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Thinking of your post on the problems of veganism as a movement vs veganism as a lifestyle choice/one technique amongst many, that also applys super well to my issues with degrowth (And anticonsumerism as well) as a movement vs degrowth as one technique amongst many for dealing with the hydra-crisis of overproduction/resource overuse/destroying people and places for resources.

Like, in particular as an autistic person the continual recurring insistence that we need to just "change our desires" creeps me out. As someone who's difficulties were dismissed as just "having a bad attitude" and who's interests were so often dismissed as a waste of time instead of preparing for a job in the "real world" IDK if they truly understand the full horrifying implications of that line of thought.

So here's the thing with the concept of "overconsumption"

I had to do this whole project on overconsumption in my Anthropology class where I compared my consumption habits to those of someone 2 generations older, the prof clearly had in mind that we would discover a particular result that I did not end up finding.

I had to watch this documentary called "Affluenza" which was all about how Americans consume too much and they shop and buy things for fun and it's killing the planet, and it kept making these statements like "The average american does X..." and "X" would be something insane that I've never dreamed of doing.

Now I technically grew up below the poverty line, we were always financially insecure and struggling to pay bills and there was never any extra money lying around.

But my upbringing felt average, even privileged. We had a house instead of a trailer on cinder blocks, we had food and clothes. Compared to the upbringing of my mom and virtually everyone she knew growing up, we lived in fabulous luxury.

And the "overconsumption" lesson was bizarre to me because it brought up things like "going shopping for fun once a week" and "owning 20+ pairs of shoes" as if they were normal. I wear my clothes until they're unwearable and shop for clothes like once a year, and my mom has half as many clothes as I do. She feels guilty buying anything for herself and HATES shopping.

It feels like the dominant resources on living an eco friendly lifestyle presume that we have far more agency in what we buy and use than we actually do, instead of being stuck with the cheapest or closest available thing, and that our lives are full of extraneous, non-essential "consumption."

That class brought up the idea of "conspicuous consumption" a lot, or buying things to obtain social status instead of for their concrete utility. The way "conspicuous consumption" was addressed in the class was not very immediately relatable to me—I never had the option of buying clothes just to appear "with it" socially. My parents couldn't buy an extra car to fit the aesthetic of the American dream—we had enough trouble keeping the one we had running. The "conspicuous consumption" that class addressed was just not available to me.

However, I don't think conspicuous consumption is endemic to stable members of a certain socioeconomic status, because consumption is partially driven by the trauma of poverty. People who grew up poor will buy you more Christmas gifts than you can store or use, because they want to spare you the shame they experienced. Their brains are molded around the trauma of not having enough, and giving you enough is their way of keeping you safe.

Conspicuous consumption as a habit is pushed on you if your ancestors were shaped by this trauma. It is a misrepresentation to think of it as driven by pride, because your ability to perform the behaviors and mimic the appearances of a higher socioeconomic status has a concrete effect on how people treat you.

I know J.D. Vance is a nutjob now and Hillbilly Elegy was...not great (I'm more appalachian than you bitch, and I'm not even appalachian!) but the one thing that book got incredibly right was the idea of "social capital" and the way access to financial security and wealth gives you social capital. This is the main thing the current understanding of "conspicuous consumption" gets wrong—the need to escape the appearance and behaviors of poverty is seen as vain and self-indulgent, when it's a survival mechanism and it's something you're expected to engage in to gain opportunities and respect.

Poverty is humiliating. People with money never think about the fact that they have money. They think of themselves as average, if they think of themselves in terms of socioeconomic status at all. Being poor ends up embedded in the grooves and folds of your brain.

I remember when I was about 12, I gave my friend an informal tour of our house the first time she came over, showing her every room. I realized later that this wasn't exactly a normal behavior—I had done it because my mom did the same thing when she brought her friend over, and my mom had done it because it was a way of saying look, I survived. Look, I have a place to live to call my own, isn't this nice?

At its worst, anti-consumerism just reinforces the myth that your consumption is purely a matter of personal choice. And unfortunately when the conversation is ruled by the privileged, this idea will appear substantiated—because rich people can choose the aesthetics of poverty without concretely affecting the way the world treats them. A rich person can choose to live in a "tiny house" but they will never be "trailer trash."

Anti-consumerism revolves around ideas that are almost irreparably tainted by the mythology of an unequal society. Rich people possess and control the aesthetic of restraint and frugality, allowing them to playact living a Simple Life where they live in a tiny minimalist cottage and eat Healthy Vegan Oat Gruel, while McDonalds is the emblem of American excess. It is poor people's behaviors and habits that exemplify excess and greed.

