I've noticed this growing trend over the years where a lot of people are obsessed with being perceived as morally pure and using their purity clout to smear and belittle other people for not having the same obessive attitude towards their treat consumption.
The biggest example I can think of, that recently happened, was that Harry Potter game where people got doxxed and had their streaming careers destroyed for playing it.
the game sold more than 12 million copies and generated $850 million in global sales revenue.
I refuse to believe that even a fraction of those 12 million people even care about Rowling's shitty opinions or even think about trans people, yet online moral guardians had a month long freakout and acted as if just mentioning the game was making trans people unsafe and felt the need to exclude and punish anyone who admitted to playing it.
You see the same delusional behaviour around every American culture war issue where somehow, your consumption of media or certain treats somehow carries a moral gravity to it.
Where your virtues are defined by which brand of capsule coffee machine you prefer, which superhero franchise you watch, which flavor of the month movie you watch or what type of video games, cartoons or books you enjoy.
It feels like every moral issue in the online world is defined by your treats. And what you are as a person is exclusively defined by what treats you spend money on. As if abstaining from reading a fucking Harry Potter book is going to impact the very real violence LGBTQ people are exposed to in the real world.
The moral fanatics who spend all their time waging their holy wars on the internet, never interact with people in real life activist communities.
I've never heard my offline comrades even mention Harry Potter, Keurig capsule machines, rainbow beers, that pedo-movie, niche online identities or other brands that get these online moralists to froth in their mouths.
And yet, on the internet, you have to constantly tread on eggshells, lest you upset some twitter-obsessed rageaholic with an axe to grind over some imagined issue that isn't even known about in the real world.
With my offline friends and comrades, we just hang out and shoot the shit like normal people while doing our activities together. No one's trying to start a flamestorm over what brand of clothing we wear or what movies we like.
The phenomenon of viciously punishing anyone for not being as obsessed about their consumption as the Arbiters Of Morality is such an absurd thing to see when it accomplishes absolutely nothing and doesn't even impact anything or anyone in real life.
There seems to be a huge disconnect between actual real life activism that actually does something and the weird online activism where people sit in their caves and scream at the shadows in front of them.
I don't even know what point I'm trying to make here. I'm just typing some thoughts that I've had stuck in my head for a while.
Obviously, real life praxis is greater than anything online.
The problem is the treat consumption danger is a problem on the right. Have you not seen videos from amerikkka of people shooting cases of beer or whatever? This is an actual threat towards trans people and allies. The HP money actually goes to fund JKKK Rowlings anti-trans bigotry. Additionally she and TERFs and bigots can point to it as support for their terrible ideas.
The terminally online people coming to blows over treats are actually a danger on the other side. Not only in US but the New Zealand mosque shooter, for instance. Reactionary elements are doing actual real-world violence and writing manifestos.
This isn't "visibly drinking a bud light in public in praxis". Posting online about these things isn't as effective as explaining the very real threats to people in real life.
Similarly, I hope you are 'screaming at shadows' online and not dismissing IRL comrades for talking about these things. Part of doing ground work is informing those not terminally online about real violence bleeding through from online reactionaries willing to kill over treats.
The
at people online that is coming through in what's stuck in your head seems misdirected. Reducing all of it to 'flamewars over brands accomplishing nothing' is enabling reactionary elements to control messaging in a significant space.
Again, online isn't nearly as important. This seems directed more at Libs doing virtue signal posting. And if any 'leftists' stop at posting and aren't helping IRL then they aren't having the impact they think they are.
If this is aimed solely at moralists, yes there's a point to be made. However much of this has real-world impact and has a place to be discussed as a part of overall pushing back against reaction. Rewording this to recognise the actual harm being done while also critising performative support without actually doing ground work would do this rant a favour.
A fraction of the people buying the HP game were vocally supporting anti-trans/anti-wokeness talking points and using it to pipeline fascism. Overblown, arguably, but dismissing it out of hand is enabling them.
Similarly, buying the HP game and chick-fil-a and all these right-wing virtue-signal products and saying "no ethical consumption" does not grant absolution. This is like wearing socks and saying ' no homo' to have treats while going out and screaming that the gays are coming after your kids and western civilisation and the rules-based order.