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Boosted by brib@bribstodon.xyz ("brib :neofox_floof: :Nonbinary:"):
Aurin_the_classtraitor@climatejustice.social (":autism: Aurin (ki, ki, kis)") wrote:
I come across the attitude a lot that "we're all complicit" and "there's no ethical consumption under capitalism" and a lot of it is focused on individualised consumer choices of poor and lower middle class people. What brand food to buy, how long to shower, what setting AC to use, that kind of thing.
I wish instead we'd talk more about complying with unjust orders than consuming things that were made via exploitation (of humans and the environment).
The toxic individualism in these debates frustrates me to no end. So does the unspoken idea that what we should reduce is our consumption* and not our COMPLIANCE.
Eating whatever food is available and nourishing and tastes good is not the problem. Trying to be comfortable is not the problem. Saving spoons is not the problem.
The problem is bootlicker-ism and compliance to unjust rules. The problem is how many people SAY they are against capitalism/the kyriarchy but then make money by being its enforcers and middle-management. The problem is how we as activists often don't invite others to see themselves as one with the oppressed and instead tell them that they're part of the problem and that they need to give up their freedoms and comforts.
But we don't need to give up freedom or comfort, we seek those for everyone! We can support a revolution by being free and lazy and comfy!
Be free not to comply. Be free not to hand over information. Be free not to worry about whether or not others follow The Rules correctly. Be free not to waste your time licking boots or talking to cops. Be too lazy to report someone. Be too lazy to work if there's a strike on. Be so comfortable in your own humanity that you can see that of everyone who is oppressed.
*focusing on individuals' consumption is steeped in puritanical values, where doing what feels good is deemed a sin and abstaining from things that feel good is virtuous. This is a fundamentally anti-human and (self-)oppressive ideology but it has seeped into much of mainstream, including many counter-cultures, even explicitly anti-religious ones.