Anti-consumerism isn't going to change anything until it openly confronts the fact that poverty is traumatic and consumption patterns often arise from poverty survival mechanisms.

get off ur phone☆ . °🎀

we live in a time where overconsumption is normalized, however it isn’t normal at all. spending countless hours scrolling on ur phones is NOT healthy and will never be in any sense healthy.

especially in such a busy time to be alive, we always feel as though we have to be DOING something to be productive, but sometimes doing nothing is more productive.

when i say doing nothing, i mean taking time to sit with ur own thoughts. most ppl nowadays have grown an addiction to the dopamine that u get from using ur phone/computer. because of this they don’t truly KNOW themselves.

some ways that u can start STOP overconsuming is by paying attention. become conscious of when you are over consuming. some ppl put time limits on the apps on their phone. what i do personally is i take 10 minutes to just sit alone with my thoughts. no distractions, just me and my thoughts.

with countless distractions we end up missing out on the experiences of life. we aren’t truly LIVING. and because of this we miss out on time that we cannot get back.

idk about yall but im boycotting for LIFE. there r other coffee shops, there r other places for me to get food, and i certainly dont need the new iphone. and lets not stop at boycotting unethical brands. I like to think i was already a consious consumer, but im stepping it up. Im thinking LONG AND HARD about buying anything non essential. we ALL NEED TO STEP IT UP. you do not need that new throw pillow. new sweater. new mug. new candle. new lipstick. new whatever. STOP BUYING SO MUCH SHIT!! IT WILL NOT FILL THE VOID INSIDE YOU!! WE HAVE SO MUCH POWER IN WHO WE GIVE OUR MONEY TO!!

oh my god, i hate bookstagrammers/booktokers

look me in the eye and tell me that this isn't overconsumption 💀 (you're lying, or incredibly blind)

im so mad rn i dont trust myself to talk so i'll show some ss of the comments

these book girlies will defend literally anything (including DESTROYING THE ENVIRONMENT) as long as it fits their quirky book aesthetic.

By this logic, fast fashion is acceptable and cool and cute as long as the buyer wears every single item once in their life. And, sure, she might indeed read all these and cherish them etc etc but she's glorifying the culture here. what happens when all of her followers follow in her footsteps and impulsively buy 100 books because their favourite bookstagrammer made it seem cool? how many trees will we have left????

the worst part is that 95% of the comments are PRAISING HER! going as far as to say "proud of you" and "i wish i could do this" ???? HELLO???

the 5% who speak up are met with the flimsy argument "its not overconsumption if she reads all of them!" (which i have alrdy countered above) OR they say "stop judging" (tf? we're literally caring about the environment here 💀)

AND.

"whats wrong about buying art? we're supporting the authors!🥺" it's not wrong to buy art/books. however, it IS wrong to buy 100 books at the same time and GLORIFY it, on an account with tons of followers which are bound to idolise your actions and do the same

not to mention that she got these from amazon 💀

anyone who disagrees, FIGHT ME.

One of the most annoying things about the Stanley cup trend is you know 5-8 years from now someone on social media will do a video essay about how "people only hated this cup because because girls like it/misogyny" and everyone's gonna uncritically nod their heads like sheep.

I enjoy putting on makeup every morning.

I keep a skincare routine.

But I don’t let them take over my life.

I shouldn’t have to put on sunscreen in the dead of winter on Sadness Island, when the sun rises so late and sets so early that I get dressed in the dark, then walk home in the dark, just in case a single ray of light touches my skin and makes me look a single day older.

I shouldn’t have to buy retinol serum or a second concealer or skin laser or a silk pillowcase in the hope that if I throw enough money away on the right crap, I will become an unaging supermodel.

And when I grow old enough to consent to plastic surgery, I shouldn’t have to get injections and tucks and fillers that, just two decades ago, were considered only for the over-fifties or the excessively vain.

I shouldn’t have to live in fear of being anything other than perfect.

!new quiz alert!

hope u guys enjoy this one too :)

Consumerism is annoying and quite unsettling

So tell me about your fave thing that you've owned for a long time.

I'll start:

I've had these headphones for around two years and yeah ik that's not that long, but I use them every day and I love them sm (also I dropped them in the sea once and they still work)

So, I've been doing a low buy/no buy yarn challenge for around a month now. I have over $1000 of yarn that's just...sitting in my room at any given time due to all the donations I've been blessed with, and it's been getting to me just how much I have sitting there. Sure, I crochet for a living, but I don't thinn having this much around me encourages me to experiment as much as it may seem.

