Comment on What can US citizens do to fight/prevent their country enabling genocide?
shplane@lemmy.world 1 day agoEncouraging people to vote with their wallet creates collective action. How do you think these things start? You telling people not to bother is exactly how you prevent it.
theneverfox@pawb.social 23 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 21 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 18 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
shplane@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
You can vote with your wallet by not shopping.