Is Your Protest Post a Waste of Everyone’s Time?
Before I launch into my thoughts about the intersection of social media and this summer’s wave of protests, I will be the first to say that I think social media is, at best, dumb as shit and, at worst, detrimental to the human psyche. However, as it exists today, it permeates most aspects of the public and private consciousness, including the aspects of that consciousness that lead to social change. With that comes its potential as a revolutionary aide, as well as its potential for infiltration, pacification, and co-option. I want it to be used for the former.
I spent a heavy chunk of my teenage years accumulating followers on Tumblr. At fifteen I wasn’t a particularly political person, but I see in retrospect that my time on that mostly absurd website conditioned me to view social issues much more usefully than I would have without it. I was exposed to opinions I never would have heard at my predominantly white public high school, nor from the mouths of my strictly liberal parents. Tumblr planted the mental seeds that led to my eventual activism and advocacy. In a world where our educational system and day-to-day lives are dictated by capitalist propaganda and the erasure of unflattering history, social media can be a truly democratic platform upon which voices that are otherwise silenced can be amplified.
I attended a notoriously far left college, which means I continue to follow other alumni on applications like Twitter and Instagram who, to varying degrees, identify as Leftists. Because of this, I am bombarded with protest takes of varying heat. One Instagram story urged me not to spend my money on Black-owned businesses because to do so would support the evils of capitalism; another begged me not to post aesthetic photos of Black Lives Matter protests because such photos detract from the everyday atrocities experienced by Black Americans. I also still follow quite a few people I went to high school with or otherwise know from outside of college. They have, for the most part, stayed digitally silent about the protests, save for the occasional black square on Instagram with a #BLM hashtag underneath.
With some due respect, the takes I just mentioned are dogshit-tier takes. For example, if wealth redistribution and reparations are a Leftist goal, why would you go out of your way not to support Black businesses if spending money is a necessity of being alive in the 21st century regardless? Why wouldn’t you post pictures from protests that are beautiful and inspiring and invigorating when art has always played a role in revolutions and when such aesthetic images of the passion of the people can persuade others to join in? And why would these images detract from the fact that police brutality against Black people exists? Why would you take up space on social media with a black square to show your support when you could be posting information that is helpful to protesters, links to supportive funds, or simply actual documentations of how Black lives do, in fact, matter? This is why I believe posting the right things on social media is a useful—if not vital—antidote to the misinformation people distribute.
I have seen people on both the right and left alike dismiss any social media posts that address or document the protests as aimless “keyboard activism” and “virtue signaling.” But I’ve personally been made aware of, or even effectively educated by, posts on subjects I used to know very little about, and I’ve discovered the locations of nearby protests via Twitter and proceeded to attend them. My personal opinions have been swayed by blurbs on Instagram stories that addressed something from an angle I’d never previously considered. I have a comprehensive sense of what’s going on at other protests around the country and even internationally because I follow people in other cities who have been consistently attending them. And as a White person, I know that—unfortunately—some of my followers will listen to my supportive or opinionated words about this uprising more than they will listen to Black voices. So why wouldn’t I use that privilege to educate other White people? If you are privileged, shouldn’t you be using said privilege to be a vocal advocate, since some people will finally listen? Isn’t that, like, the whole point?
When I think of the utility of social media, I think of a vague marriage between Marx and Foucault: if we’re trying to seize the means of production, wouldn’t this include seizing the means by which knowledge is produced? Would we not aspire to bombard our feeds with stunning images of police vehicles set on fire with the passion of a Black man who has lost a best friend to police violence, or that of a Black daughter whose father died of coronavirus due to racially biased medical neglect? Don’t we want the beginnings of a revolution to be aesthetic, empowering, and pretty badass?
Liberal news outlets like CNN won’t show as many videos of officers attacking peaceful protesters. They didn’t show the protesters I was with at Union Square a month ago specifically looting from large corporations that have harmed their communities, then affectionately giving their girlfriends and other attendees the sweatshirts and hats they rightfully feel they are owed by such companies. CNN and its media siblings make it clear that they (presumably) support Black lives, but not if people get a little too rowdy for their liking. If I really want to know what’s going on at protests in another city, I’ll take to Twitter and see what people are saying and recording from the ground.
Social media can be something of an echo chamber due to carefully calculated algorithms, but it’s also something that’s radicalized and informed myself and others for over a decade. It is absolutely capable of exposing us to nuances we hadn’t previously considered, or had once overlooked. People should keep using it to maintain the momentum of this uprising, so long as they continue to do additional research and think critically about what they see and hear. There is no reason not to try to influence your Instagram followers with stories containing well-informed opinions and updates, and there is no reason not to believe that social media can be a powerful agent of change when it assists those who are able to physically put in the work and, to an unprecedented extent, is able to uplift the voices of the long-oppressed. Just, you know, make sure you also stop posting useless, backwards-ass garbage with no place in this revolution.
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A protest without disruption is just a parade.