So, I made a challenge for myself until at least the end of the year. No buying yarn for myself unless it's to finish a project I started prior to this challenge or if it's for a custom order that requires specific materials due to customer requests. I can still accept donations and gifts, since I help allocate resources for other crafters near me, but I can't go out of my way to get myself stuff.

Now that I'm one month in, I've looked back on my behavior this past month and realized just how bad my impulse yarn shopping is.

I finish a big project? I want to celebrate by buying yarn.

I get a custom order that I already have the yarn for? I want to go buy new yarn anyways.

I manage to meet some store management deadlines I set for myself? I want to reward myself with more yarn.

I had a really rough day and had a PTSD episode? I want to comfort myself by buying more yarn.

It's insane to realize how instinctively I reach for consumerism as a coping mechanism. I don't need any more yarn. I have more than enough, even if it is my job. It's kind of scary seeing how badly this impulse has affected me, but it's also for the best I realized it now versus it getting worse down the road.

To help with reducing these urges, I've been avoiding haul videos. On one hand, I look at them and see excess consumption, on the other, I see a bunch of products I'm tempted to buy. It's a weird dichotomy, to be sure.

I'm not even sure why I'm sharing all of this on here besides to acknowledge that I'm trying, even if it is to the void that is Tumblr 😅

Just remembered why I hate shopping at the mall. The 100% polyester tag on every piece of clothing makes me want to gouge my eyes out.

the death of well-defined subcultures in favor of marketable aesthetics has restricted our access to community and stripped our youth of the ability connect with each other in a way that doesn’t revolve around overconsumption. in this essay i will-

Theres so much more satisfaction in getting an article of clothing you’ve wanted for so long. Its so much better to get that one band shirt thats been your biggest iso for months or years than a haul of 7 shirts from hot topic. I’ll buy a shirt for $40 secondhand and be more satisfied with it than 2 brand new ones for that price. I love when someone compliments my shirt and i can say “thanks i wanted it for so long until i found it!

I wrote about why the classism argument is a failed one when it comes to buying tons of fast fashion

Okay, I know a lot of you are going to be REALLY ANGRY at this. And that's fine. But let's talk about affordability of cheap clothes. Whenever activists and experts tend to critique the fashion industry, people who can afford to buy better (or buy less!) get caught up behind the argument of affordability. But poor people aren't the ones buy $300 hauls to parade around on social media. When folks are talking about buying better or buying less, we're talking to the people who have the ability of choice. It's not normal to buy several items of clothing a month, and clothing shouldn't be this cheap. (And what I mean by cheap is like your $1.91 shirts on Shein.) If you really care about poor people, think about the 60 million garment workers globally — the majority of whom make poverty wages and work in terrible conditions. Overconsumption has consequences for them and for our planet, as well. I'm not saying it's our job to fix fast fashion. Governments need to create better laws, and brands shouldn't wait for regulations to do the right thing. In the meantime, we don't need to continue putting our dollars behind the worst of the worst.

while apple vision pro may seem cool or futuristic. it also kind of scares me due to the lack of eye contact. the capitalistic bourgeoisie can’t see that this isn’t technology advancing in a way that’ll help us. people keep comparing it to phones. but you can look up from a phone. you can put a phone down. the ones doing it in public just seem shallow i guess. next to each other but not really interacting with each other. pressing imaginary buttons in the air. now bring in AI and elon’s neuralink. now think about the genocide in congo. think about cobalt.

I’ve gone through this cycle throughout the course of my life where:

When I was a kid I had this unconscious, near instinct-level desire to go into the woods whenever I was upset. This led my little child brain to decide when I’m older I’m just gonna disconnect from society, retreat into a cottage in the woods, then I’ll be happy forever because the woods make me happy!

Then I went through my pessimistic tween years and also the adults around me started seriously reacting to that plan and I was taught that that’s kinda stupid and more work then it’s worth. And people like living near stores and civilization so I’ll probably hate it.

NOW in university I’m learning more about consumerism and destruction caused by overconsumption and yup! Little me had a point! And I honest to god do not care how close I live to a big shopping centre or whatever. I need a grocery store to get my basic needs met and I legitimately think it would be good to live that way so that getting anything indulgent is out of my way.

TLDR little me was right, tween me was pessimistic and shouldn’t have listened to discouragement, and nothing anyone can say can stop me from attempting to escape this capitalist hellscape via living deep in the wilderness.