Humans 101
How to End the Activist Burnout Cycle
There are many ways to be an activist, and none of them are all-or-nothing
I’m the kind of person who will occasionally call themselves an activist, then immediately cringe at myself for having the gall to claim that word.
I’m not a good enough activist to be an “activist.” I don’t have the consistency, the self-sacrificing instinct, the almost religious fervor some have for their causes. I don’t have the faith things are actually gonna work out. I have limited energy and I use it all up within the first couple of months and then I get sad and flop on the couch.
That’s not what real activists are like, I tell myself. Activists are committed and bold. They are so passionate they’re tiresome to be around, and they don’t care that they are. They won’t let you sit through a movie without observing the various biases the film helped entrench — the transmisogyny in Ace Ventura, the ableism in Detective Pikachu. They will make you walk seven more blocks to a restaurant that is ethical rather than quickly getting a quesarito at Taco Bell. They aren’t apologetic about that kind of shit the way I would be. Real activists don’t back down and try to talk about something more pleasant. Real activists know nothing will ever be pleasant again. They…
