I think that the broadness of the term Problematic as it’s used nowadays makes it very easy for this term / framework to fit into a liberal mindset and for it to (ironically) cover up systemic oppression.
Like, mass poverty is problematic, mass incarceration is problematic, the police murdering people is problematic, invading countries is problematic, lack of representation in shows is problematic, and movements which seek to deal with these problems but have their own imperfections are also problematic.
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t heartily criticize liberatory movements, that we should ignore imperfections in favor of some bullshit ‘unity’. But by painting all of these things with the same brush, it’s easy to cast solutions as problems in and of themselves, especially those solutions which attempt to radically deal with the problems they face. Riots are problematic, boycotts are problematic, striking is problematic. Everything we do to undo our oppression is flawed in some way, problematic in some way, but in using the same word to describe both these imperfections within liberatory movements and systemic oppression, people have found a way to guard their little left liberal niche, they’ve found a social-justice-appropriate way to say that it is fine for them to tacitly support systemic oppression, because after all, everything is problematic
I’m endlessly frustrated by the way in which “problematic” has lost almost all of its original academic valence of “a thing that’s worth poking with a stick at great length” and just become a generic socjus term of derision.
The word “problematic” has become really problematic.
“Problematic” is one of those terms (”Mary-Sue” is another) that has become so overused and broad in application that all they really seem to mean is “I have issues with this thing and don’t actually want to explain what they are”.
And while I can sympathise of not wanting to explain the issues in something in great detail (particularly when they can be complicated and difficult to unravel) it means that the words themself end up so vague and generic that they are almost meaningless.
The vagueness of “problematic is pretty much a meme in itself now.