(This is the English version of https://social.pixie.town/@joepie91/111227961313694045)

After 10+ years of constant complaining about activists, I'm very much done with this, and my patience for it is running lower by the day.

As an activist, whatever you do, it'll always be wrong - you're too violent, you're not violent enough. Everybody has an opinion about it, and they won't hesitate to voice it.

There is absolutely zero recognition that activism is a skill like any other, and that perhaps the people who have been doing it for years, might actually know what they're doing.

Instead, people who wouldn't recognize a protest if it hit them in the ass and certainly have never been involved in one, will lecture you about how "you won't accomplish anything this way".

You walk a protest march? "Nobody will give a shit anyway, you're just disrupting people's lives"

You go to court? "Hopeless, you're just wasting the time of the legal system"

You block a road? "You're just bothering innocent drivers, and creating dangerous situations"

You wreck shit? "You're violent, and you should go through the correct channels instead, go into politics"

You decide to go into politics? You'll be laughed out of the room, and constantly ridiculed about how "you can't possibly be expected to be taken seriously".

Well, what the fuck do you want then? How, exactly, do you think that problems are going to be solved? By yelling some shit from the sidelines, and hoping that the situation will magically change?

By relying on the "steady march of progress"? Which, by the way, is driven by activism?

If you're not willing to make a concrete contribution to activist campaigns, fine, but then *shut up*, do not meddle with them, and leave the job to the people who actually understand how activism works beyond gut feelings. Acknowledge that it is a skill, and it is not yours.

Take a step back, withhold comments and opinions, and instead amplify what activists are saying. Provide them with support in the manner that they request.

Or if you *do* want to get involved with activism, then that's also fine - but then you need to take the time and effort to understand why campaigns work how they do, why *activists* do what they do, and what the long-term effects of this might be that aren't immediately obvious to you.