In February 2017, "The Outline" writer Jeff Ihaza wrote that "one of the most crippling tendencies of modern liberals is their obsession with being seen, whether it be at a protest wearing a fuzzy pink hat alongside Madonna or in viral tweets totally owning the president. This preoccupation with optics is more often than not frighteningly self-centered," and later adding that "From 'performative' activism to a fixation on clever protest signs, modern liberals know better than anyone else how to cash in on a political movement, but they know very little about how to harness the power of one." Also in 2017, following the Charlottesville car attack, "Philadelphia" writer Ernest Owens included the term "performative activism" without interrupting punctuation, criticizing it as an activism "about making cheap symbolic gestures and catchy remarks to center yourself instead of the issue."