#slactivism

Over the years, I have been sent a lot of online petitions to sign and except for cases when my friends would be sitting right next to me, I have largely ignored them, believing petitions to be largely useless. Whilst writing this article, I found some inspiring stories that have slightly changed my perception of petitions, but then again, petitions alone can't do much. 

I made a one-time $80 donation to ANERA. That's going to have to be enough.

Look, I realize I am not in any position to po'mouth. Any claims that my household is hanging on to the middle-class by its fingernails, could easily be refuted by saying my family should just be more frugal with its expenses. But the reality is I don't have a lot of power to fix the problems in my own county, let alone stop a genocide practically on the other side of the globe.

I have an ageing mother who can't save up for retirement because Wallstreet and my dad both fucked her in '08.

I have a law degree I'm working towards, which I'd very much like to avoid taking out student loans for.

Chronic health problems and medical debt.

I give cash to any homeless people I cross when I'm downtown.

I attend protests when I can.

I call and write my representatives about Gaza and other issues, but most of that falls on deaf ears.

I contribute to Planned Parenthood.

I donate and participate in charities against homelessness.

I donate to the DNC because I don't want things to get worse.

I've commissioned various artists who have rattled their tin cups in my face, many of which never delivered what they promised and I never heard from them again.

I boycott MOST large corporations, even when there's no specific boycott taking place.

You can argue my grocery budget is too high, but you wanna guess why it's so high? Because veganism didn't work for me, and this is what free-range meat costs.

Could I be doing more? Sure! I could shoot myself in the head so people more deserving than me could have my organs. But I'm drawing the line somewhere!

I guess I'm just writing this post to say, there are always going to be people trying to guilt trip you for your brand of progressivism being bougie. Fascists are starting fires left and right, and if you aren't giving away every drop of your own water to extinguish the flames, there's going to be some bleeding heart telling you you're basically Hitler. It's not that the sentiment of "could you be doing more?" is technically wrong even. But it would also be nice if Tumblr considered that shaming people can only get you so far. Closing your eyes and plugging your ears is "callous" but it's also necessary to stay sane.