Quiet activism

Claire
4 min readOct 21, 2024

What are you supposed to do if you feel strongly but you’re not a fighter, or a shouter, or anything-to-draw-attention-to-you-er?

A photo of a group of people protesting in the street at night. A placard that can be seen reads Silence is Compliance
Photo by Kelly : https://www.pexels.com/photo/protesters-holding-signs-4552852/

I’m an introvert. And late-diagnosed autistic. I suppose these could be the same thing; regardless they come with a strong sense of discomfort at being perceived most of the time (my kink proclivities are, typically, opposite).

Images and scenes that might traditionally come to mind when thinking about activism are protests with large groups of people marching, shouting, chanting, blowing air horns, swinging clickers, megaphones, and crowds of counter-protesters shouting back. Often times there is physical violence, verbal aggression and general anxiety-provoking behaviour.

More extreme are human chains blocking diggers or other large vehicles, or superglueing themselves to fences, roads and equipment.

All very physical, all very visible and so very scary and intimidating.

The world right now demands action

There is much to protest today — governments acting in brutal ways to their people as well as those of other countries, mis-directing funds, giving contracts to their friends, discriminating against anyone not in their ‘club’, reneging on promises, destroying lands, communities and public services.

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Claire
Claire

Written by Claire

Observations of people and life through an autistic lens.

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