#performative activism

And with the destruction, death and atrocities only rising, the silence looks not just hypocritical, but increasingly hostile and deliberate.

They WANT us to die in silence because they got bored with our "trend" and have moved on to the next one. With just as much sincerity in their support for that other cause (none).

It's an either/or binary to them, as if these topics are rivaling fandoms.

posts like these can trigger people with OCD, who might then spiral about how if they don’t reblog this, they must hate that minority. and they must be bigoted and terrible. so they’ll probably reblog out of guilt and obligation.

but here’s the thing. posts like that are meaningless, performative, and shallow. the people who make them are literally just doing the easiest possible form of ‘allyship’ in order to feel all high and mighty and holier than thou, and feeling like they’re morally above people who don’t reblog it. it’s literally meaningless, performative manipulation disguised as ‘activism’.

if you don’t reblog a post like that, it doesn’t make you a bad person. it doesn’t mean you hate that minority. posts like that aren’t real activism.

in fact i’d say that they’re the opposite of activism. people who make those posts are literally guilt tripping and taking advantage of an already mentally/emotionally vulnerable group of people, (people with OCD) and it’s ableist as fuck. reblogging a post that says ‘REBLOG OR ELSE YOU THINK MINORITIES DESERVE DEATH’ means NOTHING.

They’ve spent decades oppressing and persecuting their own people, spending millions building miles of tunnels underneath Gaza and on rockets and weapons, instead of on infrastructure that would improve the lives of citizens. They build their terror bases under hospitals, schools, and mosques, knowingly and deliberately endangering civilians. They routinely silence people who try to speak out against them. They dragged them into a disastrous and horrific war and spent two years refusing to do the one thing that eventually ended it, namely releasing hostages. This isn’t denying Israeli government culpability in the destruction and suffering, there is plenty of blame to go around, but there was a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas before October 7, and Hamas broke it with their rampage of brutality. Now that the war is over, they are systematically executing their own citizens in the street, and slaughtering entire families in their homes, showing that their brutality and their evil isn’t reserved just for Israelis. Palestine will never be safe, never be free, while Hamas is allowed to exist, and useful fucking idiots here in the West praise them as “heroic freedom fighters” and Palestinian voices condemning Hamas are routinely ignored and talked over.

And what are the protestors doing? Still yelling in the streets for Israel to cease to exist, for the “Zios” to die. Newsflash, besties: if Israel disappeared in a poof of smoke tomorrow, Hamas would continue to do what it’s best at, the people you claim to care oh so very much about would still be suffering and dying.

And what about the celebrities performing their virtue signalling for likes and popularity? The flotilla activists with their “aid”? Have they said a single thing about any of this? Or are they strangely silent because they can no longer blame their favourite scapegoat and it might require them to actually understand anything beyond sound bites and slogans?

‼️ There is a new version of this blog post! Please read here ‼️

With Stranger Things Season 5 coming out this year, we are unfortunately going to see a revival of the debacle around Noah, even though by then it will be an almost 2 year old subject. So, I thought I would get ahead of that with some of my thoughts based on what I've seen these last few weeks and more broadly over the last 6 or more months I've been on this scene.

Spoiler Alert: This is going to be a long one. It'll probably be my new pinned post.

Why Still Talk About It?

Frankly? Because it's still going on. Keep in mind, Liam Payne died in October 2024 (just three months ago), right around Noah's birthday, and THIS is how Twitter responded to that.

And just in case anyone thinks I had to dig back a whole 3 months to find Noah-hate-content on Twitter, here was just random things I grabbed from the last week:

Which brings me to the next point.

Why Do You Even Care?

"Noah doesn't know you." "He's not your pookie."

I know that. The funny thing is, from what little I know about Noah, I'm pretty sure if he DID know me beyond the ONE DM conversation we've had, he'd probably tell me to chill. Dude is very non-confrontational and nice. So, why do it?

Because I think the online movement in favor of Palestinian self-determination has been hijacked by teenagers and performative leftists who care more about looking good for their peers than practicing what they preach.

Because (as you can see above and in screenshots like the one below), people who claim to hold my liberal/progressive/left-leaning values have used this as an opportunity to be openly homophobic and antisemitic towards a then-19-year old who had JUST come out of the closet.

Proponents of the hate campaign against Noah have said that they are just "holding him accountable" or "criticizing him" in the hopes he "learns something."

