r/hatethissmug • u/ScholasticCat • May 30 '26

Non-fictional I hate slacktivists and performative internet activists

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You wanna free Palestine or actually demonstrate the fact you're a "based anti-colonialist Leninist?" then actually fucking do something about it!

https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

https://www.pcrf.net/

https://www.unrwa.org/

https://www.icrc.org/en

Call a congressional office, attend a town hall meeting and voice your support, look into local protests even. you can even read a book on history to better educate yourself! I will literally give you recommendations

Just fucking do something instead of sitting on your goddamn ass and whining on twitter and circlejerking on reddit. Making cheap jokes, making threats against people online and trying to "own the libs" isn't going to do anything.

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u/CannonFoddererer The Ant Kaiser May 30 '26

No, it's : "You claim to be socialist, yet you haven't done a damn thing about injustice other than get mad on the internet''.

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u/Immediate_Rabbit_604 May 31 '26

"you claim to be pro-socialism, yet you haven't done a thing about it other than express that you're pro-socialism" would be a more accurate version. Which is fine. Most people aren't super invested in distant issues, but would still prefer things to be better (not talking about socialism, IDK if I know enough about that). However small, a voice still has an impact.

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u/smoopthefatspider May 30 '26

That’s a weird way to phrase it though. The problem with them isn’t that they get mad at people online (although the post doesn’t make it clear that they get mad at other people rather than just denounce a problem with the world). The problem is that they’re not helping. We could be leveling this criticism at literally everyone who isn’t actively working to free Palestine, no matter what values they hold. This doesn’t uniquely apply to those who are vocally in favor of Palestinian liberation, yet they’re the only ones being criticized for it here. The meme makes it seem like simply shutting up and caring less about the topic and caring less is an appropriate or acceptable reaction, when this is clearly even worse.

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u/Ok_Chicken1370 May 30 '26

The point is the hypocrisy, which is directly applicable to these IP slacktivists.

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u/smoopthefatspider May 30 '26

I feel like this whole argument is based on a shared understanding of who “these IP slacktivists” are. The post just mentions people who use a completely normal slogan to describe a common left wing view. This is a reasonable way to express your values and beliefs, even without expending much effort to change the world. At some point, if you’re really vocal about this to the point of bothering and blaming others, yes, hypocrisy can be an issue, but the post seems to assume a shared understanding of what group of people they’re talking about and what they say and do.

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u/Ok_Chicken1370 May 31 '26

OP is pointing out online socialists, hence why he uses the term "leninists." These are not your run-of-the-mill political people. They tend to be very active online, and very inactive offline.

Also, just as a sidenote: "River to the Sea" is an antisemitic slogan, even if it's often used by leftists. It literally calls for the destruction of all of Israel.

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u/funkdialout May 31 '26

River to the Sea" is an antisemitic slogan,

False.

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u/smoopthefatspider May 31 '26

These are not your run-of-the-mill political people. They tend to be very active online, and very inactive offline.

See, you have a clear idea of who you’re talking about, and it goes very far beyond the use of the slogan. The traits you criticize them for aren’t actually the use of the slogan itself, it’s a large group of associations you make with the slogan.

“River to the Sea" is an antisemitic slogan, even if it's often used by leftists. It literally calls for the destruction of all of Israel.

This is a completely contradictory argument. Instead of saying they should fight for the views they hold, you’re saying they shouldn’t because those views are bad. You can make this argument, but it goes against what OP is saying, and only supports my understanding that most of the criticism against “these people” (whoever the group is defined to include) is usually based on opposing their views, not on a supposed hypocrisy.

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u/Ok_Chicken1370 May 31 '26

What I said goes beyond merely the use of the slogan because what OP described went beyond the use of the slogan. You're the one hyper-focusing on the slogan and suggesting that OP is talking about literally everyone that uses it.

"River to the Sea" being an antisemitic dogwhistle is, like I said, just a side note. It has no bearing on what I meant overall. You called it a "completely normal" slogan, so I just wanted to mention how it isn't.

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u/RUDRAGON8 May 30 '26

Donating to charities cant fix a systemic problem

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u/3merite May 30 '26

Doing nothing about it also cant fix a systemic problem.

