• theneverfox@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    11 hours ago

    No, that’s backwards. You don’t reduce plastic by recycling, you don’t change corporate behavior by not buying their stuff

    If a company loses a customer, that’s nothing. If a company has less sales, that’s a marketing problem. They aren’t going to operate more morally now, because it’s a business problem and a PR problem

    Boycotts are very different. You get a block of people together, you tell them “we’re all boycotting you because X”, and then they see it in their numbers. You do it loudly. The investors get nervous, you’ve very publicly connected the cause and effect, other businesses might join in to take advantage, etc

    You have to organize first, it’s great to shop ethically if you can, but you’re just acting as the market as a whole… Are they going to start farming more sustainably, or are they going to try to convince consumers they are? One of these things is much easier and cheaper

    If you’re organized, you can come back with “hey everyone, they’re bullshitting us, keep up the boycott”

    The dangerous part of this is that without organization, people feel like they’re fixing the problem when they’re not. It gives an illusion of control that isn’t there

    • shplane@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      8 hours ago

      Voting with your wallet can be a boycott. Seems like you’re really mincing words here and creating a false equivalent to recycling plastic that no one else is using as a comparison.

      • theneverfox@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        6 hours ago

        It’s not a false equivalence, it’s the same exact thing

        Its a lie. The lie is “you can do collective action individually”. You can’t… That’s not how any of this works

        Boycotts are real. Voting with your wallet is just shopping.

        There’s no message to it, no power - just a slice of consumers to market to differently or a need to pivot

          • theneverfox@pawb.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            33 minutes ago

            No, you can’t. You can reduce your consumption, and that’s great

            But you have to eat. You have to wear clothes. You likely have to drive and to pay rent or buy appliances. You have to buy entertainment, because honestly most everything is monitised to crazy levels.

            You can’t opt out. You can be a different kind of shopper. You can be an anomolus data point. But even if you live in a self built lean to and live as a freegan vegan, you’ve changed nothing if you’ve done it alone