Look up. Point to me which image is accountability. Point to me the valid criticisms.

There are none. There is just flagrant homophobia. And then there are posts like these two, coming from the same crowd:

This behavior is wrong on its face.

It is violent. It is bullying (which doesn't seem like strong enough of a word) and it's bigoted.

Wanna see more? Look up @noah_schnapp on Twitter/X. See what they've done to his account.

Inevitably, some of the people participating in this will see this blog post. If you've made it this far, this is for you:

This behavior discredits your activism. It makes you look performative and fake to say in one breath that you are a "Leftist" who cares about Palestinian lives as well as the lives of minority groups worldwide, and then to turn around and talk like this about a Jewish person and a gay KID. Because he WAS a kid when this started. Furthermore, it makes it clear to those of us who actually hold the beliefs we claim, that you are vapid enough to use Palestinian suffering for your own personal vendettas. That the APPEARANCE of goodness is more important than goodness itself. And that you will shuck solidarity with minority groups the MOMENT one of them steps out of the lines you have drawn around them.

Not to mention...

It's Based Mostly On Lies

As a reminder, this is what Noah Schnapp actually said shortly after October 7, 2023:

Read that again.

"...we will hope and pray for safety, justice, liberation, and self-determination in Palestine." That was part of the very first thing he ever said about the issue.

And then this happened:

This was the image/video he was crucified for.

Stickers that weren't even his. That he wasn't holding up or making. He was in a cafe, someone else came up to him with them, and he was videoed with that person.

That's it. That's all. All those tweets you saw above? The fake stories made up about him like this one?

All of that was supposedly "accountability."

The harassment of his family. Murder threats. Rape threats. All for stickers that weren't even his.

There's even a paid Stranger Things author on this very site, styling herself as a Byler shipper, who has contributed to the lies that have further added to the hate campaign I've described.

As an aside, Noah wasn't the only one in that video. The influencers that actually posted the video and HAD THE STICKERS?

Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

And just to be clear - I don't think they should get hate. I think non-Jewish online Leftists appropriated a term from Jewish culture, redefined it, and are weaponizing it to beat down Jews all over the internet—which is par for the course for this charcuterie board of performative activism.

Yet the point stands. Noah was specifically targeted; and the homophobia that IMMEDIATELY came from the Left suggests to me that it was his sexuality and cultural/religious identity that motivated the attacks.

Again, I'll say, this is wrong.

Noah Has Since Responded

It hasn't stopped the bullying.

Didn't stop him from withdrawing from spaces he loved. From needing therapy from what we've learned from his now-deleted second TikTok.

And that really says something, does it? He cleared up his point. He tried to clarify and even apologize.

They didn't accept it. Not because it wasn't good enough. Not because it was "too late." Because this was the point. They wanted to keep doing it. They get sick joy from it.

Which is why...

I'm Not Shutting Up About This

This post doesn't even nearly cover the whole situation. The Byler fans who try to replace Noah's image in fan art and fan fiction. Who fan cast themselves as Will instead of Noah. The stalking and doxxing on Twitter. People reporting to GIANT hate accounts his location and when he's alone, PRAYING for him to be hurt.

I wish I could cover it all.

We have to stand up to this. On tumblr, on TikTok, on Threads, Twitter/X—everywhere we see it.

For our gay and Jewish siblings who see how Noah was attacked and feel less safe in their online spaces as a result, we have to speak up and say something.

And yeah. We have to say something for Noah, too.

The person who replied to me like this:

Him?

He did it because he needed to see a show of love from his fans. Doesn't mean he's perfect. Doesn't mean he won't mess up or do something in the future.

And no. Standing up for Noah, or for Jewish people, or other gay folks does not make you a genocide supporter or apologist. It doesn't mean you want any innocent people harmed. Don't give them the power to talk down to you like that. It's bullshit. You know it, and I know it.

All standing up to this vile shit is is an acknowledgement that Noah is a living, breathing person, as some of these people tend to forget.

And he didn't deserve this.

Any of it.

Related Blogs:

Examples of Noah’s Support for Gaza and Palestine (by @nymphus-fan-account)

The Evolution of a Lie

No, the Stranger Things Cast Does Not Hate Noah Schnapp

"There was no attempt to engage. No appearance of curiosity. No indication that they had come to listen. They had come to perform."