first of all, leaving shitty anonymous comments on random peoples' pages isn't going to free anybody
I wrote this thread on Mastodon earlier today and apparently it bears repeating, so I'm posting here with edits to reflect the recent context, which I saw after writing my initial thread.
Let's stop pretending that every action we take that is aligned with our beliefs is also easy.
Sure, in some cases it is easy, and also definitely don't be a weird martyr about it, but sour-grapesing everything you boycott neither helpful nor a signifier of whatever ideological purity you're chasing. Pretending that boycotting is easy and missing whatever you boycotted means you're somehow impure is weird as hell.
It also enables the type of people who twist "no ethical consumption under capitalism" to mean "if trying to do better makes me slightly uncomfortable or inconvenienced, I will simply not try." (And apparently also the type of people who are more enraged at the idea of any type of action, however indirect, than at genocide, but I digress*)
This is not to say we shouldn't try to make it easier to do the right thing (such as offering lists of alternatives that actually match peoples' specific needs or by materially or personally helping in other ways). We should definitely do those things!
I'm just saying that "hey, not doing [whatever] is hard, it was hard for me too, if you like I can share what helped me" or in this case "hey, not sure if you knew but here is a link explaining why XYZ is bad" is far more likely to help other people change their behavior than "who even uses [whatever] anyway, it's trash lol" or I suppose in this case, posting a super shitty and mean comment on anon.
P.S. Also, there is definitely a time and a place to grump about things and call them trash! (in general, this was from the original thread) But places that murder nuance (i.e. all social media) do not have separate spaces for inreach efforts vs. outreach efforts. Both are ways of doing the work—the first by showing people already doing what you do that they are not alone and the second by getting others to change their behavior—but you can't talk to both groups the same way with the same words bc they're fundamentally in different places in the journey.
(That said I don't think there's ever a time or place to be a nasty fucking anoncop to someone who's not directly harming others, that's not inreach or outreach, that's just being an asshole to score imaginary points.)