Thread by @ImGentleDamnit

1. Ever see an account on Twitter doing amazing, even groundbreaking, activism? I have a dirty secret to share about them.

2. The dirty secret is how they got into what you think they're amazing about. Here we go: They took the same outrage you feel about the topic and applied some degreee of effort into shit.

3. No, really. That's all they've done. There are truly groundbreaking geniuses, but the vast majority are probably of a similar intelligence, means, and ability as you.

4. It's not that they aren't amazing, because I believe they are. What I'm saying is that if you're not also amazing it's because you decided not to apply any effort to things that outraged you.

5. I've doxxed over 100 white supremacists and mostly destroyed 2 hate groups by myself. I'm not special because I did that, because it's something you could have done with the same effort.

6. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm not exceptional in any way. What I did, you can probably do as well or better. The only thing you need to do is choose to put in the effort.

Too many times in my life I've seen the cheesy ass "be the change you want to see in the world". It really hurts me to admit that the inspirational poster bullshit is really true. It's crushing. This shit sucks.

8. I do know some true geniuses who do activism. They're fucking amazing and I love them, but they're the vast minority. Most of us are pretty normal. We're just willing to put in effort most people won't, but could easily.

9. Get in the game and be amazing. Start researching your local white supremacists or Moms 4 Liberty or whatever bullshit bigot groups you have locally.

10. Notice who they're interacting with and try to find all their social media accounts. Think about a filing system in your computer that makes sense to you so you can find it later. Rinse repeat for a year or more without necessarily doing anything.

11. Eventually patterns of behavior will develop. You'll develop a level of knowledge about them by monitoring the day to day. It's mostly boring, like most of our lives.

12. You don't intelligence or fame or technical skills to do activism. You just need to give a shit and be willing to put in some effort. I'm not syaing this to denigrate people, but to show you how easy it is to make a difference.

13. It's not hard or restricted to the brilliant. You just need to put some effort into making the world better. Almost any effort you put in will have an outsized contribution. Do you need to hear you're brilliant or special for doing it?

14. You're as brilliant and special as I am. What have you done with it? I'm a nobody and I did recognizable shit. You're probably less of a nobody but could do just as much with half the fucking effort. Do it. Do something.