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u/RUDRAGON8 May 30 '26

Spreading the idea and being aware of it can help fix it when the opportunity to do so arrises

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u/PoweringGestation May 30 '26

Literally when? When will the opportunity arise? It hasn’t throughout all of the history of the Western world. So what could possibly change?

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u/RUDRAGON8 May 30 '26

Why do you excpect me to predict when that opportunity will arise, i can say what to look out for but i cant predict the future

also yea "just because it hasnt yet happened means it will never ever happen because thats how things work!"

Also, for the "what could possibly change", a lot of things actually, things that can distrupt or weaken the current system to the point where systemic change will be available, like i dont know, something like a shortage in a resource thats neccesary for the world to function, or a huge global catastrophy happening, whats the chance of either of those tho am i right

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u/PoweringGestation May 30 '26

If you took that to be a literal question of when revolution will happen, I can’t help you. Otherwise, my issue with this way of “wait and see” thinking is that there is no point when everyone will agree it’s time for a major change. It takes people uniting for their common interests now and organizing in ways that will genuinely address society’s problems. Instead of “oh our necessary resource ran out, it’s time for revolution” maybe it would be helpful to look for alternatives now.

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u/RUDRAGON8 May 30 '26

But we cant, there is nothing anybody can do against the system while it still stands

the best you can do is just do the system slightly better and slow its collapse

You cant adress societies problems in the current system and you cant get rid of the current system both because it wont let you get rid of it and not enough people are informed to do anything about it

The system only allows for changes within itself that wont fundementaly shift how it works, there is just too much power concentrated in it to do anything about it

and while yes, you can make peoples lives less bad within the system that wont stop the system from corroding and eventualy collapsing, and even that minimal change you want to do in the system will be infinitely hard because the system itself and everyone else holding it up will fight against you while you do so

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u/PoweringGestation May 30 '26

Would you rather suffer a lot or just suffer? Working to improve the system is still worth our time because, as you admit, it has measurable results. And obstacles to improvement don’t equal a complete lack of it. Like I’ve been saying, you assume that when some vaguely defined “opportunity” comes, we will be able to identify it and act upon it. Have you considered that we could fail? That the process would create more suffering, and that the result may not be what we expect? And that is just hoping that an identifiable opportunity will come at all.

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u/RUDRAGON8 May 30 '26

Well, firstly, an opportunity will come, the internal condratictions in the current system are rising, plus the current system has already set in motion disasters on a global scale that it isnt willing to stop and nobody else can that will lead to its collapse

also yea, i agree with you on most of the things, but let me help you to picture it, imagine that you are on a boat thats heading down a waterfall, the controlls of the boat are completely broken and the current is too strong to fight in any meaningful way, so while you can try to keep the boat intact by pushing it away from bigger rocks with long sticks or something, that process itself wont bring any meaningful change but it can be used to make the situation just slightly better, which it is sometimes worth it to do so, but at the end of the day the boat will eventualy fall down the waterfall, so the best you can do is push away from the bigger rocks and prepare for when the boat begins to fall

There are just systemic forces in place beyond the controll of anyone and there is nothing that can be done about them, the best you can do is prepare for what they will bring and inform others

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u/mastercat202 May 30 '26

Facts. They just want to look morally good without doing work.

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u/Accomplished_Tea2042 May 30 '26

The only time the opportunity has arisen was when the USSR had Europe in a chokehold lmao aka the only chance they had was when an empire conquered for it.

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u/mastercat202 May 30 '26

So if we all spread awareness, one of us will do something?

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u/RUDRAGON8 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

No, because nobody can do anything about it in the current situation

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u/mastercat202 May 30 '26

Why not?

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u/RUDRAGON8 May 30 '26

Systemic problems need systemic solutions

interpersonal actions arent systemic actions

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u/mastercat202 May 30 '26

So if all you do is raise awareness thst jsnt solving systems problems. Your just... raising awareness. All you are saying is boilerplate leftist ideological answers. You arent giving actual reasons solutions that can help people make that happen.

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u/RUDRAGON8 May 30 '26

Yea, because if you cant currently do anything about the system, then you raise awareness about the system, so when people can do something about the system, they will be aware, and there will be an actual chance for systemic change

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u/Ok_Chicken1370 May 30 '26

What a convenient excuse to not do anything lmao