Social networks are replete with cynical and misleading posts. Nothing demonstrates this quite like the twits who tweet support for social activism. Because, far too often, they never take a single step beyond tweeting, and never express any concern when nobody else does.
Imagine, for example, if the Civil Rights Movement amounted to little more than people tweeting calls for justice. The Montgomery Bus Boycott would never have happened, and blacks would still be living in a Jim-Crow America.
More to the point, here is how I commented on this phenomenon of hashtag activism in “#BringBackOurGirls Lost In Dustbin of Viral Consciousness,” April 18, 2016:
____________________
Thursday marked the second anniversary of the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria, by the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram.
This kidnapping incited universal outrage. Never mind that this outrage manifested in little more than people – most notably celebrities like Rihanna, Madonna, and Michelle Obama – posting #BringBackOurGirls on their social media pages.
Yet you’d be hard-pressed to find any mention of these girls on those pages since then. Which is why it’s hardly surprising that this tragic anniversary passed for so many as if ‘the Chibok girls’ never entered public consciousness. …
I waited to mark this second anniversary to see if those in the vanguard of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign would belie my cynicism about the fleeting nature of their viral outrage. They did not.
In fact, there is nothing new about the ‘unbelievable’ lack of interest that Unicef spokesman is complaining about today. For lack of interest was already such that I marked the first anniversary – in ‘Remembering the Chibok Girls (and Boys),’ April 17, 2015 – as follows:
__________
Here is how I pooh-poohed the self-flattering, self-serving and self-delusional hashtag posts [this movement] generated:
Remember when the ‘#StopKony2012’ viral campaign made expressing concern for the ‘invisible children’ the LRA kidnapped an article of our shared humanity? …
Yet Kony and his child soldiers remain as menacing today as they were back then.
Therefore, I hope folks bear this in mind; that is, if they aren’t too busy tweeting about the outrage du jour to wonder about the real-world impact of the ‘#BringBackOurGirls2014’ viral campaign.
(“Alas, Kidnapping Schoolgirls Is the Least of African Crimes against Humanity,” The iPINIONS Journal, May 7, 2014)
Moreover, as I found with my friends, you’d be hard-pressed to find a single person, who tweeted #BringBackOurGirls, who can show that her concern for them extended beyond that tweet.
__________
There’s clearly no vindication in being so right about #protests in this case. It’s just that I was informed enough to know they would do nothing to help.
____________________
All of the above informs my take on this latest #protest:
Equinox and SoulCycle have been caught up in an unexpected wave of anti-Trump outrage this week, ever since it was reported that one of their major shareholders, billionaire real estate developer Stephen A. Ross, was planning to host a fundraiser for the president at his home in the Hamptons. In response to the news, politically minded fitness nuts have been venting their anger on Twitter, vowing to boycott the chains.
(Slate, August 8, 2019)
Except that, when it comes to honoring their vows, I suspect these fitness nuts will prove even less trustworthy than pedophile priests. Indeed, it speaks volumes that Ross is the target of this boycott. Because this overlooks other Trump donors who control even bigger public companies.
And I’m not referring to the rich Latinos Rep. Joaquin Castro doxed for supporting Trump’s “campaign of terror” against millions of Latino immigrants. Instead, I’m referring to Republican fat cats like:
- Sheldon Adelson of the Sands hotels and casinos
- Linda McMahon of the World Wrestling Entertainment
- Pete Zieve of Electroimpact (a manufacturing firm that both Boeing and Airbus rely on for production of airplanes)
In fact, Ross does not even make the list of the “Top 10 donors to the Trump campaign” – as tallied by Investopedia on June 25, 2019. Therefore, if these fitness nuts want to have serious impact on Trump’s donor base, they would lead anti-Apartheid-like boycotts against companies in which these other donors wield controlling interest.
But it would probably shock some of these #protesters to learn that they will have to get off their, er, butts to have any real impact. Specifically, they will have to join daily picket lines (with placards screaming anti-Trump slogans) in front of every Equinox and SoulCycle club in the country.
Think, for example, of how #protests galvanized people to take to the streets during the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street protests. I refer you to my commentaries on these more successful #protests in “Occupy Wall Street,” October 6, 2011, and “Sudan’s Delayed Arab Spring Now Withering Away … Too,” June 17, 2019.
By contrast, you’d be hard-pressed to find a single #protester who has picketed Equinox or SoulCycle. And, if you believe they are cancelling their cushy club memberships in droves, you probably believe Trump is getting Mexico to pay for his wall. Which is why you’d be even more hard-pressed to find any report about this #protest having any impact on Ross’s bottom line.
Frankly, this boycott seems bound to go the way of so many other #protests, namely swept into the dustbin of public consciousness by the next #cause celebre.
Meanwhile, you’d think these fitness nuts would’ve learned from the DIY hacks who launched a similar #protest against Home Depot just last month. They were hoping to hit another Trump donor, co-founder Bernard Marcus, where it hurts. But it hardly helped their cause that Marcus retired nearly 20 years ago.
That said, I am constrained to comment on the #protest against littering cigarette butts, which is going viral as I write:
Amel Talha launched the hashtag #FillTheBottle after a friend collected cigarette butts in a water bottle and posted a photo on Twitter.
The campaign has inspired thousands to clean up what is thought to be the most common form of litter around the globe.
(BBC, August 8, 2019)
This, like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, is that rare #protest that is demanding social activism beyond posting tweets. Therefore, I commend Amel and all who heed her clarion call to collect cigarette butts in (plastic) water bottles for recycling.
Still, I suspect the vast majority of those signing online petitions to participate will never bother to collect a single butt in a bottle. Moreover, I was in the vanguard of those who preempted Amel by making similar clarion calls. I did so in commentaries dating from “Smoking Litterbugs,” May 20, 2013, to “Did You Know Cigarettes Are Far Worse than Plastics,” July 31, 2019.
Therefore, I hope Amel and her merry band of butt collectors will forgive this observation: It would be far more effective to get people to quit smoking or, failing that, to stop littering their cigarette butts.
This is why the most effective way to deal with this health and environmental hazard is to fine anyone caught (on public or personal camera) littering a single butt. And that fine should be real money; you know, like $1000 per butt. No doubt fear of the public shaming inherent in this (i.e., by having their mug shots go viral on social media) would deter many litterbugs.
Related commentaries:
#BringBackOurGirls…
cigarette butts worse…
Arab Spring…
Occupy Wall Street…