The Power of Social Media

More often than not when people in position of power (cops, politicians, celebrities, etc) exercise their privilege over another it winds up on social media and many thousands of people immediately point out how shitty what they did was.  Then, said person of privilege claims what they’ve experienced is unfair and unjust, that the people calling them out are ignoring the great tenant of: “innocent until proven guilty.”

Mainstream media usually comes swooping in to remind us all that “there are two sides to every story” and that the people that are angry are playing the [race/gender/orientation/etc] card in an attempt to make the issue about “something it’s not.”  They continue to push this “two-sides” thing until people, who have their own lives to live and other things to take care of (feeding families, meeting ends-meat, etc), begin to quiet down.

It is a truly corrupt system that allows certain people to hurt and oppress people that are already oppressed and then claim that we were wrong to hold them accountable for their actions.  All the while they are demanding we hold ourselves accountable for our “irrational” and “overly PC” response to legitimate oppression with the claim: “we can’t have a dialog until you all calm down.”  Then they’ll dismiss the outrage even further by saying this got “blown out of proportion” all because social media allows people to “react before thinking.”

In the last few weeks we’ve seen a major coming together of people who are pissed off about blatant displays of oppression and who have had enough with the lies and dismissal of mainstream media.  Social media allows the collective outrage of people who won’t stand for oppression, of any kind, to be a visible force that cannot be ignored.  The trolls and bigots will always be there, but thankfully they’re pretty skilled at making themselves look like idiots and they ultimately galvanize the resolve of all those social justice warriors out there.

And leave it to the privileged people to try and make “social justice warrior” into a derogatory statement; to try and frame the ability to recognize oppression, the courage to speak out against it, and actively practicing empathy as traits that are somehow shameful.
Never underestimate the power of the simple act of sharing, reblogging, or retweeting.  For each time you do it contributes to the greater social consciousness and contributes to the strong social morality that does not tolerate oppression of any kind.