I am sick of the people being blamed for what has been propagandized into them. Companies have spent enormous amounts of money framing and controlling the narrative in public discourse. They have also spent enormous amounts of money bribing politicians and gaining influence in government. There is no sense blaming the people. The people must create change, but let’s not act like it was their fault to begin with.
The part of the equation that can change, is the consumer variable.
No. I mean yeah, but we can change in so many more ways. that matter more. I think we need a multitude of approaches.
You can get active politically. Call your representative. Help get a better one elected if you can help out (and keep an eye out for a better one next time). You can learn to have those difficult conversations with friends, neighbor and family if you are good at that.
Not all of those work for everyone. Some will swear up and down that direct action is better than getting involved in local or provincial/state elections. Then do that which you think will work.
As far as consumption goes, I tend to think withholding your consumption won’t do much (there are plenty of people who don’t care who will keep consuming, and we will look like a rounding error). However, I think support for alternatives matter more (whether they be habits which we spread in the population, or alternate products, like legumes instead of meat. Which I guess is also kind of promoting a habit. By forming communities that live our values, we can cause other people to be exposed to them and see how it can work out in practice. Hence eating more vegan foods bring those out. My hope is that such movements (and sometimes, as for vegan foods, markets) will grow exponentially at some point if it catches on.
You are wrong. Yes, companies have spent billions to manipulate the public, but the actions of consumption and the willingness to tolerate even small change is on the people. We don’t get to pretend that just because there are corporate involvement, that we are morally immune for it - especially when we still tolerate little change and take little action and little sacrifice even after we know it.
How were you able to post this comment? Did you use any technology to do so? Any devices or equipment? Did you or someone else buy those devices or equipment? Are you, right now, in the process of consuming this content via your consumption of this technology and these devices?
Hypothetically, if everyone decided right now to stop buying as much as possible, it would take years of companies continuing to manufacture and try to push these items on us. that’s also a lot to consider that everyone could drastically change their lifestyle like this. What would an in-between look like? If we are currently buying phones as they come out, and on the other extreme, we could just all use ham radio to talk to one another using a station that we maintained over our lifetime, I imagine an in-between might be buying a phone and using it well past it’s planned lifetime if possible via rooting and trying to install a light-weight OS.
People need to eat and live in shelter to survive. Living off the land requires owned land to live off of. Some of the things we want to buy and use are the things that make life easier or worth living.
Plastic packaging has issues but climate change is not one of them.
Shipping also isn’t impactful at all. Most shipping emissions happen when the product moves to the store, not when it sails in a container ship.
Based on your post, the main evil of the corporations is manipulating the media, confusing people with things like abolishing plastic straws (which are very efficient at what they do).
Eating beef, owning a car and buying unnecessary stuff (for example those bottled drinks) are huge. They easily make up half of a persons emissions. An accurate measure is hard because of secondary effects like needing less road with fewer cars.
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I am sick of the people being blamed for what has been propagandized into them. Companies have spent enormous amounts of money framing and controlling the narrative in public discourse. They have also spent enormous amounts of money bribing politicians and gaining influence in government. There is no sense blaming the people. The people must create change, but let’s not act like it was their fault to begin with.
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No. I mean yeah, but we can change in so many more ways. that matter more. I think we need a multitude of approaches.
You can get active politically. Call your representative. Help get a better one elected if you can help out (and keep an eye out for a better one next time). You can learn to have those difficult conversations with friends, neighbor and family if you are good at that. Not all of those work for everyone. Some will swear up and down that direct action is better than getting involved in local or provincial/state elections. Then do that which you think will work.
As far as consumption goes, I tend to think withholding your consumption won’t do much (there are plenty of people who don’t care who will keep consuming, and we will look like a rounding error). However, I think support for alternatives matter more (whether they be habits which we spread in the population, or alternate products, like legumes instead of meat. Which I guess is also kind of promoting a habit. By forming communities that live our values, we can cause other people to be exposed to them and see how it can work out in practice. Hence eating more vegan foods bring those out. My hope is that such movements (and sometimes, as for vegan foods, markets) will grow exponentially at some point if it catches on.
deleted by creator
You are wrong. Yes, companies have spent billions to manipulate the public, but the actions of consumption and the willingness to tolerate even small change is on the people. We don’t get to pretend that just because there are corporate involvement, that we are morally immune for it - especially when we still tolerate little change and take little action and little sacrifice even after we know it.
How were you able to post this comment? Did you use any technology to do so? Any devices or equipment? Did you or someone else buy those devices or equipment? Are you, right now, in the process of consuming this content via your consumption of this technology and these devices?
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deleted by creator
Hypothetically, if everyone decided right now to stop buying as much as possible, it would take years of companies continuing to manufacture and try to push these items on us. that’s also a lot to consider that everyone could drastically change their lifestyle like this. What would an in-between look like? If we are currently buying phones as they come out, and on the other extreme, we could just all use ham radio to talk to one another using a station that we maintained over our lifetime, I imagine an in-between might be buying a phone and using it well past it’s planned lifetime if possible via rooting and trying to install a light-weight OS.
People need to eat and live in shelter to survive. Living off the land requires owned land to live off of. Some of the things we want to buy and use are the things that make life easier or worth living.
deleted by creator
Plastic packaging has issues but climate change is not one of them. Shipping also isn’t impactful at all. Most shipping emissions happen when the product moves to the store, not when it sails in a container ship.
Based on your post, the main evil of the corporations is manipulating the media, confusing people with things like abolishing plastic straws (which are very efficient at what they do).
Eating beef, owning a car and buying unnecessary stuff (for example those bottled drinks) are huge. They easily make up half of a persons emissions. An accurate measure is hard because of secondary effects like needing less road with fewer cars.
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Word salad, my fav, I’m convinced.