I swear to god I love how liberals overthink everything.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

I swear to god I love how liberals overthink everything. But I also hate it so much. It makes me want to die.

You know what's "performative" ? The most performative thing in the world?

Talking about what's performative is SO performative.

And here's the spicy take: performative isn't bad.

doing good things performativly is far far better than not doing anything and better than participating in harm.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

Sometimes people start doing the right thing not because they understand why it's right but just to fit in. They can learn along the way.

And if you are "performativly filming ICE" you are still filming ICE nobody cares if you are pure of heart and a magical gnome who has never had a biogted thought in your life.

I think the real subtext to some of these debates is just that leftists can find liberals kind of corny and cringe. But we live in a post cringe era. Irony is dead.

[steve@discuss.systems]

@futurebird Fake it til you make it!

[waitworry@sakurajima.moe]

@futurebird I wish we lived in a post cringe era

it still feels like a lot of the politics of this era is driven by people who think being a good person or doing the right thing is embarrassing

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

There is a very PERFORMATIVE debate going on in knitting and fiber arts about if this idea some people have about knitting red hats is performative or not.

I kid you not. Nice suburban white ladies are giving each other anxiety attacks Please stop. It's obvious that bringing groceries for your neighbor is more helpful than knitting a hat. But if knitting is what YOU can do now? That is AMAZING.

Kind of sad no one has noticed they have reinvented the liberty cap. Put that sucker on a pole.

[tiny_m@indieweb.social]

@futurebird I think also there is value in normalising behaviour, so even if someone is doing it for the wrong reasons it can still have a net benefit if that changes the groups behaviour to make the new thing normal, filming abusers, putting pronouns in bios, wearing a mask on public transport, speaking up if you think someone is making a joke that isn't ok. If only the very 'good' people do these things, then that will always be seen as extremist behaviour instead of what everyone should do

[passenger@kolektiva.social]

@futurebird @waitworry

I think a lot of people describe being good as cringe not because they dislike the idea of being cringe, but because they dislike the idea of being good.

[falcennial@mastodon.social]

@futurebird well that is extreme realness. well put as usual.

performative kindness is kindness reps.

that is somebody improving at kindness. that is a good thing leading to an extremely good thing.

come to think of it I'd happily take ANY virtue signaler over ANY apathetic person any time of the day or night. no question. they're objectively better for the world.

[androcat@toot.cat]

@futurebird The bad guys know this too.

Performative harms are the social glue that holds their monstrous movement together.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

RE: https://indieweb.social/@tiny_m/116040447914491756

There are people I know who removed their pronouns from their email signatures around last year and I'm deeply disappointed in them. More than adding such things in a "performative" way taking them down as the first sign of cultural push-back is a different kind of "performance" Who is this show for?

(It's really noticeable when someone is just swaying in the wind. This is why *some* Democratic pols have trouble, they are so quick to "change with the times" it makes them hard to trust.)

[funkula@goblin.camp]

@futurebird I think maybe we have reached the stage of usage (similar to gaslight) where people with only the slightest grasp of the word are using it to mean anything they don't like.

[thejessiekirk@ohai.social]

@futurebird If someone knitted me something that'd make my day!

[madengineering@mastodon.cloud]

@futurebird I'm not going to worry about performance, I'm going to worry about fraudulent, which is thankfully less common.

[rosymaths@mathstodon.xyz]

@futurebird I had not thought about this before.
I guess enough performative actions can still affect societal norms and help shift the Overton window in a less cruel direction.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@RosyMaths

As authoritarians seek greater control actions that were once "performative" become dangerous.

People will complain "the protest is just a parade" but it still proves that at least on that weekend you could do a protest. Eventually the right will stop even performative push back... unless it's everywhere and impossible to stop.

[jens@social.finkhaeuser.de]

@futurebird Leftist purity wars have always been the Left's undoing. "Performative" is just the latest weapon in them.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@jens

It's very silly.

Everything can be made out to be "performative" -- if someone wants to say that an idea isn't effective, or that it's not cool for some reason explain that.

I think some people don't like the hat idea because of PTSD from the "pussy hats" from 2016 and that is valid IMO

But maybe things have been learned since then.

Also be nice to the knitters, they have sharp needles and frankly are kind of scary.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@lienrag @tiny_m

How so?

[pawsplay@dice.camp]

@futurebird I noticed! Liberty caps for the win.

[clayfoot@mastodon.social]

@futurebird Is this related to "rage knitting" " melt the ICE" hats? Even if it is performative, this seems worthwhile. What's the down side? A temporary shortage of red yarn?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/red-hat-melt-the-ice-resistance-9.7072047