Maria Grogan

“With the recent election and everything, I’ve become more passionate about politics. Something I’ve noticed and have been thinking about a lot lately is the rise of performative activism, especially surrounding the presidential election. I’ve noticed there’s a lot of people who will repost things to their stories about you know, women’s rights, trans rights, and gay rights, but then turn around and go against what they supposedly believe in. They act in the same ways as the people they are fighting against. I’ve seen a lot of people post publicly about their support for certain causes but then be unwilling to correct their own behavior when they realize it goes against those causes. When they do end up doing something that conflicts with what they’ve said, I’ve noticed people refusing to acknowledge that they’ve done anything wrong and refusing to take accountability. It’s just really disappointing to see, especially from a generation that claims to be doing so much better than its predecessors.  I think it’s an epidemic, especially with how online we as a generation are; everyone kind of wants to look good to other people but they won’t take the steps to truly be good, they just want the validation of their peers and to be seen in a positive light,” Grogan said.