metrodat - Tumblr blog

metrodat · 4 years

Note

instead of mocking delusional fools on the internet, you could go out and protest climate change, or donate to orgs who are doing that kind of work to counteract CC. i encourage you to seek out other, more healthy methods of dealing with idiots, and of making yourself feel good. you’ll just end up bitter and disappointed, chasing the emotional high of being Right until you die. a bit dramatic, but hopefully you understand.

Yes, you are so right! I’ll get right on that.

Me, the disabled person who cannot leave his house, will go out and protest.

Me, the disabled person living off disability payments, will donate to “orgs.”

First, I wasn’t responding to those people to make myself feel good. And there certainly wasn’t a high. In fact, I had to take a nap directly after. It was quite exhausting and depressing trying to reach them. It took a lot of time, effort, anxiety, research, and patience.

I was NOT having a good time. I was angry because I don’t like bullies. And I really don’t like malicious misinformation.

I’m afraid your idea of activism is incredibly limited and outdated. While those things you mentioned are important, they are not the only ways to make a difference, and in some cases will do very little to solve certain problems. The entities who create misinformation are not going up to people in the street and telling them about Hillary’s emails. They aren’t going door to door and saying, “Have you heard about this Chinese climate hoax?” Conservative think tanks, Russian propaganda networks, fossil fuel lobbies… they are all creating Facebook pages. They are creating Twitter accounts. They are creating bot networks. They are creating websites that look like legit news sites. And they are specifically targeting your friends, your family, your racist uncle. They are convincing them to believe in misinformation and, in turn, those people are hitting like and share and retweet.

Propaganda now lives on the internet and is one of the most serious problems we currently face. These bad actors are convincing the public to act against their own self interest. And they are doing so with shitty memes and out of context video clips and other nefarious techniques. It has gotten so bad that our own damned president has fallen for a lot of the conspiracies crafted by these networks.

Since this problem lives on the internet, that is where we have to fight it. And since I cannot leave the house, trying to stop the spread of bad information is one thing I can do help. So to lecture me what I’m doing is pointless when you don’t seem to really understand the problem we are facing is a bit insulting.

I convinced one of the most stubborn people I’ve debated in a long time to stop looking at climate skeptic nonsense and actually read the IPCC report on climate change. He will be exposed to the best information available right now. That is a victory in my book.

In addition, a day later the Facebook friend who originally made the disparaging post about Greta ended up admitting he was mistaken about her. He had only seen maliciously edited clips making her out to look foolish and was surprised to find out all she had actually accomplished.

He was lied to and fell for it.

I undid that.

It was never about me being “right until I die.” It was about the world’s best scientists being right so we don’t all die.

I also didn’t want anyone else to read what had been posted without seeing a rebuttal. Trevor is fairly popular and his friends probably respect his opinion. They might believe what he posted just because of that trust. And they might share what he wrote with their friends. And so on and so forth…

I mean, how do you think this stuff spreads?

Going to protests is fine and they can be effective when organized well. But the web can reach a great deal more people (in good ways and bad). In this modern era, the majority of climate skeptic propaganda lives online. So why wouldn’t we fight it there too?

For example, which of these seems more effective…

“OMG! Ben Shapiro is giving a paid lecture to college students and telling them climate change is not a big deal. I’m going to get 6 of my friends and try to disrupt his speech.”

As you can see, this dweeb is soaking it in. He knows video and photos of this will delight his audience. Ben gets to act like his speech is being censored by those darn snowflake Libs. This will probably do very little to stop Ben’s Disinformation Station™. And this confrontation might actually help him get more views on his various platforms.

Let’s look at a different approach.

youtube

[ hbomberguy ]

Hmm… the full video only reached 1.5 million people. Honestly, I’m not sure why he even bothered.

Out of 82,500 people, hbomberguy’s video was positively liked at a ratio of 32:1. Meaning an overwhelming majority found his message effective.

That ratio means it will be a top video in searches for Ben Shapiro. The algorithm will place this video in front of more eyeballs. And when people finish watching, YouTube might suggest Cody’s video.

[ Some More News ]

That’s another 1.3 million views in which Ben Shapiro’s nonsense gets DESTROYED BY ANGRY LIBS.

Now, I’m not as popular as I used to be. And I don’t have the audience that Sir Harris Bomberguy might have. But I do have 4,000 people following my personal Facebook page. And Trevor (who made the initial post) has another 1,000.

And this very Tumblr has 10,441 lovely, handsome, beautiful, kind, generous, amazing, talented, sexy, smart-as-heck followers (who I hope will forgive me for this super long post).

“How you doin?”

