Your North Star Should Be Discomfort
Redefining Comfort in the anti-Ableist tradition, or, How Feel-Good Narratives Serve Power
In today’s socio-political landscape, a pervasive belief has taken root: that political engagement and social change can and should feel good. From ethical consumerism to social media activism, there is an assumption that we can change the world while remaining emotionally validated and comfortable. These feel-good narratives provide a sense of agency, allowing us to believe we are making a difference without confronting the deeper, more complex realities of injustice, inequality, and systemic power. However, this idea—that we can achieve change without discomfort—is itself a trap.
This phenomenon, which I call comfort politics, allows individuals to feel like they are contributing to social good without engaging in the difficult, messy work of dismantling entrenched power structures. Comfort politics serves a dual purpose: it offers emotional validation, providing a buffer against the discomfort of grappling with power, privilege, and oppression, while simultaneously reinforcing the very systems it claims to challenge.
In this essay, I will argue that both feel-good narratives and comfort politics ultimately serve power by maintaining the status quo, offering superficial solutions to systemic problems, and distracting us from the hard, uncomfortable work of real systemic change.
The Allure of Comfort Politics and Feel-Good Narratives
At the heart of comfort politics is the idea that engaging in activism or holding progressive beliefs should provide emotional satisfaction and moral clarity. This manifests in symbolic actions like donating to causes, posting on social media, or adopting ethical consumer habits. These actions offer a sense of agency and control—allowing individuals to feel empowered—while avoiding the discomfort that comes with confronting one’s own complicity in systems of power and privilege.
For example, ethical consumerism allows people to feel that by purchasing the "right" products—whether it's fair trade coffee, eco-friendly clothing, veganism, or electric vehicles—they are contributing to positive change. Yet, this individual act does little to challenge the capitalist structures that perpetuate global inequality and exploitation. Similarly, the rise of social media activism has given way to performative gestures—such as using hashtags or sharing awareness posts—that create the appearance of engagement but do not necessarily translate into sustained collective action or real policy change.
These feel-good narratives simplify complex problems, reducing them to individual solutions that can be easily integrated into our lives without disrupting our comfort or routines. They distract from the need for deeper, collective efforts that engage with systemic power and inequality. In doing so, they offer a seductive escape from the uncomfortable realities of our world.
Superficial Solutions as a Preservation of Power
One of the most insidious aspects of comfort politics is the way it shifts responsibility from institutions and systems to individuals. It encourages us to believe that our personal choices—what we buy, how we vote, or what we post online—are sufficient to bring about social change. By focusing on individual action, comfort politics absolves corporations, governments, and institutions from responsibility for the harm they cause, effectively preserving the status quo.
Corporations, in particular, have become adept at using feel-good narratives to signal progress without enacting substantive changes. Practices like greenwashing and woke-washing—where companies adopt the language of social justice or sustainability to appear socially responsible—allow businesses to placate public demand for change while continuing to exploit labor, the environment, and marginalized communities. By co-opting the language of justice, these corporations neutralize more radical critiques, effectively diverting attention away from the systemic issues at play.
This phenomenon extends beyond the corporate world into politics, where political leaders and institutions adopt the rhetoric of diversity, sustainability, and inclusion to signal progress while maintaining policies that perpetuate systemic inequality. By using feel-good narratives to create the illusion of progress, those in power prevent more meaningful reforms that could disrupt the existing power dynamics.
The Role of Discomfort in Real Change
In contrast to comfort politics, real political engagement often requires discomfort. Discomfort signals that we are engaging with the deeper, more complex realities of power, privilege, and oppression. It challenges us to question our assumptions, confront our complicity in harmful systems, and engage in sustained, collective action that addresses the root causes of inequality.
Politics that make us uncomfortable often involve grappling with difficult truths, whether it’s about systemic racism, economic inequality, environmental destruction, or gender-based violence. These issues are not easily solvable through feel-good gestures. They demand long-term commitment, sacrifice, and organized resistance. Discomfort can serve as a guide, indicating that we are pushing against entrenched systems in meaningful ways.
