I agree with this sentiment, but at the same time the only reason these companies exist is because people pay them to do what they do; therefore, individual responsibility is simply to not buy dumb shit you don’t need. Thrift stores are a great place for environmentalism, as one item purchased there is one item that isn’t made new. More people doing so will turn the economy more and more into a circular economy where goods simply change hands locally rather than created on the other side of the planet and moved to the other side of the planet.
Behind every company (or group of companies) destroying the environment, there’s a clueless consumer paying them to do it.
get outta here with your “individual responsibility” bullshit. Free market capitalism prevents such individual considerations from making a difference. So long as you’re allowed to act unethically with no cost, unethical behavior will be a common strategy. The only real way to change things is for unethical behavior to be the least profitable option for individuals, otherwise the mechanics of markets necessitate it will happen on mass.
We aren’t dealing with individual choices, but evolutionary selection pressures. If you think in terms of “individuals” or “responsibility” you’ll never come close to addressing the problem.
Honestly, I think “voting with your dollars” is equally as bullshit a propagandized myth as “environmentalism is everyones equal responsibility”. And just like the latter, I don’t mean that you shouldn’t always be trying to do the right thing for ecology when you can as an individual. I mean more that these ideas are designed to route us away from actions that can be truly effective, which strike at the root of the institutional problem, such as abolishing economic policies that create situations where corporations can externalize their waste onto the world in the first place. You simply cannot get to such a state by “dollar voting” or selective consumer boycotts. Definitely do promote living in a way that limits your individual impact, within reason, just don’t delude yourself into thinking that is any sort of solution to the issue itself. You are forced to be a liberal consumer, and so long as the institution remains, that is what you will remain. I think we have much more to gain by rallying around the common enemy of capitalism and corporatism than we do in shaming or otherwise pressuring our peers to restrict their own personal economic choices even further than they have already been. Because we really aren’t just “clueless consumers”, none of us are. We are individuals with needs, wants, fears, stresses, worries… And if we are presented with actions to take they really need to be actions that lead to meaningful change rather than ones that just cultivate self-resentment.
I agree with this sentiment, but at the same time the only reason these companies exist is because people pay them to do what they do; therefore, individual responsibility is simply to not buy dumb shit you don’t need. Thrift stores are a great place for environmentalism, as one item purchased there is one item that isn’t made new. More people doing so will turn the economy more and more into a circular economy where goods simply change hands locally rather than created on the other side of the planet and moved to the other side of the planet.
Behind every company (or group of companies) destroying the environment, there’s a clueless consumer paying them to do it.
get outta here with your “individual responsibility” bullshit. Free market capitalism prevents such individual considerations from making a difference. So long as you’re allowed to act unethically with no cost, unethical behavior will be a common strategy. The only real way to change things is for unethical behavior to be the least profitable option for individuals, otherwise the mechanics of markets necessitate it will happen on mass.
We aren’t dealing with individual choices, but evolutionary selection pressures. If you think in terms of “individuals” or “responsibility” you’ll never come close to addressing the problem.
Honestly, I think “voting with your dollars” is equally as bullshit a propagandized myth as “environmentalism is everyones equal responsibility”. And just like the latter, I don’t mean that you shouldn’t always be trying to do the right thing for ecology when you can as an individual. I mean more that these ideas are designed to route us away from actions that can be truly effective, which strike at the root of the institutional problem, such as abolishing economic policies that create situations where corporations can externalize their waste onto the world in the first place. You simply cannot get to such a state by “dollar voting” or selective consumer boycotts. Definitely do promote living in a way that limits your individual impact, within reason, just don’t delude yourself into thinking that is any sort of solution to the issue itself. You are forced to be a liberal consumer, and so long as the institution remains, that is what you will remain. I think we have much more to gain by rallying around the common enemy of capitalism and corporatism than we do in shaming or otherwise pressuring our peers to restrict their own personal economic choices even further than they have already been. Because we really aren’t just “clueless consumers”, none of us are. We are individuals with needs, wants, fears, stresses, worries… And if we are presented with actions to take they really need to be actions that lead to meaningful change rather than ones that just cultivate self-resentment.