Branding and activism are at ideological odds

[D.W.]

I don't make a habit of linking stories / articles but I wanted to get the opinions of those of you who are, or in your younger days were, more active in... well activism.  Or anyone else for that matter

http://gawker.com/are-we-orlando-or-are-we-brands-1782126500

TL;DR is the modern (social media focused) activism, reactions to tragedy and trying to leverage those tragedies for your own chosen cause more about us as individuals than it is about what we talk about?  Or at least that was my take on it. 

It doesn't paint a very pretty picture of us as a society IMO and I found myself agreeing with the author's assessment.

[AI Wessex]

I'll think on this and comment more, but for the moment I'll say that "activism" (hint, needs careful definition and qualification) creates lighthouses to guide people's moral travels and also lampposts under which we look for our lost keys that could be there or anywhere else in the dark. That's my version of cause vs. branding.

[Pete at Home]

“This was no more an attack just on L.G.B.T. people than the bloodshed at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris was an attack solely on satirists,” wrote Bruni (this was excerpted on the NYT Opinion Twitter even more fumblingly by omitting the “solely”: “This was no more an attack on L.G.B.T. people than Charlie Hebdo was an attack on satirists”). Two days later, Bruni returned with more Orlando opining, “A Time to Stand With Gay Americans,” which called out Republican politicians for not acknowledging the bigoted nature of the shooting.

What sort of depraved moron presumes that it's not "bigoted" to kill people because they are Americans?