In a new digital age, politicians are finding a way to annoy their constituents better than ever.

Every politician (it seems) is on Twitter now. Ever since Donald Trump was elected president, the U.S. had another pandemic on their hands — politicians thinking they’re funny and cool for posting snarky tweets.

Full disclosure: I am a big leftie. I can’t stand the Republican Party, but this issue transcends identity politics. In fact, more democratic senators and house members take part in this utterly stupid act than the republican ones — it seems.

Especially with the impending election, Joe Biden and his elected supporters have been spamming Twitter with snarky comments about Trump. This is a picture-perfect example of empty gestures.

Instead of tweeting funny little jokes about Trump losing in November, how about you elected liberal senators get to work and try to make actual change? It’s deplorable for elected officials to constantly act like they care about the common citizen and then do nothing to fix the myriad of issues in this country right now.

Empty gestures are made by a lot of politicians all the time (look at the democrats kneeling in Kente cloth). That did nothing but embarrass anyone who voted for them.

These behaviors make it difficult to support the left, because they have the right ideas regarding social change and the way the U.S. should look, but every single time, they mess it up. They want to be good, but they also can’t escape the fact they want money and power.

One politician who uses Twitter well is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). As a younger person, she fits more on the platform. She knows how to use Twitter and seems authentic with her words, unlike these baby boomers trying to use internet slang.

AOC and other progressive politicians like Rashida Tlaib come across as genuine when they use Twitter because they fit more into the generation that uses Twitter. It’s all about relatability, something that a rich, old politicians will never have for the main audience of Twitter, which is Generation Z and millennials.

The worst part about the Twitter pandering is the willing ignorance of their power. So many times, these politicians will tweet “wow, someone should do something about this!” Yes, you should. Not someone, you. Another reason that AOC and Tlaib come across as authentic is because they tweet about the problems, then go and do something about it.

AOC is constantly fighting for her beliefs and progressive action, as is Tlaib. These other “liberals” like Biden, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren (to name a few) sit in their privilege and cast snarky tweets, pretending to make a difference in the world to get reelected year after year.

Young people need to see that these tweets and fun internet jabs are actually stoking the divide between the two majority parties more than they make change. They make politics more toxic.

In order to truly make a change, liberals have to see through the empty gestures and weak performative activism. They need to force these elected officials to actually do something with their platform, instead of taking these tweets as a signal that they’re making change.