• theneverfox@pawb.social
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    4 days 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
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      3 days 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
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        3 days 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