Dear Hashtag,
You were born from hope.
A way to gather voices.
To unify cries in the chaos.
To shine light where darkness lived.
You were supposed to help us see.
But now?
You mostly help us be seen.
You don’t echo anymore.
You trend.
You once meant something…
#BlackLivesMatter
#MeToo
#BringBackOurGirls
#NeverAgain
#PrayForParis
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForGeorge
You were a rallying cry.
A candle held high.
A way to weave a thousand threads of outrage into a tapestry of action.
But now, you’re a costume.
An accessory.
The filter we apply to pain before hitting “post.”
Attention has replaced empathy.
Activism has become a performance piece.
Aesthetic rage.
Grief with good lighting.
We watch suffering through square screens,
sliding past bombed-out buildings and burning forests
like they’re just set dressing
between vacation reels and skincare tutorials.
The algorithm rewards reaction – not reflection.
Clicks – not care.
Performance – not participation.
We have gamified outrage.
Now we play the numbers game:
How many shares?
How many hearts?
How many allies today?
We mistake visibility for virtue.
We think going viral is the same as going deep.
We think a hashtag can hold the weight of a human body.
It can’t.
But still… we keep using you…
Because we need something.
Some sign that we are not alone.
Some spark of solidarity, even if fleeting.
So maybe it’s not you.
Maybe it’s us.
Maybe we broke the mirror,
and now we only see ourselves.
Love,
The Radical Left