#like no it's not!! it's actually very necessary!! the problem was that mailin was doing it for completely irrelevant statements

[sotorubio]

alright i'm not even gonna watch a clip called anti mother's day lmao that title is all i need to know i've reached my limit of patience w this activism storyline

the thing is i think there's a general mindset of like "well if this turns out to be commentary on performative activism it's not as bad bc then it's cringy on purpose!" and while i want nothing more than some character to shut mailin's pretentious ass up i don't think we are at a point in time where tv shows can present performative activism as an issue when the shows and the general audience still thinks activism itself is an issue

i mean i already complained abt this in maya's season. like the first half of it was chanting slogans to absolutely no one in stupid costumes, ruining perfectly good clothes just to lie in them n say smth self aware like i don't think this achieves anything n the one (1) time maya actually did smth impactful n physical it was her unhingedTM breaking point. ppl already find activists either annoying n silly or dangerous criminals. your average viewer is never going to take that storyline as "oh the modern activism focuses too much on how a demonstration looks on social media n don't actually take action above meaningless catch phrases! we need to reevaluate our activism to be more impactful" they're gonna just see that and go lol exactly so many "activists" just dress as trees and stand chained to a fence aren't they silly and stupid activism is so embarrassing 😂😂 unless they're the scary crazy unhinged violent ones who 😳 who.. break the headlights of a truck 😱 activism can also be dangerous n criminal!!!!

so i rly don't see how most ppl in the real world are gonna look at mailin's actions n think it's bad bc it's performative. most ppl are just gonna think it's bad bc they think it's what genuine activism is n they find activism annoying n bad. like does she not just come off as a caricature of a "progressive" made by conservatives. having a character who nitpicks every single phrase n action of their friends is pure fuel for ppl who think it's annoying that "we can't joke abt anything these days".

and unfortunately that isn't limited to just conservatives, the druck viewer base is majorly "leftist" after all. just look at the one time druck actually covered performative activism in a way that wasn't shit. the s6 plotline between ava n mailin. ppl still overwhelmingly sided w mailin, the performative one, over ava, the one who was textually depicted as being in the right n who was actually holding her friend accountable for a reason. now tell me when it comes to performative activism it's the "performative" part ppl take an issue with... spoiler alert it's not. it's the "activism" half of the combo. ava was criticized for the exact same things as mailin is now (calling out ur friends n making them "uncomfortable", "ruining the mood" between ur friends) but she wasn't being performative at all.

performative activism only becomes an issue when u've first accepted real activism n stopped demonizing it. not to be like We Live In A Society but no activism is not the norm or generally socially acceptable. like this is the fandom that thinks shoplifting is bad if ur friend works at the store n that drinking n smoking are a sign of a toxic person. look me in the eyes n tell me the fandom cares abt activism n social issues n that's why they're so annoyed w Performative Activism 💀 it's like toooootally the performative aspect of it yup real activism would be welcomed w open arms i'm sure!

like i'm not saying mailin's activism should be portrayed as genuine either (bc it's not, if that wasn't already clear). i'm saying that it doesn't matter if they think she's being an actual activist or a performative one bc either way they're certainly Not making any points or doing anything new. i'm saying if they wanted to make a season abt activism they should not have made it abt mailin and if they wanted to make a season abt mailin well then they shouldn't have made it abt activism.