If our politics always feel comfortable, it likely means that we are engaging only at a surface level—focusing on small wins or symbolic actions that maintain the status quo. Real change requires us to embrace the discomfort that comes with challenging power structures, engaging in collective struggle, and imagining new ways of organizing our world.
The Pitfalls of Moral Absolutism
Another aspect of comfort politics is moral absolutism—the belief that one’s political actions or beliefs confer a sense of moral superiority. This often manifests in purity politics, where individuals prioritize personal virtue over the messy, imperfect work of organizing for systemic change. For example, the emphasis on ethical consumption often leads to judgmental attitudes toward those who cannot afford to make "ethical" choices, such as buying organic food or avoiding fast fashion.
If our politics always feel comfortable, it likely means that we are engaging only at a surface level—focusing on small wins or symbolic actions that maintain the status quo.
This focus on individual purity detracts from the broader struggle to challenge the systems that make ethical choices inaccessible to many people. It allows individuals to feel good about their personal actions while failing to address the structural causes of exploitation. In this way, moral absolutism reinforces individualism, distracting from the collective efforts needed for real systemic change.
How Power Co-opts Feel-Good Narratives
Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of feel-good narratives and comfort politics is how easily they can be co-opted by those in power. Corporations, governments, and political elites have become skilled at using the language of social justice, sustainability, and inclusion to signal progress while avoiding substantive changes. This co-option allows them to placate activists and the public without making any real concessions, preserving the status quo while appearing socially responsible.
For instance, many companies engage in greenwashing by promoting environmentally friendly practices while continuing to exploit natural resources. Similarly, political leaders may adopt the rhetoric of racial justice while maintaining policies that perpetuate systemic racism. By using feel-good narratives to appease public demand for change, those in power can neutralize more radical critiques, preventing the kind of deep, structural transformations that would challenge their authority.
This co-option is particularly effective because it resonates with our desire for comfort and emotional satisfaction. When politics is framed as a way to feel good about ourselves, it becomes easier for powerful institutions to use these narratives to their advantage, offering symbolic gestures that create the illusion of progress without threatening their control.
The Illusion of Progress and the Need for Radical Engagement
The most insidious aspect of feel-good narratives and comfort politics is the illusion of progress they create. By focusing on small, symbolic actions—whether it’s social media activism, corporate diversity programs, or ethical consumerism—they allow people to believe that change is happening when, in reality, the deeper structures of power remain intact.
This illusion of progress leads to complacency, as individuals and institutions come to believe that incremental improvements or increased awareness are sufficient to address systemic issues. But awareness alone is not enough. Social media activism, while valuable for raising consciousness, often stops short of translating that awareness into sustained action. Similarly, diversity initiatives that focus on representation without addressing the power dynamics that create inequity ultimately fail to disrupt the status quo.
To move beyond comfort politics, we must be willing to embrace discomfort. We must confront the complexities of power, privilege, and systemic oppression and engage in the difficult, sustained work of organizing for real change. Feel-good narratives may offer temporary emotional satisfaction, but they will not bring about the deep, systemic changes needed to create a more just and equitable world.
Breaking Free from the Comfort Trap
The comfort trap of feel-good narratives and comfort politics prevents us from engaging in the real, hard work required for systemic change. These narratives offer comfort and emotional validation while preserving the status quo, distracting us from the deeper, more difficult task of challenging entrenched power and privilege.
To create meaningful change, we must move beyond the easy, comforting narratives that allow us to feel good about ourselves and instead embrace the discomfort that comes with confronting systems of power. Real progress requires sustained, collective action—organizing, policy advocacy, and challenging the structures that uphold inequality and exploitation.
If our politics always feel comfortable, it likely means we are not pushing hard enough. Only by embracing the discomfort that comes with challenging power can we hope to create the transformative change needed to build a more just and equitable world.
Free Palestine from the River to the Sea.