Before you hit “post” on your next clever and profound critique of a group, tactic, and/or fellow activist, you might wanna ask yourself a few questions:
1. Will this post serve to further unify or divide my activist community?
2. Is it more designed to stroke my own ego than to advance the struggle?
3. Is it founded on accurate and verifiable knowledge or is it based on hearsay and rumor?
4. Is it more likely to inspire a reasoned, useful discussion or a time-eating, unproductive flame war?
5. Am I using this post to address a personal vendetta in a passive-aggressive manner?
6. Would it be wiser to turn off my phone/computer and arrange a face-to-face conversation about this issue?
7. Do I regularly allocate my precious time to participating in lengthy social media flame wars? If so, why?
8. What am I doing on a regular basis – beyond using social media – to advance the cause of collective liberation?
With the vast majority of humans – especially American humans – living in a world of willful denial and/or tacit complicity, our tiny population of activists cannot afford to endlessly bicker and fragment.
Yes, social media can be effectively used as a powerful catalyst for organizing, sharing urgent info, and connecting kindred spirits – but they are ultimately designed for the same purposes as mass media: distraction and division.
One more question we might ask ourselves each day before logging onto Facebook – as the eco-system collapses around us: Am I a divider or a unifier?
#shifthappens
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