<Snipped quote by KnightShade>
I'm just fed up with idle chatter. It accomplishes nothing apart from making the speaker feel like they're helping.
Joking about things is a way people can deal with it, I mean I don't want people to really become comfortable with it though. It's also a way everyone can talk about it to build a consensus to support action, although of course that consensus may just be a bubble. Narcissism is a huge part of social media culture, I don't think it particularly takes away from action though.
I think there are also cases where it has helped. Like Owen Jones springing up a protest over the Trump state visit basically over night on twitter, resulting in thousands of protesters and millions of petition signers. He got his agenda all over the UK media. Surely the social networks that requires are partly formed around 'clever' comments. Someone makes a dumb joke about Trump, its not just virtue signalling, it's a lighthearted way of signalling your political views. You friend or follow them or whatever, and whole networks can build up around stupid Joe Biden jokes.