How do I ethically consume under capitalism? Being vegan is right now one of the only ways I’m being ethical, and that doesn’t yet include buying products that have not been tested on animals. I worry sometimes.
I don’t buy a lot of non-food products, but those that I do buy I always get as second hand products from listings online, rather than from a store. Depending on the size of your city I doubt you will have a problem finding everything you will ever need.
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But veganism is a shade of more ethical consumption.
Well, IM0 veganism is more about supporting a movement that makes sense rather than trying to make consumption ethical. Even if you buy vegan products there are workers who were exploited in the production of that good, and throughout the whole process until it reached your store.
Supporting veganism or environmentally friendly ways of life is not about consuming ethically but rather transforming the way we live so that they can be applied in a post-capitalistic future [implying that this future is better than capitalism].
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That’s because veganism is not about “other species’ interests”, that movement to abolish human supremacy is called “antispeciesism”. Veganism is focused on a practice (which can be achieved for many different reasons, not all of which are ethical) not politics.
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sigh There is no ethical consumption. Under capitalism or otherwise, the most ethical thing to do is consume as little as possible
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Sure there is no ethical consume under capitalism. However, choices matter! It makes a difference if you by your stuff at amazon or in (small) local stores. If you buy chocolate, you have to look for trustful certificates/companies who do not exploit children. If you buy electronics, look out for fairer electronics. You can look for local agricultural cooperatives/commjnity-supported agriculture where you can buy your vegetables. Of course, conditionally that you have the financial capacities.
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Last resort, go to the actual dumpster
This should be first resort, not last resort. Fucking startup nation fuckers like TooGoodToGo are making a business of depriving poorer folks from their skipped food from the trash!!! It’s outrageous in the first place, but that they pretend it’s a social/ecological initiative is unforgivable because it’s wrong on sooooo many levels i don’t even know where to start (i could try to expand on that if you are curious though).
Buy local.
It’s not about the product, it’s about the people.
Hello, good question! The fact you’re troubled by how everything is fucked up around us is a pretty good sign that you’re a decent human being with a functioning heart! Unfortunately a system of extraction/refinement/production can very hardly be ethical.
See for example this article about whether manufacturing computers would be possible at all in an anarchist society.
The best we can do is consume less, as a society. As individual, there’s nothing we can do at all. Even if you buy nothing at all, our surroundings as westerners is more destructive to the environment that many people living fulfilled lives. Concrete, plastics and electronics are probably the WORST that can happen to the environment, and they’re all that our cities are made of.
Dismantling industrial capitalism and its cities is the only way forward, if you want to have a semblance of ethics. Buildings/production on a smaller scale can be very ethical, by following principles of permaculture for example. In the meantime, consuming less is a course of action, but liek i said individual action isn’t gonna cut it: forming workers/buyers cooperatives, though, can help a lot in developing autonomous infrastructures that can surpass and survive capitalism.
If there are no computers in an ideal world, and I love computers, what can I do?
Fair enough question. I’m in the same situation as you. To be honest i don’t think polluting processes like manufacturing computers should be ENTIRELY stopped. Maybe if we built more durable computing and reduced software bloat we could enjoy using the same computers for decades, not months/years? There’s more smartphones in circulation than human beings on earth, so i would argue planned obsolescence is a crime against nature/humanity.
happy cake day 🥳
/u/southerntofu and /u/dessalines same person confirmed? 🤔🤔🤔
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You can consume ethically under capitalism. Capitalism forces businesses to listen to their customers, so vote with your money! And with your actual political vote! And encourage others to do the same! Don’t expect everything to be perfectly exploitation-free.
Definitions of exploitation include “making use of and benefiting from resources” and “treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work.” These are things that are natural to occur in a money-hungry capitalist society. But they also occur in power-hungry communist governments.
Being vegan is already a huge step, there is very bad treatment for the workers in slaughterhouses and other animal product industries, and of course there is very bad treatment for the animals. Buy local when possible. Avoid products that are known to be produced under forced labor/slavery. But stop beating yourself up over it, you are doing much more than most people!
