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Dan Goodin

@chu @ianrosewrites

Yeah, I'm sometimes reduced to tears seeing the amount of plastic spilling out of trash receptacles on trash day. Sometimes it feels so hopeless.

19 comments
sidereal

@dangoodin @chu @ianrosewrites Well… the good news is that the whole point of this thread is that the trash you see is a tiny percentage of the plastic waste you don’t see, most of which is produced by industrial processes and distribution, not individual consumers.

Their propaganda seems to have worked on you.

sidereal

@dangoodin @chu @ianrosewrites Let me attempt to put this a other way.

It is impossible for me to care very much about the consumption habits of households when I have seen how much food and plastic are thrown away at the end of every single shift at every single restaurant and grocery store. Capitalist distribution & enforced scarcity are the main drivers of pollution & waste, not individual people making suboptimal decisions.

Dan Goodin

@sidereal @chu @ianrosewrites

Yes, thanks for that. I'm going to use immense amounts of single-use plastic going forward and feel perfectly fine about it. Thanks for freeing me of the effects of this crippling propaganda.

T Chu 朱

@dangoodin @sidereal @ianrosewrites

Hey, we're on the same team here.

We have a common enemy. Eat the fucking rich.

Jay

@dangoodin @sidereal @chu @ianrosewrites The point isn’t to ramp up your own usage, it’s that the majority of the effort to reduce waste must be focused upon the corporations and governmental processes that produce the majority of that waste.

Taking away subsidies for meat and granting them to plant based meats, putting severe limits on plastic usage and breaking up monopolies cuts down significantly on individual use, too.

Dan Goodin

@WhiteCatTamer @sidereal @chu @ianrosewrites

Consumers support corporations by voting in pro-corporation politicians, eating at McDonalds, buying tons of plastic crap at Walmart, and having food delivered in cars and served in plastic containers. Here in the US, at least, governments are dysfunctional. They can't be counted on to even fund themselves. Waiting to take action only after the government cracks down on corporations is a recipe for failure. Individuals can and must feel the imperative to change their climate-destroying ways.

@WhiteCatTamer @sidereal @chu @ianrosewrites

Consumers support corporations by voting in pro-corporation politicians, eating at McDonalds, buying tons of plastic crap at Walmart, and having food delivered in cars and served in plastic containers. Here in the US, at least, governments are dysfunctional. They can't be counted on to even fund themselves. Waiting to take action only after the government cracks down on corporations is a recipe for failure. Individuals can and must feel the imperative...

Jay

@dangoodin @sidereal @chu @ianrosewrites Yes, which is why the choice should be made easier by increasing access to sustainable and plastic free items both physically and financially, and at a time when economic inequality is through the roof and a dwindling number of corporations control markets, voting with your dollar is less and less possible for any given person.

Dan Goodin replied to Jay

@WhiteCatTamer @sidereal @chu @ianrosewrites

Corporations aren't going to provide plastic-free options when consumers are perfectly content shelling out huge sums for the status quo. Definitely, some people can't afford to make changes, but huge numbers of people can . . . and don't. And they justify their inaction by saying corporations must act instead. Again, in our current political environment, the government is completely ineffectual. That isn't likely to change anytime soon. Until it does, individuals face an imperative to pick up the slack.

@WhiteCatTamer @sidereal @chu @ianrosewrites

Corporations aren't going to provide plastic-free options when consumers are perfectly content shelling out huge sums for the status quo. Definitely, some people can't afford to make changes, but huge numbers of people can . . . and don't. And they justify their inaction by saying corporations must act instead. Again, in our current political environment, the government is completely ineffectual. That isn't likely to change anytime soon. Until it does,...

Jay replied to Dan

@dangoodin @sidereal @chu @ianrosewrites Yeahhhh I think we’re going to disagree here. I do not stop the buck at the feet of the people with the least amount of power.

Dan Goodin replied to Jay

@WhiteCatTamer @sidereal @chu @ianrosewrites

What about all the people with means who say fuck it?

T Chu 朱 replied to Dan

@dangoodin @WhiteCatTamer @sidereal @ianrosewrites

Fuck the a holes who still buy gas guzzlers and water bottles in 2024.

Dan Goodin replied to T Chu 朱

@chu @WhiteCatTamer @sidereal @ianrosewrites

Careful, @chu People buying gas guzzling muscle cars and having door dash delivered to their work meetings have no other choice. After all, they have the least amount of power even though they're responsible for 2/3 of the economy. Far better to wait for a dysfunctional government to pass common sense legislation than expect these individuals to wake the hell up and make better consumer decisions. Thinking otherwise just means you've been brainwashed by the propagandists.

@chu @WhiteCatTamer @sidereal @ianrosewrites

Careful, @chu People buying gas guzzling muscle cars and having door dash delivered to their work meetings have no other choice. After all, they have the least amount of power even though they're responsible for 2/3 of the economy. Far better to wait for a dysfunctional government to pass common sense legislation than expect these individuals to wake the hell up and make better consumer decisions. Thinking otherwise just means you've been brainwashed by...

Dan Goodin

@WhiteCatTamer @sidereal @chu @ianrosewrites

Yeah, but who are the people buying all the waste the corporations produce? I realize many of those people are poor and have no other choice. But what about everybody else? I know huge numbers of people who get doordash 3x a week even though they have the means to choose more sustainable options.

Given we can't count on politicians to reign in corporations anytime soon (at least here in the US) a far more effective lever for changing corporate behavior is for those of us with the means to stop supporting these corporations. But instead, so many of these people feel perfectly entitled to their consumption of plastic, energy and other climate harming stuff because . . . .corporations.

@WhiteCatTamer @sidereal @chu @ianrosewrites

Yeah, but who are the people buying all the waste the corporations produce? I realize many of those people are poor and have no other choice. But what about everybody else? I know huge numbers of people who get doordash 3x a week even though they have the means to choose more sustainable options.

lizzzzard

@dangoodin @chu @ianrosewrites dudes. This is still a government regulation topic, not an individual once. If there's less plastic to buy, then people have less plastic in the trash.

Just look to Europe. Flaschenpfand. Public recycling facilities. Recycling quota for product producers. Obligation to take back packaging at point of sale. Trash tax. Paying for plastic bags. Limiting the amount of trash that gets taken away at trash day, etc. Lots of little nudges.

Dan Goodin

@lizzard @chu @ianrosewrites

So you really think that a country that's on the brink of electing a dictator is going to legislate its way out of a climate disaster?

CJ Paloma ...again

@dangoodin @lizzard @chu @ianrosewrites yet a country "on the brink…" is gonna go vegetarian and stop drinking water from plastic bottles on their own?

Gov regs ARE a completely valid thing to target -and very much an uphill battle, as are targeting the obscenely wealthy, who, as noted elsewhere, spew literally tons of pollutants more than most people.

Doing everything you can to target the worst excesses first and hardest is basic triage- life threatening injuries should get most attention

Dan Goodin

@cjpaloma @lizzard @chu @ianrosewrites

Nice way to put words in my mouth I never said. Come back when you paraphrase me accurately and I'll read the rest of what you wrote.

CJ Paloma ...again

@dangoodin @lizzard @chu @ianrosewrites

My message was more:

Keeping at governments to appropriately regulate corporate and military responsibility is an uphill battle and a completely valid thing to continue to do. So is targeting the HUGE excess users. So is getting ordinary people to wake up and reduce their footprints. In about that order.

basic triage says to prioritize the biggest bang for the buck, or you end up with nice stitches on a dead patient.

sorry if you took offense

lizzzzard

@dangoodin @chu @ianrosewrites no. I have low hopes for America in general. Sorry.

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