Concentrating the dispersed - The dominant #capitalist #consumerist #authoritarian #energy #economy profits by concentrating dispersed energy sources, #solar and #wind, and redistributing the energy as a commodity. Instead, we should be using low-scale technology at the point of use, e.g. solar panels on all buildings, neighborhood wind generators, #passivesolar buildings and much more #conservation and much lower #consumption.

@SiegePerilous
Gave up cards and presents, other than for children, over thirty years ago.

#Christmas is a cancerous #consumerist waste. I wrote this short piece about the problem on my blog back in January 2005:

'Crap Gift Mountain: £881 Million of Bread Makers and Foot Spa's.

According to Radio Four this morning there are £450 million worth of unused foot-spa's and £431 million of unused bread makers languishing unused in British homes. These items, unwanted gifts, show us much that is wrong with the way we do things.

£881 million of technology, human effort, scarce resources, all wasted. Of course, this is just bread makers and foot-spa's. Think of all the other unwanted gifts and you start to get to very scary numbers. The resource waste is the most appalling aspect. The manufacture of many of these gifts uses energy, water, plastics - oil and precious metals. These are all scarce resources which could, without exception, be used to great benefit elsewhere.

Gift-giving is about the ego of the giver. Presents are bought to support the self-image of the buyer. This is why they are so often wrong for the receiver. Will your gifts end up on the ever expanding "Crap Gift Mountain"?'

> .. #TheMarket cannot guarantee integral human development and social inclusion.. we have “a.. ‘superdevelopment’ of a wasteful and #consumerist kind which forms an unacceptable contrast with.. ongoing.. #dehumanizing deprivation”.. while we are.. too slow in developing economic institutions and social initiatives which can give the poor.. access to basic resources.. our.. failures.. have to do with the direction, goals, meaning and social implications of technological and #EconomicGrowth.

"The ‘society of consumers’, in other words, stands for the kind
of society that promotes, encourages or enforces the choice of a #consumerist lifestyle and life strategy and dislikes all #alternative cultural options; a society in which adapting to the precepts of consumer culture and following them strictly is, to all practical intents and purposes, the sole unquestionably approved choice; a feasible, and so also a plausible choice – and a condition of #membership."

(Bauman, Consuming life)

@realcaseyrollins
True, maybe there is an entire set of Fediverse that hides itself away with temporary posts that only last for 24 hours. They scramble little notes among themselves but never dare look beyond the nest.

We did see an instance like that actually once, it was awful, very #consumerist and #tabloid-driven, with #bigBrands and celebrity etc. Extremely media heavy with bots feeding #clickBait articles.

There really is a fediverse instance for everyone out there.

@VGM
By swapping the word "#consumer" with "corporate" or "#consumerist", it might make sense. How do they define "#consumerInterests"? *wink

@zorotl
#FederalReserve, rather.

One of our favourite documentaries that shows how we were slowly transformed from citizen to #consumerist is 'The Century Of The Self' by Adam Curtis (2002).

It was largely produced before 9/11, so it has journalistic integrity that isn't seen anymore.

https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=DnPmg0R1M04

3/3

Maybe they exist as a #warmBranklet, "Remember these productions, these are the fruits of the #consumerist #westernSociety we created. Don't you still #love them!?"

"Don't you still love these #celebrities we #elevated, just for your #entertainment while we were out pilaging the #earths resources under the pretense of #humanitarian aide?"