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#Mocktivism

I spoke with HuffPost Live the other day about hijacked hashtags and humor. The whole thing is about half an hour long so here are my four points:

Mocktivism isn’t a bad thing.
Humor is often the easiest way to make people feel comfortable which is the first step toward getting them involved.
Getting involved can mean different things. There’s this mythology that every “activist” should make the same level of contribution to the cause. This isn’t so. Sometimes it’s the hard work of the few with the support of the many. Activism is much like fandom in this way.
Newsweek does an awesome job at trolling with their covers. They want to get people to have an emotional reaction whether it’s laughter or rage. It’s triggering at it’s worsening best.

We didn’t get to talk about Social Justice Bloggers and ShitRedditSays which is a shame because I’m fascinated by them right now.

Also: I have to stop thinking about my answers as I answer. It makes me say ‘um’ a lot.

If long-form political satire doesn’t suit you, maybe #MuslimRage and #SorryFeminists will. But is mocking the news becoming the default lazy form of activism? Originally aired on October 9, 2012

Hosted by: Ahmed Shihab-Eldin

GUESTS:
Bianca Bosker (New York , NY) HuffPost Executive Tech Editor @bbosker

Hend Amry (Doha, Qatar) Libyan-American Activist @LibyaLiberty

Kate Gardiner (New York, NY) Journalist, Blogger @kategardiner

Kenyatta Cheese (New York, NY) Co-founder of knowyourmeme.com @kenyatta

Morgan Missen (San Francisco, CA) Founder of Main @mm