As someone who sometimes goes viral for pointing out when shitty people are being shitty, I think we need to focus a lot more on targeting systems over individuals causing harm, particularly as organizers. Online is not real life but it has real impacts and influence.

Spending too much time focusing on publicly shaming and dunking on individuals doing harm can misdirect people who haven't yet come into political consciousness, who can easily confuse attacking people who need to be held accountable with attacking the system itself.

Piling onto someone doing wrong in this public way can be a hell of a motivator for them to come correct, but often it's starting to feel like we're doing it more for our own brief catharsis and the powerful rush of endorphins that come with the Own more than anything else.

I think people subconsciously pick up on that and act accordingly! How they can essentialize entire groups of people without a material analysis or take a shit on somebody being awful and confuse that with doing the real work of attacking the system, and get rewarded with clout.

I just think we should be more careful and conscious about the way we carry ourselves as people trying to fight systemic oppression. We call twitter a Hellscape but behind the irony lies a level of complicity I think even the most thoughtful of us aren't entirely willing to own.

We have a WORLD to win, not an argument to win. So let's keep reminding ourselves to stay focused on the work of revolution and resist the ever-present temptation to spend so much time out of our day proving the Bad People with the Wrong Ideas are Bad & Wrong.

I promise you: watching someone in a one-on-one change before you as their cloud of ideology breaks away to reveal constellations guiding the way to their political home because of something YOU said - that is more powerful and fulfilling than any victory you'll EVER win online.