Some Activists Tend to Get Overboard

Hey, it's been a long time since I had last written a blog.

With the war ravaging Eastern Ukraine, the Western world has been seeing an increased volume of activism supporting the Ukrainian resistance against Russia. This, obviously, is not a surprise: we humans are sick of war. While the majority advocating this cause did so in hopes of helping innocent and ordinary civilians ravaged by the war, just like in other incidences of activism, there is always a hypocritical minority that ends up going against the very nature of these actions.

This is more of a rant about certain immature and ill-natured ideas of a small group of people than anything. Before a hot-headed comment decides to cancel me for showing some degree of disapproval for the recent movements regarding the invasion of Ukraine, I should state that while I don't really care politically, I am a peace advocate and want nothing but the best for the people.

Well, what am I exactly ranting about here? You see, humans are not a small species. It is hard to have everyone agree on one thing, and I understand that. But, even in movements like such, we have radical ideas that seem to evolve out of nowhere, as they are as far apart as you can possibly imagine, hence why I call those in support of those ideas hypocritical. Since the catastrophic events taking place in Ukraine is the most recent example, I'll probably be focusing more on that than any other example I give.

I've actually covered some of this in my blogs on feminism and LGBTQ+ hey bud this ain't an ad but they're some of my cooler blogs imo. I'll be going into a bit more detail with examples below, and then voice my opinion on the reasoning behind such phenomena.

Again, do note that I am pointing at a very small yet loud minority with a radical stance. This is by no means to discourage you to support these movements. It's best to do your own research on these topics if you'd like to form opinions of them.

Okay, here's a prime example. This is a war. People are dying. Understandably, many would get more emotional than they would normally. However, this is not to say that the Internet is now ground for discrimination. It is obviously okay to argue and all as it provides everyone with a better understanding of a variety of ideas and people would eventually come to a resolution. But, a selected few megaminds believed that it is okay to mock and harass Russians in times of war simply because they are, well, Russians.

Basically, I saw this one post by a "stand up for Ukraine" Instagram account. That post was a 10-slider, with each and every slide comparing terrible stuff Russians and Ukrainians face. It goes something like this:

Russians: My child was bullied at school because he's Russian.
Ukrainians: My child was raped and murdered because she's Ukrainian.

I believe you see where the problem lies. Drawing a comparison here and saying that one should just shut up because someone else has it worse is a horrible thing to do. Like really, people can't complain about a paper cut because someone else fell down the stairs now? This isn't even supporting the original cause in any particular way in my eyes. It just draws unnecessary hate towards Russians simply because their country happened to be the attacker, which is not even supported by all Russians. I see this more as racism than activism.

Another issue is that a tiny portion of the very people advocating an end to the war and calling Russia out for violations of basic human rights also show no sympathy or empathy for others. Just yesterday, I saw an Instagram story by a Ukrainian individual I know irl that was basically calling out one American celebrity (can't remember who) for uploading a post that mourned those who were killed in a recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, yet did not share anything regarding Ukraine's situation. They left a comment under said post reading "Thank you for not talking about Ukraine". Seriously? That on not just any random post, but one mourning the deaths of mostly elementary school children? Not to mention, you're on an American platform talking to an American celebrity, yet you expect them to focus on something across the ocean rather than a domestic disaster. They are independent people who can post whatever they intend to. While I agree that the people living in Ukraine right now are in a perilous position, they are not the only ones experiencing such horror. You simply cannot expect the entire world to revolve around your nation and only show support for that. It's unrealistic and shows nothing but a lack of sympathy you have for anyone else.

Better yet, this same person has whined about "everyone" posting about the suffering ordinary Palestinians go through but not what's going on in Ukraine. Dude, you lived in the Emirates and followed mostly Arabs on Instagram. What were you expecting? Ridiculous.

Feminism is a classic here. The point of feminism was to promote gender equality. The term was coined this because women in the past were seen as inferior to men in many societies and did not enjoy equal rights, and not because it intended to have women taking over and have a revenge mentality. And guess what? Of course it had to go the wrong way somewhere.

If you walk into a door, you should try to fix the problem by finding a way to reduce the pain inflicted by that impact, and not to punch the door like a madman as a revenge because it both damages the door and hurts you more. This same idea would apply here. It would do nothing but create a further separation between the two sexes.

Let's have a look at just one example. Here's a disgusting tweet that sums up how radical have some individuals gone in regard to this topic:

Men, if a woman accuses you of rape, even if you didn't do it, you shut up, and accept the charges, women have been systematically oppressed for years and you giving up some years of your freedom doesn't compare to the oppression they've been through.

I don't think I need to express how horrible of a take this is. Actually disgusting.

Unfortunately, misandry has been growing quite wildly in the past years, and this tweet above is far from being the only case (if you're curious, r/FemaleDatingStrategy has a lot of threads encouraging misandry since it was taken over by what some call "femcels"). This stance would only turn our society from a sexist one in the past to another in the future.

In my mind, this is not the activism I imagine anyone would want. A selected few get drifted away from the original ideas and form radicalized opinions that oppose the basis of the such movements. But do they really? I have doubts there. In case you haven't noticed in the examples given, discrimination is a recurring theme. My thought about what really is going on is that these are opportunists with discriminatory beliefs rooted in their mind. They merely use activist movements as a platform to achieve their own goal and spread their hateful ideologies.

Thanks for reading. Honestly was not planning on writing another blog this soon since I just got past the exam season and was intending on relaxing a bit. But, that comment I saw yesterday I found very ironic and was what motivated me to rant about this topic. Simply could not fathom whatever was going through some's minds.

Guess I have to go finally face the near a hundred comments that piled up while I was focusing on studying, Minecraft, and Geometry Dash.

Anyway, that's all I have to say. Have a nice day.