this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2025
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Ok, let's dive into it. What does "doing something" exactly mean? I've been into this since before I could vote, so I saw quite through it.
"Doing something" means a lot of different things for different people. Signing a petition, going to a march, writing on a wall, you name it. For some people "doing something" means sitting all day discussing about socialism and revolution in a living room. For others it is more biking together with Critical Mass against oil on weekends. There are those seeking small daily actions like recycling, and then there are the activist jumping on a boat with Greenpeace to save the whales, and the terrorists doing anything from damaging something to placing a bomb.
What does it mean for you "doing something"? Once you determine that, determine how much of that something would be adopted by the general population and what level of change could that reasonably achieve. I'll anticipate the result of you exercise: the bigger is your something and the smaller will be the adoption, but the product in terms of impact will be always "very small".
Take Occupy Wall Street to make an example. I loved the whole thing, I love the work of David Graeber, and it was a massive success, but what did they achieve in practice? The expression 99% entered in the general culture and there may be a bit more awareness of the problem of billionaires, but looking at cold metrics it was like a big storm, then the sun came back and a few days later the last puddle evaporated.
Who said I'm not doing anything? OP said "You still work. You still buy. You still support the system." to which I replied that I'm no more a naive 16 years old who shouts fuck the system and dreams to live off-the-grid avoiding the rat-race... and then goes back home to have dinner with mum.
If you are an adult and you want to go for it, be my guest! You may become Greta-Thunberg-famous, and people will follow you on social media. You will convince some people that, I don't know, we should buy durable and reparable things to save the planet and fight consumerism. You will have an impact, albeit very small, and that will be a massive achievement if you dedicate your whole life to that.
Just, please, stop with idiotic replies accusing people to be enslaved in the system because it's an insult to anyone who is currently looking for a solution for cancer, saving lives as a firefighter, building houses where people will live, growing crops, and even keeping up internet so people can praise the revolution against the machine from their bedrooms.
First of all, I didn't accuse anybody of anything here except try to push back against what I percieved as a comment that is disapproving of debate:
Secondly, Minimizing participation in the orphan-crushing machine but also debating politics on available platforms are not antithetical. Debating online is as important as doing the rest of the things you say are "real" worthwhile pursuits. For instance: How can we pursue a cure for cancer if the political climate ensures scientists are scorned and distrusted? If evangelising about the "real" problems you care about is labelled as politics then can you really make progress without "political" action such as debating?
In the same vein, doing the small things in protest is the stepping stones to doing bigger things. It works the same way for any pursuit. Why shouldn't I practice discipline with my disdain for all the small evil while also pushing for more?
Edit: Add the quote that i felt was misunderstanding why we need to protest in our own small ways.
Edit2: I think we are in agreement. I misread the thread. My comment is actually a refutation of the main post.