this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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Edit: Jesus Christ, people. If you buy a $150 Thinkpad made by slave labor instead of a $1,200 MacBook made by slave labor, you're still supporting a capitalist economy based on slave labor. We all do. We have no choice. The number of smug liberals in the comments saying "well I buy a cheap used laptop" or "well I buy coffee beans and make my own coffee" are completely missing the fucking point.

Don't tell yourself your consumption is moral. All of us make unethical choices every day because there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Accept your shame and guilt and let it drive you to do better.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Both points sort of miss the mark, though the lower one moreso imo.

You don't need and $7 coffee and you don't need a $1200 laptop. You won't die without either. They are conveniences, and relying upon or expecting them is consumerism, a social manipulation tool of capitalism. Nothing is stopping you from directly opposing consumerism through your actions-- you don't need to buy their coffee, you don't need to buy their laptops.

If you're truly against late-stage capitalism, you should be exploring actions you are comfortable taking to disempower it, not complacently feed into it. Maybe make your own coffee, or quit the stuff. Maybe buy an old laptop and install FOSS software on it. Maybe just buy recently-last-gen parts second-hand and build exactly the computer you need for less money than you'd spend on something you only sort of like from a manufacturer whose monopolistic behaviors you disagree with.

All I've got to say in the end is that there are options, and doomer complacency is meaningless and counterproductive.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (2 children)

In response to your edit, there's a difference between being forced to buy products that employ slave labor and choosing to buy something that is extremely overpriced because of capitalism. Yes you need to live within the system, but that doesn't mean you buy the most expensive and wasteful version and then claim "well I had no choice!". You have choices. You're just being willfully ignorant of them and shifting the blame to someone else. Heaven forbid you become part of the solution and not just another addition to the problem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Seeing so many responses like this to the edit makes me happy. This is the intellectually consistent position imo: if you're going to take the position that "this is the world we live in" (which is valid) then you must also accept that there are degrees of consumption and actively choosing one of the worst ones without a strong rationale is less moral.

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