Memes like this, at least to me, mostly accomplish two things:
- some people get to enjoy mocking a group of people that align with their values in more ways than they don’t.
- some people feel dissuaded from doing anything.
We don’t know when small actions added up will make a difference or perhaps even lead to bigger actions. But I just don’t think, as a general rule, we should sit at our computers mocking those who spend their time doing something productive or at least attempting to make things a tiny bit better.
So in this case: help get Pikachu a firehouse. Or go find a squirtle to help. Perhaps you have a better solution on hand and you two can work together. Either way, pointing at him and mocking his attempts to be helpful, even if they maybe won’t solve the issue, just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.
those who spend their time doing something productive or at least attempting to make things a tiny bit better.
Except what they do is only productive towards maintaining the status quo and enabling the oppressive systems that exploit us to continue chugging on regardless.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/14/liberalism-and-fascism-partners-in-crime/
https://blacklikemao.medium.com/how-liberalism-helps-fascism-d4dbdcb199d9
the picture is ofc just a meme. In reality (if we stick to the methaphor) there is a whole barrage of Hypnos’ (media conglomerates) behind Pikachu, telling everyone this is the best we can do to solve this situation, while a bunch of Machamps’ are tasked with blocking the path for the fire trucks (bourgeois democracies being designed in a way to prevent meaningful change) and beating up anyone who dares to try turn off the gas to the exploded pipeline (police and military protecting the exploitative economic base that accellerates all and is the cause for many of our problems)
So no, supporting or even accepting the machinery behind Pikachu is not making things better “little by little” but actually enabling things to stay as they are at the core.
