It has never been easier to be an activist. Be it a Facebook rainbow filter, a pink-pussy hat or an Ariana Grande tribute concert, the combined forces of technology, entertainment and fashion have opened the floodgates to more people taking action at a swipe. You can buy the T-shirt, use the hashtag, or watch the Golden Globes, and you are participating in activism today. Politics has become pop culture. Some believe this has dumbed down activism. But when small actions are done en masse, they can have a big impact. And reward breeds habit. While some pundits believe that enduring struggle is critical to demonstrating commitment to a cause, pure volume, visibility and frequency of an act may affect change in ways never achievable by protesting in the street for a day.
“POLITICS HAS BECOME POP CULTURE.”
In summary, Pan-Activism is what happens when plurality and polarization collide. America is a nation—a “democratic experiment”—built on the promise that every individual has a right to their freedom and equality. This founding principle has never been more visible and acted upon than it is today. But what that freedom and equality looks like has become a point of myriad difference, rather than unity. The challenge today is how to make everyone feel free and equal and, perhaps more importantly, to nurture a more tolerant, diverse society.
In the next section of this report, we explore what we learned about Pan-Activism from engaging Americans throughout the country in our quantitative study, and analyze some of the emerging and popular forms of activism today.
Continue to \ SECTION II — THE 4CS OF PAN–ACTIVISM.
\ SECTION I — A NEW ERA OF AMERICAN ACTIVISM
Welcome to a new age of American activism.
In order to understand this moment in American activism, Backslash conducted a nationwide behavioral quantitative study with Hall & Partners, and interviewed Americans who represent different forms of everyday activism. We captured their stories in a mini documentary.
“Today, we are all activists. On many sides. Every day. We call it ‘Pan-Activism’.”
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered across the nation last month carrying signs with messages such as “Immigrants Make America Great” and the famous phrase "Boys Will Be Boys” changed to "Boys Will Be Held Accountable for Their Actions," to mark the one-year anniversary of the largest single-day protest in US history. But if the 2017 Women’s March was sparked by anger, its follow-up had a new emphasis—on action and allies. These are themes we’re seeing cut across the political spectrum that characterize a new era of mass activism.
“We march, we run, we vote, we win,” said US Representative Nancy Pelosi to the crowds in Washington, DC.
“We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us,” the Women’s March mission stated.
One of the biggest changes we see in the past year to the culture of activism is the mainstream acceptance that inequality faced by one group can handicap the many. The result? Certain groups that were traditionally siloed and pitted against each other are reuniting. “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle, because we do not live single-issue lives,” said the late writer Audre Lorde.
2017 was a banner year for protest that set the wheels in motion for a new era of activism. Google data reveals that alleged sexual harasser and newscaster Matt Lauer topped the most Googled person of the year in the US. Among the top one hundred brands publishing ads on YouTube, cause-related campaigns have grown by four times over the past five years, driving an average of 900,000 more views per video. Activist events increased by nearly 30 percent last year, and the number of people participating almost doubled—a 93 percent increase compared to 2016, according to Eventbrite. Charitable donations, which have been in decline, also saw an upsurge. The American Civil Liberties Union broke its fund-raising record after receiving $24 million in response to Trump’s Muslim immigration ban. Planned Parenthood and Meals on Wheels also reported record donations, following proposed budget cuts.
Top Three Words Used to Describe the US
\ Diverse
\ Competitive
\ Polarized
Activism has traditionally been seen as a pursuit for the marginalized. No longer. Today, there’s an increase in “majority” groups across the political spectrum who believe that their influence is simultaneously waning and under attack. A recent NPR poll revealed that more than half of white Americans believe there is discrimination against white people in the US, a sentiment exemplified by engineer James Damore suing Google for prejudice against white males. Sexual harassment is no longer an underestimated issue that female victims are fighting alone. Recently, male models have called out Bruce Weber and Mario Testino for sexual assault, and Terry Crews has become a vocal leader within #MeToo. It’s a movement that’s mobilizing all genders, governments and industries to take action.
