Most of the people who do activism on something,

They post a lot of self-pity things like how they suffered in childhood or how they are suffering with so-and-so disease etc etc so that more people would become sympathetic to that person. This gives them an edge and boosts the audience for their activism. That's how they build their base.

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FreddieUK · 70-79, M

That may be a little bit cynical. Very often it is people's experience in life that drives them into a particular position over a matter and from there to become active in promoting it. Rather than 'using' their suffering perhaps they see that they can help other people avoid that suffering by being what you call 'activist'. The opposite would be passivity which is no way to change anything that needs to be changed.