We live in a world where 500+ refugees just drowned off the coast of
Greece while the global north took photos from afar and just let it happen.
We live in a world where even a democratic president in the US is shutting the doors to asylum seekers in the U.S. and not receiving any significant political blowback for it.
We aren’t refugees for having to find a new website.
I am NOT saying this to scold people or to talk condescendingly down from some high horse as if I am more righteous than others, I just don’t want this word to catch on because there is so much pain and suffering happening to refugees in this world.
Imagine you were a refugee and you joined the fediverse because you were curious about it and the first thing you saw was people calling themselves refugees for having to… make an account on a new website. Would you feel welcome or like this place was for you?
Yeah, that seems like exactly the kind of selfserving virtue signaling that makes the left look like a bunch of edgelords.
But I guess, it’s easier to start such “actions” to feel like you’re doing something than actually doing something. (not that I’m actually doing something, but I’m not pretending either)
In German, there’s a relatively new phrase for that: Gratismut, free bravery. On the surface it looks “brave”, but it’s actually 100% riskfree and has no consequences whatsoever. But you do look brave.