Can activism be a bad thing? When is it bad?

[AgnosticBoy]

In the United States, it seems that people can be activists about virtually anything, ranging from issues regarding race to gas stoves, even. In general, I believe there is definitely positives to activism in that it gets people take an active role in the setting of public policy instead of just leaving it in the hands of politicians. However, I see a lot of downside to it. Here's one person's view of things posted on Reddit:

Activists suck. They just suck.

Sitting on highways blocking traffic. Attempting to destroy art. Destroying public or private property. Taking a homeless man's dog. Dumping milk in a supermarket. Throwing red paint on someone else. Screaming at others. Bullying people. Destroying gas pumps. On and on and on.

Activism has lost its edge and has become annoying like accidentally walking into a swarm of mating gnats or stepping in dog crap.

Whatever happened to activists dousing themselves in gasoline and setting themselves on fire?

Okay, that last part is extreme, but you get the picture and I sort of agree, in general. Today's activism seems shallow in both thinking (like putting popular slogans or soundbites before facts) and action.

For Debate
1. Is there a bad side to activism today? If so, please explain.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

1. Is there a bad side to activism today? If so, please explain.

One bad aspect of activism today is that it tends to be triggered by social media. I see two potential problems with this. One issue is that this usually leads people to act only when something is dominating the headlines or when its a hot button issue. For instance, people may start to focus on a military conflict when it is dominating the headlines on social media and the mainstream media. But then the military conflicts that are occurring all over the world, and probably in even worse ways, aren't pointed out or are even ignored. Then we have cases where people say that such country should be banned from a world event because they committed this act, while the same activist doesn't ban other countries by that same standard, and it's simply because one act is highlighted while the other is not.

Another problem with activism triggered by social media is that the Twitters and the Facebooks are oftentimes filled with misinformation or unverified information. So it leads to people acting on bad information.

There are other issues I have with some of the activism today, like how some activist groups don't seem to want to listen to alternative viewpoints. It's hard to get anything done under those conditions when one side doesn't want to engage and just wants to get their side out. Another issue is some activists engaging in political tactics (the dishonest tactics). But I'll leave that for another post if it comes up again.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

1. Is there a bad side to activism today? If so, please explain.

Another bad side of activism is that it's possible to be an activist for a cause that is actually bad or false. And this ties into my last post where I talked about how modern day activism tends to not have a focus on facts as it does on popularism or following the crowd.