As new voices from the right enter the activism space, mainstream institutions and the media struggle to categorize or brand their interests. Since 1999 the number of hate groups in the US has more than doubled. There are now more anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT, white-nationalist, neo-Nazi, neo-Confederate and black-separatist organizations. The sharpest increase was among anti-Muslim groups—a 197 percent increase in just one year, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. But what the SPLC and ACLU identify as “hate,” these groups brand “freedom,” which is critical to their positive representation in the media and ongoing recruitment. There’s an increasing narrative that special-interest groups are touting: We’re not anti; we’re pro, neo, or alt.
“Evangelical activists inside the White House are positioning new anti-LGBT and anti-abortion legislation as protection for ‘conservative religious freedom,’” Dan Diamond, a reporter for Politico has said. Similarly, white nationalist Richard Spencer and his group of nationalists say they aren’t “anti-immigrant,” they’re just “pro-American.”
This new branding strategy is emerging across activist groups. The end of "anti" (yes, Antifa has become a poster child for American terrorism) is here. It is critical to the survival of your group to be positioned in the positive in today’s landscape.
Fifty-five percent of Americans believe that activism has “come to mean more things in the past year.”
Activism has transformed America over the past year. From the NFL to Net Neutrality; from #MeToo to Red Pill; from hurricane relief to bathroom laws; every corner of culture represents a cause, a community and, most importantly today, an action.
The concept of activism has evolved and expanded. It can sometimes seem paradoxical. Activism today includes Hollywood’s black-clad elite alongside deportation-facing Dreamers and refugees. It seeks both to permit (trans soldiers, confederate statues) and to punish (unlawful police shootings, Russia hacking). It is both a battle cry—as we witnessed at its most bloody in Charlottesville—and a call for radical empathy—as shows, such as Sarah Silverman’s I Love You, America are promoting.
No longer just defined by fringe groups with singular big battles, activism today is mass, fluid, multidimensional and best characterized by small, everyday actions across a range of touch points.
Our nationwide study reveals that 85 percent of Americans took some form of activism in the past year. And Americans are taking multiple actions—nine on average—to support multiple causes.
The number one action in our study was, “I have actively engaged in a conversation about beliefs with a person who has a different viewpoint” (45 percent), which we believe is a positive sign that people are trying to break their filter bubbles and nurture tolerance. The top five actions also included donations to victims of a tragedy (37 percent); supporting local brands more (35 percent), which both point to the commercialization of activism; and perhaps most surprisingly, spending more time or money on self-care (32 percent). Self-care is being positioned by the media and political groups as a way to recharge, cope and empower the activist in us, be it through meditation, a hot bath or reducing social media (the latter, one in six of us are doing). Our study shows that half of Americans (48 percent) are taking some form of action to look after their well-being in response to political and cultural stress, demonstrating that for many, simply existing at one’s optimal level can be a form of defiance and personal activism.
“Doing the right thing and the comfortable thing used to be different things. Today, there are more ways and more degrees to being an activist.”
“If we do nothing, neither are we....”
SO WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?
WE HAVE IDENTIFIED THREE KEY DRIVERS THAT HAVE LED TO THE RISE OF PAN-ACTIVISM.
The Internet has created a culture of nonstop, clickbait news and sensationalized political division that creates a sense of being constantly under attack. As Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, told Business Insider, “Everybody feels like their values are under attack. What’s interesting is everybody is simultaneously feeling this at the same time. The Internet is constantly exposing people to attacks on their beliefs.”
“EVERYBODY FEELS LIKE THEIR VALUES ARE UNDER ATTACK.”
“It’s become so easy to participate in activism and there’s instant gratification. Before activism meant crossing a line. Now it’s easier for people to dial it up and down. Something like the Ice Bucket Challenge is the Holy Grail—everyone got their fix.”
We are living in a polarized society. The middle (once majority) safe ground is eroding. The Internet has given niche groups mainstream visibility, each with their own take on “rights.” Every position has become politicized. Even doing nothing. Silence is now considered complicity, as witnessed with the “Boycott Uber” campaign and #MeToo movement. The New York Times recently reported, “That is precisely the kind of apparatus that is, lately, under sustained attack—not just the villain but anyone who can be said to have cleared the villain’s path. The broad brush of complicity can be used in an attempt to tar almost anyone.” Today, every action has an implied stance.
“SILENCE IS NOW CONSIDERED COMPLICITY.”
