Empty Words Won’t Save the World

“The Right Kind of Person" & Performative Activism

Freddie deBoer talks about the idea of The Right Kind of Person in his article Perhaps Taylor Swift Isn't the Defining Political Issue of Our Times. He defines it with an example:

I’ve written before about the bizarre way that many white liberals, in the 2000s, made their attitude towards The Wire into a metonym for their racial purity. To a degree that I’m not sure I’ve seen before or since, people just really really desperately wanted you to know that they weren’t racist because they liked an HBO show, yes because the cast was predominately Black but also because the show’s racial politics were considered particularly sophisticated. And of course people have done the same with movies and TV shows and music for a long time.

We’re inching closer to the reality that belief is the same thing as action. Let me explain. There are very real problems out there that need to be addressed—you don’t need me to tell you that—and solely talking about them doesn’t move the needle in a positive direction. Saying things just so others view you in a certain light doesn’t improve anyone’s life but your own. Many people with good intentions are, in reality, doing nothing to actually make the world better, even though they think they are. Outward appearances are starting to trump effective action: performative activism.

I’ve seen people strive to look like The Right Kind of Person. The first time I saw this was near the end of my college days. During a student council meeting—for the life of me I don’t remember why I attended—we were told during a segment about student safety on campus that if we were ever mugged it was important to empathize with our attacker to understand the circumstances that drove them to that decision. Yes, you read that correctly. I was stunned, and everyone around me was too. It was paramount that we knew that the Council members were the Right type of people who advocated for absolute sympathy for an attacker rather than their own safety. 10/10. Full marks. I saw another instance play out during a college protest. Students were petitioning the school’s Endowment to divest from “evil” companies. When I asked what divesting would actually accomplish, I couldn’t get a clear answer. The economics and the reality of what divesting would do long-term was not only lost on the protestors but not even considered. I admire people trying to do what they think is right, but when it’s misguided and not thought through at all it loses relevance. People wanted to divest for the image of it. They couldn’t be seen attending a school which owned oil stocks. Don’t forget, those same students were happy to accept Endowment cash to fund their student club events. Blood money cleans itself fast.

There are other popular beliefs required to be the Right Person: hating billionaires is top of that list. There’s mainstream pride in the half-thought idea that billionaires shouldn’t exist and they have too much money. It’s a great rallying cry. What’s ironic is that the Right People seldom do anything to challenge the status quo: their day-to-day actions support the very billionaires they loathe, and the reason they don’t live a lifestyle that doesn’t feed the free market capitalistic dragon is because it’s too hard. The focus is on what others aren’t doing to contribute to the world, instead of looking at themselves. That somehow absolves the Right People of all individual introspection and responsibility. Let’s look at the widely despised Jeff Bezos. We’ve all heard the headlines of brutal Amazon warehouse conditions. I’ve never worked there, so I can’t speak to that, but let’s assume all those things are true. That’s obviously terrible for workers and those issues should be fixed. There’s no denying that. My question is do the people raging on Bezos boycott Amazon? When they need something ASAP are they leaving the comfort of their homes and going to the store to buy something, or is 1-day free Prime shipping too convenient? When they want fresh organic groceries are they running to a Farmer’s Market or do they go to Whole Foods to save some time? It’s easy to take the vocal moral high ground, because it costs nothing and you get the admiration of other moral status game players. The Right People could band together and stop using the brands and services that make billionaires billions, but that would require real effort. If the Right People managed to be self-critical for two seconds—instead of projecting how broken the world is on everyone else—they’d realize they’re fueling the machine too.

I’ve brought up these issues with people before, and the response I get is that people trying to look like The Right People are harmless. Even if they’re trying, why don’t we just let them? You do have to try to get anything done, but when does the self-indulgent noise become too much? At what threshold is the look-at-what-I-believe-look-at-me identity destructive? And, if we hit that threshold, what can we even do about it? How do we encourage people to take action to actually make things better?

Me writing this article

I am convinced that you can see someone’s real conviction for a cause by measuring how much they’re willing to give up for it. In most cases it’s literally nothing, at best it’s a couple moments to post on social media. For the record, I don’t have an issue with sharing things online if you’re actually contributing to a solution. Anthony Jeselnik says it best in his special Thoughts And Prayers:¹

No. This is who I’m making fun of when I make a joke on Twitter the day of a tragedy. The people who see something horrible happen in the world and they run to the Internet. And they run to their social media, Facebook, Twitter, whatever they got. And they all write down the exact same thing: “My thoughts and prayers…” “My thoughts and prayers with the people in Aurora.” “My thoughts and prayers with the families in Boston.” Do you know what that’s worth…Less than nothing. You are not giving any of your time, your money or even your compassion. All you are doing, all you are doing, is saying, “Don’t forget about me today.” “Don’t forget about me.” “Lots of crazy distractions in the news, but don’t forget how sad I am.” Those people are worthless and they deserve to be made fun of. They’re like a wedding photographer who only takes selfies.

Whatever people are angry about today will be different in a month. What happened to the problem they were angry about? Nothing. People just got bored and moved to the new tragedy that gets more attention. People trying to look like the Right Person are self-interested and morally corrupt. They’re in it for themselves. They don’t want to do the hard work to make a real difference. They’ll complain about harsh working conditions overseas, yet they can’t wait to buy the new iPhone. They’ll vocally support environmental policies and protecting animals, while actively buying products and foods that do nothing to further those causes.

There is a rare breed of people who are actually the Right People. If you’re clicking out of this article with the idea that nobody can make a difference and it’s all pointless, that’s wrong. There are real Right People. They are the Mandelas and Malalas who are willing to pay a huge price for their beliefs to actually stand up and pay a cost to fight for what’s right. They are the firefighters and coast guard rescuers who dedicate their lives to helping others. They are the farmers and sanitation workers who do the hard jobs to make sure our pampered lives don’t come to a stand still. They are the volunteers who spend their time off from work to help others. Think that’s too high of a bar? Good. It shouldn’t be easy to be the Right Person. We want it to be easy. We can’t post something to be the Right Person. We can’t just loudly say the right things to be knighted into Goodness. We need to live those values. That’s damn hard. Being an admirable person isn’t a checkbox item in a morning zen routine.

Imagine if actions told us who someone was, rather than the cheap curated mishmash of words they say? Until the wannabe Right Kind of People start trying to make a real difference, every syllable of criticism should be vocalized, and even the critic should muster enough self-realization to get up and do something positive.

1. Transcript