You know what I like about the ice bucket challenges and the pay-it-forward l...

You know what I like about the ice bucket challenges and the pay-it-forward lines? It is immediately actionable.

In our world of seemingly impossible challenges: climate change, income inequality, racism, never-ending wars, political corruption - it can all be so discouraging.

Now if one can dump ice water on their head, or buy the next person a cup of coffee it feels like we changed the world instantly.

Now, some would say that is an immature feeling of satisfaction. That there are homeless families that could use a real meal instead of that $4 frappachino. Yes, I agree. Or that we should donate money to ALS without needing to make videos about ourselves. Yes, we should, but this year they are taking in *millions* and last year it was *thousands*. We should also brush our teeth after every meal, and we should do an hour of exercise, and we should organize our stuff, and we should save for retirement. There are all kinds of things we should do.

But these pay it forward lines and the ice bucket challenge - are instant *and* they are fun!

I read a great Quora answer that Roger Dickey upvoted, but I cannot find the link to again. It was basically explaining the difference between conservative radio talk shows and progressive talk shows.

The progressive one tells you that you should eat more green vegetables and less meat. The conservative one tells you about this amazing BBQ place - and it is 2-1 weekend. The progressive one tells you that racist income inequality is a huge, intractable, complicated problem and that if you are white you are probably somewhat tangentially responsible and there is more that you could be doing about it - but nothing simple or specific. The conservative one says you are not making enough money to pay your bills? It is *NOT* your fault - it is the fault of greedy politicians, or invading hordes of hispanics, or lazy welfare queens. The progressive radio tells you that ISIS are committing genocide in Iraq, and that it is important that we act quickly with surgical strikes and targeted aid, but we will definitely not get into another land war. The conservative one says they are all evil! Let's bomb them all and let Jesus sort them out.

In short, it is much easier and more fun to be a listener on conservative talk shows. You can indulge in all of your fear porn and blame everyone else from all the problems in your world. Progressives tell you that every problem including slave labor in China is being propelled by your consumption of light bulbs from Home Depot. So everything is your fault somehow...

I for one would like to see 100 times more of these simple, actionable make the world slightly better memes to take root.

Something for eating healthy, climate change, racism(how to make that one fun???), income inequality (Robin Hood was fun no?)

More fun!

Originally posted on Facebook on August 24, 2014.