Princess Treebeard (that is me) also does this. Every day.
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Itās weird. I used to be aloof to an extreme. I didnāt care about randoms I didnāt even know and I couldnāt understand why anyone would. I thought, well, bad ā ā ā ā happens to everyone. Why make a big deal about it. I think it was my way of coping with the clusterfuck of tragedies that was my life. Then, when I started taking Geodon, it was like someone flipped the empathy switch in my brain. I was unprepared for the sudden barrage of emotions, and I cried at commercials, or particularly moving episodes of Color Crew. Iām still struggling to find a healthy balance.
But I understand both sides of the equation, and I think society needs both. The Pixels of the world are more capable of making the difficult ālesser of two evilsā decisions that sometimes need to be made. The Rhubots and Treebeards find the groups that have been left out in the cold by the hard decisions, and become their champions. And together, the world keeps turning.
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This happened to me too, after my psychotic break.
I used to be more thick skinned. Nowadays I canāt even go on facebook with all the atrocities plastered on the feed.
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I also have an excess of empathy. The problem is I channel it into excessive worry about the welfare of others. I also feel excessive guilt for not being able to help all those who are suffering.
I find this to be frustrating because excessive worrying doesnāt actually help the people Iām worrying about.
When possible, I try to either channel the worry into concrete action, or let it go, one or the other. For example, volunteering my time or donating money to causes I fell strongly about wether locally or abroad, stepping in when I see someone being bullied, etc.
My personal motto is ādo more, talk lessā. Unfortunately, Iām still struggling with this myself, but Iām working on it.
I do find it frustrating when I hear folks excessively discuss their outrage about something, but not actually do anything about it. Sometimes the people who talk the most are the least likely to actually offer any concrete help. Their sole purpose seems to be to make themselves feel better rather than actually helping the person who is suffering.
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Well said, I was thinking about just such a thing today in a bit of a different context though. I much prefer the silent doers to the loud talkers.
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Oh, I agree, but I would caution against the tendency - particularly on the internet - to assume you are a fair judge of what someone is ādoing about itā. All we have here are our words, and silence breeds acceptance.
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I agree to a certain extent.
However, excessive talking breeds acceptance also (by having a numbing effect that anesthetizes the talker and the listener but does little for the person in need).
Ditto.
I canāt see what anyone is silently doing on the internet, and so I find that to be a pretty useless standard here.
Unless the usage is to shame and silence people who speak up. In which case, carry on, very effective.
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When it comes to a situation like Syria, my power begins and ends at the ballot box, and itās not much power at all.
Thatās your direct power. Your indirect power is to influence and persuade people who will go on to influence and persuade other people.
I utterly understand if thatās not where you choose to direct you attention, whether itās because you donāt agree, agree but donāt prioritize, or just flat out donāt have the energy for it. Everyone has to make their own decisions about which battles to fight.
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perhaps asking would be an idea? Iām just speculating hereā¦
Not sure where this is coming from??? I donāt support āshamingā of any kind.
In the end, thatās just words, too. I also donāt see how someone going around asking what people are doing about a particular issue is less annoying than someone expressing their concerns about a particular issue. Asking is far more confrontational and intrusive.
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No matter how much Pixel tries, I still believe in climate change 
But yes, youāre right, discussing creates questioning, questioning can lead to action.
I was an activist for many years, and aside from taking one million people to protest (the government backed down on the law, but passed it two years later) we didnāt do anything worth while in terms of change.
I decided to work in smaller scales, schools for example, where I started afternoon debates with the kids about their prospects of what the future of the country and the planet is for them. But it was shut down by most schools and we discontinued the project.
People (some) want change, but donāt want to change. Pardon my clichĆ©.
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thatās true!
Depends on whether a person responds to shaming. Thereās already a good example in this thread showing I donāt.
Inspire people to do what, exactly? The Syrian mess is the result of an intractable social issue, the real solutions for which are all more repugnant than current events. Everything else is treating symptoms, and poorly at that.
Iām going to limit myself to making those positive changes I can in my own community. Best way I know not to go crazy. Or crazier in my case.
Oh, it used to be my actual job to go door to door to talk to people about issues. I hated it! I quit after maybe two weeks.
But yeah, I have slowly narrowed my focus from the whole wide world of injustice to a very narrow segment of it - housing discrimination and overzealous evictions. Doesnāt mean I donāt care about the rest of it, but I have to figure out where my energy is best spent.
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I believe in climate change, too. It is constantly in a state of flux. How much of it has been caused by man, we donāt know. It would help if we had better data to work from. Should we be doing research? Yes. Should we be shutting down entire energy industries based on the word of āscientistsā who wonāt share data and who canāt even produce working climate models? An incredibly horrible idea that will cause REAL poverty and starvation.
As we all know here, if you donāt have a cure, all you can do is treat the symptoms as best you can, even if the treatment is imperfect.
I have always admired how you donāt let yourself be shamed.
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Nowadays my energy is best spent away from those issues. Iāll explain: I had an epiphany. I realized all I have is opinions, and that everyone has different opinions. And thatās why activist movements never work, the goals are all mismatched. So I backed away. Honestly? It is a world full of hate, the activist world, people are against everything and have donkey patches in front of their eyes. I donāt want to be a part of that, at all. Been free from it for a year and never been happier. I still have my opinions and share them when necessary, thatās all.
I know in north america things are a bit different than here in Europe, but here governments are trying to use the maximum clean and renewable energy possible, with great success.
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