What Now? The Intersectional Activist's Guide to Choosing the Next Big Thing
With the war in Gaza ending, here are 5 new ways to show your selective compassion
Don’t let all the celebrations fool you, the apparent end of the Israel-Hamas war isn’t necessarily good news for everyone. Consider American activists on campus and off.
What are they to do with their signs and keffiyehs?
What should they do now that the latest Big Thing might be kind of passé?
How awkward to be approaching the holidays without a hot new cause!
Student activists might find direction from the campus Boomers who held their hands when the young rabble-rousers felt unsafe during the protests that have raged for more than two years. But I want to do my part too.
I also realize who I’m advising. Our world is filled with oppression, but today’s activists won’t back just any worthy cause. They burst with compassion, but only for certain groups.
With that in mind, I present five nominees for the Next Big Thing.
Nigerians
Members of a marginalized community have been systemically slaughtered since 2009. Even as the death toll surpasses 125,000, the cause receives little attention in the West.
Pros
You’d be raising awareness about a cause that desperately needs attention.
You’d be supporting a marginalized group.
You’d be supporting black Africans.
You’d be standing up for human rights.
Michelle Obama once drew attention to this cause.
Cons
The victims are mostly Christian.
The oppressors are Muslim.
Venezuelans
Venezuela’s quasi fascist dictator Nicolás Maduro continues to destroy the once-prosperous South American nation. The economy has shrunk by 80% and millions have gone hungry. Some have even resorted to eating zoo animals. Apart from chronic food shortages and lack of other basic necessities, citizens often face waves of violent crime.
When the people rose up and backed opposition leader María Corina Machado, Maduro banned her from running against him. Her ally Edmundo González ran in her place and won the presidency in a landslide. Yet Maduro insists he won the election and refuses to cede power.
Pros
You’d be supporting democracy.
You’d be fighting against a dictator’s false claims of a stolen election.
You’d be opposing quasi-fascism.
You’d be standing against the patriarchy. (Maduro was hand picked by his predecessor Hugo Chavez who probably overlooked many qualified female tyrants.)
You’d be supporting a strong, female leader.
Bonus identity points: Machado is an engineer, so that makes her a woman in STEM.
Machado recently won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Cons
Although Maduro employs fascistic methods, he would be better described as a socialist.
Machado devoted her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump.
Maduro got in a social media fight with Elon Musk.
Machado is a capitalist.
Machado is religious — and it gets worse, she’s Christian, a Catholic who prays the rosary (Google it).
Her supporters call her the “Iron Lady,” a reference to Margaret Thatcher (Google her).
Ukrainians
I know I came out of the gate with two hard sells. So this time, I’ll cut to the chase —Trump hates Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That should be enough to persuade you to support his cause.
OK, maybe I’ve simplified that a little. But the two did get into a heated argument in the Oval Office and consider this: In the Russia-Ukraine war, one nation’s leader fits the description of a dictator, but Trump pointed to the wrong guy. The moral clarity Trump exhibited during the Israel-Hamas war has been in short supply during the war in Ukraine, where the carnage continues to mount.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression has led to approximately 400,000 Ukrainian military casualties, including the death of between 60,000 and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers. Many thousands of civilians have also perished. Russian military casualties recently passed the one-million mark.
Pros
You probably still think Russian “President” Vladimir Putin colluded with Trump to win the White House in 2016. That should be enough for you to side with the Ukrainians.
You’d be standing up against imperialism.
You might have stashed some Ukrainian flags in your parents’ garage after you went all-in on Palestine.
The Ukrainian cause is already monoculture approved.
Your allies might confuse Ukraine’s flag with the flag of Sweden, that Nordic socialist utopia Eight Percents swoon over. (Sweden isn’t really socialist, but the monoculture-approved myth could score you some additional racial chic points from those who don’t know any better, such as 99 percent of your social media comrades.)
Remember, Trump kinda hates Zelenskyy!
Cons
Former communist leaders such as Joseph Stalin are still popular in Russia today.
Putin called the fall of the Soviet Union “the biggest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th Century.
Putin used to be a KGB official who tried to undermine the U.S.
Ukrainians are some of the whitest people on earth.
Zelenskyy is Jewish.
Ukraine feels kind of 2022.
Related
Uyghurs
An undemocratic government systemically oppresses more than 11 million Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking ethnic group. Since 2017, the government has imprisoned more than 1 million Uyghurs. Those not detained have been subjected to intense surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labor, family separation, and forced sterilization. Various nations, including France and Canada, have accused the government of genocide.
Pros
You’d be standing against genocide.
You’d be standing with Canada and France.
You’d be defending indigenous people.
You’d be standing against an authoritarian regime.
You’d be standing up for marginalized Muslims.
You’d be fighting mass incarceration.
What the government does to Uyghurs is even worse than what Lumon does to severed employees.
Cons
The oppressors are Chinese communists.
Trump hates communism (even though he sometimes acts like a socialist).
China may be America’s top enemy.
The U.S. is one of the nations that has said China is committing genocide.
Mao is still popular in China.
China recently stepped up its crackdown on Christians.
American celebrities such as LeBron James suck up to China.
It would be very hard to pin the oppression on America or the Jews (ask your anthropology professor for suggestions).
North Koreans
Perhaps no modern group of people has suffered as much for so long as the North Koreans. Since 1948, a family of dictators has delivered periodic famines and constant totalitarianism. The Kims of North Korea put the “total” in totalitarian. From speech to movement to hairstyles, no aspect of human activity escapes state control.
Their system of generational punishment means that even the family members of those who cross the dictatorship may be subjected to imprisonment. As Human Rights Watch puts it, the regime “maintains fearful obedience through arbitrary punishments, torture, executions, unjust imprisonment, and forced labor. Sexual and domestic violence against women and girls is widespread and normalized.” And according to the Global Slavery Index, slavery is more prevalent in North Korea than any place on earth.
Such atrocities are well known, yet the world responds with a shrug.
Pros
You would be fighting against slavery. (Although this might be too much cognitive dissonance to handle if you think America invented slavery and that the evil institution is mostly an American thing.)
You would be standing up against mass incarceration.
You’d be defending women’s rights.
Simply owning a Bible is a serious offense in North Korea (wrong category?)
Cons
North Korea is ruled by a communist dictator.
During COVID, North Korea implemented even tougher lockdown policies than California.
The oppressors and victims are the same color.
Koreans are white adjacent.
Those are five nominees, but there are many other worthy causes.
You might fight the power with Gen Zers in nations like Madagascar and Nepal, but those causes involve issues like corruption and power outages (yawn). Bill Maher offers another great option — gender apartheid — but I don’t think you’ll be too wild about that one either.
And if all of this choosing seems like too much work, you can do what you always do.
Wait and see what everyone else does, and then do that!
Whichever cause they choose, they will find a way to blame the US/the West for the oppressor’s actions.
Superb! How have I not come across you before?! "Bonus identity points: Machado is an engineer, so that makes her a woman in STEM" - I have no words...the satire is strong with you my friend.