Oh, but you left off the actual conclusion of the article:
Probably for the best though, as it's kind of laughable. First of all, the idea that people don't care about a particular issue just because they're not actively protesting every single instance of it is silly. And second, it repeats the classic false equivalency that protesting the actions of one group equals support for the opposing group.
I think the "instance worthy of protest" selection process tends to give away peoples' real motivation behind getting "all fired up" about one instance of something happening, but not appearing to care as much about parallel situations.
From my honest vantage point, the "global cause we'll get involved in" selection process seems to be less rooted in the actual types of things taking place, and more about "what positions can we take for the explicit purpose of opposing our domestic political rivals?"
For instance, the people marching around with flags themed after "LGBT for Palestine" (combining the two flags). The irony in that is that if one were actually living in that region, and gave a "pride theme" to the nation's flag and marched around in the streets with it, there's a good chance you'd be assaulted (or worse). In reality, they're pretending to outraged about Palestine (an area where the median political/social attitudes would make Ted Cruz look like a radical feminist in comparison) because it allows them to oppose the conservatives, and feels that it allows them sort of "sounding off" opportunity about what they see as "evil colonialism".
Ukraine/Russia situation is similar. What's happening there certainly isn't unique in the world...in fact, it's not even unique in the recent history of those two exact countries. Russia has been showing aggression toward them in the form of annexations and occupations multiple times over the past decade or two.
It wasn't until the general narrative became "Russia helped Trump win" that some people on the left became passionate Ukraine supporters who "just felt so compelled to stand up to injustice and make our voice heard!" People who, back in 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine, probably couldn't find Ukraine on a map, all of the sudden became so pro-Ukraine that they were putting up Ukrainian flags in their yards, on their cars, and on every social media profile border. It not a coincidence.
Or, perhaps the more succinct way to put it...
While, as you said, it's true that nobody has enough time in the day to protest every single injustice on the planet, and failing to do so doesn't necessarily mean "they don't care". It's conspicuous in the way they do pick the specific instances to protest, in that, they're always specifically choosing the instances that they feel help express some other personal/political narrative they have.
For example, if "Dave" branded himself as some sort of activist against weak food safety standards (and it was also well-known that Dave was a member of PETA and ardent vegan)... If, of the 3000 food safety deaths that occur each year, Dave just so happened to only find time to protest for ones involving steakhouses (and literally never protested any of the others), people would rightfully think that Dave is being a bit self-serving in selecting which ones to make time for.
