pat yourself on the backtivism 

The brand of political or social activism that involves doing nothing meaningful whatsoever except for completely useless gestures, "discussing the issues" with people who already share your point of view, and flooding Facebook with activism posts.

The whole point of which is simply to make sure everyone else in the world knows how tolerant and great you are and how shitty and tolerant they aren't, while actually not making any difference whatsoever.

That Tiffany girl who is always posting 10 times a day on Facebook about how society is controlled by anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-immigrant, poverty-hating white guys gets drunk four nights a week on her parent's dime, and sleeps around while skipping half of the classes in her Development Studies major. She's never actually contributed to the betterment of society in any meaningful way. But pat yourself on the backtivism means she still thinks she's a better person than everyone else.

pat yourself on the backtivism by BroamChomsky February 7, 2014