Passive Activism
It’s a ubiquitous phenomenon here on social networking sites like Facebook and pseudo-blogging sites like Tumblr. But is no one, after the onset of such “movements” as wearing purple to bring attention to LGBT discrimination and changing your profile picture to a cartoon to raise awareness for child abuse, feeling a sense of inadequacy? Although these events have already been criticized for “not really helping the problem”, this crucial point of weakness is waived with a self-righteous mantra of “it’s just to raise awareness”. Just to raise awareness? So, our awareness has been raised; now what? Now that all the profiles defaults are back to flesh and bone and Tumblr’s theme is back to blue, what have you changed? These events are nothing more than gross manifestations of the laziness that plagues this generation of liberal passivity, an indulgence that grants guilty pretentious teens an excuse to feel like proud mavericks for human rights. In the end, it’s only because everyone else is doing it.
