Zizek and Woke Posts
By: Ryan Baylon
Tags: Instagram, Ideology, Zizek, Sociology

Ryan Baylon

3/19/21

In recent times, spiking especially after the June BLM protests of 2020, a fad has popped up on Instagram in which people will post fact pages or hot Twitter takes on progressive social issues on their Instagram Story, detailing current problems in the US, and globally. They all feature a pastel backdrop with serif font and pages of easily digestible information for any average user to consume.

Although banal in appearance, a Zizekian approach in analysis reveals the “pure Ideology” of our current “woke” culture and the strength of the pseudo-revolutionary power that each average poster believes they hold by participating in this trend.

As a quick aside, this is in no way a paper saying that those who do post these messages are bad people; this is merely an analysis of the trend itself, not those participating in it. I am also not disagreeing with the views posed in a majority of these posts, but merely providing perspectives on its function. I will also be using “Ideology” (with a capital I) in the Zizekian and Althusserian sense, not the average sense.

After a large tragedy happens, it becomes customary to post one of these panels. Most progressive people immediately will flood their stories with these information panels, I claim, for merely Ideological reasons. It has become a social phenomenon above all else, to “prove” that one is committed to progressive ideals. I claim this because the reason they are being posted publicly is not to challenge the beliefs of others1, seeing as most progressives who post have a vast majority of liberal followers, and thus they create no conflict. If it is not as such, it must then be for Ideological reasons.

Slavoj Zizek provides similar argumentation through his description of fair-trade coffee or organic foods. We choose these things because of an Ideological ethical imperative, so we can say that “I did my duty to those around me” even if there is no substantial benefit being produced. A similar situation is happening within social media. The Black Square trend or the Pastel Woke Posts only serve to claim that one has done their social duty in propagating social progress. Although it achieves very little change in the real world, if any, one can claim that they care about the issue, and have done something to solve it. This claim is all that matters. Just as the fair trade label wipes the consumer of guilt for environmental destruction, neocolonialism, and exploitation, the pastel post wipes the guilt of being bourgeois, apathetic, and complacent in sociological injustice. Eluding to Zizek’s book title, first as tragedy, then as farce. First the injustice happens, and then it is turned into a purely Ideological, abstract, and capitalistic moral dilemma, the farce, by social media.

A perfect example from my feed was a post2 talking about how a homeless person could access a stimulus check from the government, despite none of their followers (to my knowledge) being homeless3. This not only shows their followers that they care (to a certain, limited extent) about the homeless, but also proves to themselves that they helped create change. Other posts make vague statements such as “dismantle oppressive systems” “move towards justice” and to “call out CEOs and politicians,” which shows they care about sociological progress, without making any substantial claims in the first place. These statements, these posts become meaningless when they are not only vague, nondescript, and safe, but when they are flooded after a national tragedy, such as the one recently during the Floyd protests and during the most recent Anti-Asian hate crime, fully turning a tragedy into an Ideological farce.

Another tangential phenomenon occurs in the form of signing petitions. Here the individual will sign an anonymous petition for some vague sentimentality such as “stop Asian hate” or “equality for Blacks and Latinos.” A brief search on Change.org results in petitions with titles such as “Demand blacks are not killed based on skin color”4 or “Make forceful Hijab removal a hate crime”5 These petitions have no enforcement mechanism, no weight, no potential for real change. They exist as a pseudo-revolutionary guilt wiper and a way to merely feel good, and LARP as if the petitioner did something.

A pseudo politics is born, a fog even denser than electoral politics. As electoralism attempts to hide its pseudo-politics in minute change and virtue signaling, I believe the only things that come from these are a pure simulacra of change. “Why would I protest? Why would I donate? Why would I take time out of my day? I have already shown that I care about this tragedy, is that not enough? I have already signed a vague petition, is that not enough?” These posts are a simple and easy way out of the responsibility of revolutionary change. The pure Ideology behind the subduing of the revolutionary impulse via the “guilt-free existence” of posting a pastel post, a black square, or buying fair-trade chocolate does nothing substantial to better the world, but merely exists to let the bourgeois rest easy knowing that they have done enough, whatever that means.

1. Here I talk in generalities. In my experience, these posts are done to an audience that vehemently agrees with the poster, as most posters will have blocked conservatives or racists from their page. Those that do slip through the cracks though, tend to not be the ones to read these posts anyways since they think they are a waste of time. The only ones who care are those that agree.

2. Link to post

3. If these followers did exist, I assume the poster would simply just send them the infographic directly instead of posting it on the story. The former method would be the best way to directly communicate with someone experiencing homelessness since not everyone is guaranteed to check Instagram Stories.

4. Link to petition

5. Link to petition