I’ve been seeing an insane amount of petitions circulating young, mostly liberal spaces online. Some of them being obviously useless and embarrassing, like sign to end the war in Yemen or to free Hong Kong.
What’s the general consensus on petitions? I feel like they often stand in for action that is much more likely to work like in-person protests, boycotts, etc. Like I see people who said they sign petitions online for large swaths of time every day, which seems to me to be a huge waste time, compared to any other way of supporting a cause.
But is there something to be said for them “raising awareness” for issues? Or do they just let people feel like they’ve done their part and demobilize them? Are there specific issues that petitions can help with? As opposed to generic petitions with no feasible way to achieve their stated goals.
Raising awareness does little in the process of recruiting toward concrete goals. It’s mostly just a substitute for sustained actions against any actual violence and systems to instead virtue signal. It’s a liberal fantasy of creating change via no effort of their own.
For instance, one local education reform group I’m part of had a petition with ten years worth of alumni signing it, but only five individuals have actually put forth efforts in email campaigns, showing up for protests and public comments.
They have extremely limited uses. At the local level, they can have some effect, because sometimes it’s hard to know how many people are paying attention to any given issue. So, if you’re trying to fight a development/gentrification, bringing lots of signatures can let people know there’s serious opposition, for example.
At the national level, they’re honestly just virtue signaling.
Those in power don’t admit what makes them actually change things, so most people are just taking shots in the dark about what they think works. In person protests are largely ineffective. Property destruction makes libs piss their pants. Strikes are hard. Voting and petitions are a way to feel like you’re doing something and you get a pat on the head from teacher.
