonsense, because nothing is pure. Thereâs something bad about everything if you dig deep enough. As long as we lived in flawed human societies weâve got to make the best of what they offer us. If you have the choice and means, please, do support those who do good, but also, donât beat yourself up over not living up to an unattainable ideal.
No one can. Youâll just make yourself so miserable, you either burn up and stop fighting entirely or youâll make yourself a non-productive, depressed heap just out of a bleeding heart left unchecked. You canât make a change to this world if you refuse to engage in it.
Have a related article with self-care tips for activists.
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