My comments on Facebook had a total of 27 likes and my posts discussing the exchange on Tumblr accumulated 1,025 likes and 394 reblogs.

I bet if 1100 people showed up to a protest you’d consider that fairly successful.

Let’s look at a few responses, shall we?

Out of the thousand+ people who saw my posts, you are the only one who had a negative view of what I was trying to do.

Beyond getting one stubborn guy to read the IPCC report and my friend admitting he was wrong about Greta Thunberg, there were two replies that really helped me feel like I did something positive and helpful.

These folks are going to check out the information I researched and use it to hopefully change the hearts and minds of others in their personal debates.

That is a seed. And with any luck, that seed will grow.They’ll use the information to convince a few people.And maybe those people will convince a few more people.

Imagine a bunch of buckets.

Even if you fill one up to the brim it can still seem pretty insignificant relative to the other buckets.

But if you ask a friend to help you fill the buckets…And they ask some of their friends…And they ask a bunch of their friends…Suddenly…

*Corgi not included.

If you are persistent and set off a chain reaction, these things absolutely start to add up. I’ve seen it happen multiple times. I’ve done it with topics like vaccines and LQBTQ+ rights and busting myths about depression. Hell, I was able to get a bunch of people to stop spreading that ableist thing about plastic straws. It’s like a much more ethical multi-level marketing scheme where the product (information) is free and it won’t take up a bunch of space in your garage forever.

What I’m trying to say is…

ONLINE ACTIVISM IS STILL ACTIVISM.

Just like IRL activism, it’s all about how you approach it. Sharing a post on Facebook and never thinking about the topic again probably won’t do much good. But that slacktivism stereotype ignores the millions of marginalized folks who now have voices because of the internet. Black Twitter, Disabled Twitter, LGBTQ+ Twitter… they are all able to be heard like never before. And remember, sometimes “going out to protest” means rushing headlong into tear gas.

Plus, I think online activism can bolster traditional protests by orders of magnitude.

Since I’ve already written a novel… HECK IT… let’s go for broke.

I’d like to tell you a story.

If you look at Greta Thunberg’s early Instagram posts, it is mostly just pictures of her and her cute doggo.

One fateful day she heard about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change creating a report and decided to read it. She discovered that human life on this planet was in serious jeopardy and for the past several decades our leaders have done very little to address this existential crisis.

It made her angry.

So she decided to skip school and protest at her local parliament building. She did exactly what you were suggesting.

But none of her classmates joined and it ended up being a protest of one.

But, being the tech savvy teenager she is, she headed to social media.

She signed up for Twitter and posted pictures of her lonely climate strike.

Let’s take a brief pause to see that translated.

Oh, Greta… never change.

Quickly the content on her Instagram began to change.

I’m sure she would rather have kept posting pictures of just her dog, but she knew her mission was more important.

It was slow going at first, but she kept posting and growing her audience. She was quite excited when a group of young people did a climate strike in the Netherlands.

Soon word spread in her area and she was no longer alone.

Her social media got some major attention from the press and suddenly pictures of her solitary strikes began to go viral.

Folks on the internet decided black and white would be more dramatic.

Hundreds of likes turned into thousands.Thousands into hundreds of thousands. After a year, her activism inspired this…

This was one of many cities in which people filled the streets.

I’m sorry, but merely “going out to protest” is no longer sufficient. These battles must be fought in both cyber and meatspace.

And even though she has inspired these gigantic protests in the real world, social media is still very much a part of Greta’s activism strategy.

And do you know what she likes to do sometimes?

Mock delusional fools on the internet.

SO UNHEALTHY!

If only she had donated to some orgs instead.

As the saying goes… there is more than one way to save a puppy.

I have to fight from my bed with a keyboard.I have changed minds.I have given people the tools to change more minds.

If we can convince our friends, relatives, followers… anyone we can reach… to look at the best information available, it could help innoculate them from Fox News and Ben Shapiro and the Koch Brothers’ multi-million dollar propaganda machine.

I am proud that I reached someone.I am proud that people bookmarked my links and sources.Doing nothing would make me feel awful and in the long run, be less healthy.

Perhaps the difference I make may be small in your eyes, but I ask that you do not belittle my activism.

However, if you insist that people must go out to protest, perhaps you can go in my stead.

Fridays For Future is the official climate strike website. It has a calendar for scheduled protests and instructions on how you can organize your own.

And if you would like to donate to an environmental charity, these are the four Expert Picks from Charity Navigator. All have 4 stars and have been vetted thoroughly.

Friends of EarthEnvironmental Defense Fund350.orgNational Resources Defense Fund

One quick last thing. Greta just got home and posted a pic of her cute doggies. A well deserved homecoming.