Thinking about cruelty. We associate and see cruelty most with immediate, person on person or animal cruelty. Remoteness doesn’t reduce the cruelty of impact, or intent, but it makes it harder to feel and judge.
This really works in favour of those in power, who can use drones, or policy, to kill and injure others, rather than, say, a knife. And it often makes us all - unwitting, uncaring - participants.
I think this is what being #woke - in its real, original sense d being “awake” boils down to for me, especially for those of us who lead privileged, safe lives:
That you might think you are a good person, just leading a normal, peaceful life in, say, Germamy or the UK, but your privilege itself means you are complicit in and benefiting from cruel, extractive systems deeply harming others. It takes real effort but you need to educate yourself and see this, you need to wake up to this.