Technology
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
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First: nothing you buy will ever be free from exploitation under this system.
Second: buying one product over another will make no difference in society and the world.
Actually, this second conclusion is also a derivation of another statement: individuals do not change a society, collectives do. Boycotts, which are another attempt at conscious consumption, sometimes manage to shut down companies, but they never manage to end the harmful production pattern that these companies were applying in the first place.
And that doesn't mean we should stop consuming everything, because it's impossible to live without consuming.
In the end, conscious consumption only serves to feel good (falsely) about yourself. What is an honest reason to do something.
Ok but again, even if you think so, there are still different degrees of exploitation. Saying "nothing I buy will ever be free from exploitation" can also be used as an argument not to care about exploitation at all..
Of course it will.. You can argue that the difference it makes is so small that it is essentially 0, but it still makes a difference..
Just because you buying a more sustainably produced smartphone doesn't solve all the problems in the world doesn't mean that it has 0 impact..
No, it also demonstrates a way to improve something, even if that improvement is minuscule.. It also shows the potential issues and problems that come with it.. I would never claim that somebody buying a fairphone is changing the world, of course that would be ridiculous. Individual consumer choices indeed don't have a big impact on systemic issues.