On one hand, itās a privilege to be able to choose to acknowledge these horrors or notāweāre going to acknowledge that privilege. On the other hand, I once attended a lecture by the explorerer-conservationist Jacques-Yves Cousteauās daughter and son and they had a lot of opinions about what we could do to help the environment and the ocean and I talked about how in my country, we have to drink bottled water, because itās a desert and thereās only salt water all around, but weāre contributing to pollution and all of these thingsā¦
And she looked at me and told me not to fall into the trap of āactivist guilt.ā I couldnāt remember the exact words, but, it was the first time Iād heard the term and it took a weight off my shoulders.
We do what we can. Itās so much better than giving up entirely or not doing anything at all because we canāt do it perfectly. It doesnāt benefit anyone in the end if we just sit around feeling guilty about every little thing in life. Iād just joined tumblr back then (haha, so like, eight or nine years ago at this point?), I was being exposed to way more than Iād ever been before (I was previously just into feminism and animal rights/wildlife conservation/environmentalism since I was a kid), and it was weighing on me.
As long as humans are humans and living flawed lives, many consumed by greed, there will not be anything in this world untouched by evil.
I usually avoid stuff that says it was made in China or other cheap looking knockoffs, out of fear of them being made in sweatshops (now, I know even a lot of big brands use thoseā¦), itās exhausting. Then, I read something about how people who actually lived and worked in those would still buy this cheap stuff and how this shocked the foreigner reporting on it, but they just looked confused like, itās what they can afford and them avoiding consuming it isnāt going to change the whole system from the ground-up.
ā¦ it went on about how āmoney talksā and choosing where to put your money still feeds the whole capitalist system and is nearly a way of comforting yourself, but you not buying doesnāt mean everyone else isnāt. What needs to be tackled is at a much higher level than any of us can reach.
Of course, Iād still, given the choice, give my money to companies I agree with and Iāll boycott what I know to support awful stuff, but I also feel no superiority over this and know now itās not as black and white or easy as I thought it was.
This is the same reason that moral purityĀ āyou canāt enjoy [x] because itās Problematic ā¢ā is such nonsense, because nothing is pure. Thereās something bad about everything if you dig deep enough. As long as we lived in flawed human societies weāve got to make the best of what they offer us. If you have the choice and means, please, do support those who do good, but also, donāt beat yourself up over not living up to an unattainable ideal.
No one can. Youāll just make yourself so miserable, you either burn up and stop fighting entirely or youāll make yourself a non-productive, depressed heap just out of a bleeding heart left unchecked. You canāt make a change to this world if you refuse to engage in it.
Have a related article with self-care tips for activists.
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