#complaining about western leftists hour again ig
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Gonna say that I really don’t think shame is actually a very effective activism tool. Which isn’t to say you have to be nice to shitty people or w/e, bc anger has a very very important role in activism and you have a right to be angry. But I don’t think shaming people itself is really “activism.” I don’t think it’s effective and I don’t think it actually helps anyone basically ever. Communicating, calling someone out, those are very important. But shame on its own is just. Not a good emotion to make use of. Shame is so self-focused. When people are ashamed they’re only going to act to alleviate their own discomfort and humiliation. And a lot of the time they just shut down instead. It doesn’t actually push anyone to make long lasting changes in themselves and their communities. It just makes people feel like shit and makes for some really shitty “activists” who don’t have like, any idea of what constructive, restorative, healing activism could look like and only know to tear other people down
#complaining about western leftists hour again ig#I feel like the only people who ever seem to know what I’m talking about these days are like. prison abolitionists and people who want r#restorative justice. but then also a bunch of the ‘leftists’ online will say they want those things and then not actually understand what#they are or have any of their values actually in line with those ideas#idk. I don’t think approaching activism from a place of compassion means you have to be a pushover or that you’re engaging in respectability#politics or w/e#I think it just means you really mean it when you say you want to heal the world#and also this isn’t saying that you’re like. BAD for shaming someone for being a shithead#you can definitely do that and I won’t judge you. I just also don’t think it’s necessarily capital A Activism#god another conversation I feel like I keep having: saying something isn’t effective or is harmful and in response people assume you’re#judging them morally#like I didn’t say that actually???#saying ‘hey I don’t know if this is gonna make sense in the long run’ doesn’t mean ‘I think you’re a bad person for reacting (x) way’#like really just remove that whole moralistic framework from your thinking bc it’s so not the point#so many proclaimed leftists simply Cannot shift their thinking outside of the box set up by existing hegemony and it’s like then what are#we even doing here#why are we doing any of this if you still can’t let that shit go?
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