You are a Consumer

[96583UP]

That is all you are to them: Consumer

[Ello Sailor]

plus I'm hungry for shit

[BurtReynolds]

I would like to purchase some ice cream today.

[spike]

I would like to purchase some ice cream today.

Have you been a good boy?

[tree_]

i am a consumer

[96583UP]

how i long to be a producer

Spoiler: show

[washing machine]

I was looking of a place to continue this discussion

Spoiler: show

Reading No Logo by Naomi Klein. Instead of firing me up and inspiring me to go out ad busting, it's just making me feel powerless and guilty.

Formative book for me, read it back when it came out. So much has changed about the corporate landscape since then -- Occupy Wall St gave way to AOC, corporate DEI initiatives have waxed and waned, Brexit/MAGA/LaPen have all metastasized into our society, US is trying to onshore its manufacturing again, and there's been an explosion in mission-driven finance.

All that to say that I'd think it's probably still a great read, but there's been enough momentum in both directions -- regressive and progressive -- that I'd take much of it with a grain of salt today

It is a page turner, that's for sure.

How did you adapt your own consumer habits back then versus now that you're a family man?

Back then I was staunchly anti-corporate whenever possible, to the point of exhaustion.

Now I view capitalism as the historically best way to increase an individual's earnings potential and access to things like housing and medicine; but fully acknowledge that the capitalist/globalist system has stepped on a lot of people, and just left others in the dust. So I am very intentional about buying from businesses that have some sort of impact element of their operation, or at the very least, allow me to see the majority of my dollars stay within my community. And of course I am working profesionally in this capacity too.

when I found this stark 96 up thread.

We are consumers and the system has closed in on us. It feels hopeless as one drives down any street and sees big box after big box sirens singing to us to buy something. Small mom and pops are more expensive, but it feels good to support them. Every once in a while I'll find a business that is worth supporting, love them for a while, then mourn them when they inevitably die.

Think about what would happen if collectively we all bought less and made our saved dollars count by keeping them in the local economy. Is that even possible or practical anymore? We only have ourselves to blame for all the beige.

[96583UP]

and it all shall fall by the grace of the people and
and it all shall fall by the grace of the people and
and it all shall fall
and it all shall fall
and it all shall fall
and it all shall fall

[spike]

It was interesting talking to Australian parents during the lead up to Halloween. It’s really only started to catch on here the last 5-10 years, but several folks said they’d still be avoiding it as it’s wasteful. The costumes, the decor, it all gets tossed out. A few kids ended up wearing costumes to kinder, but overall, the message from the school was to downplay it.

I’ve never been a big Halloween person - though I can’t deny it’s been fun with a kid the last few years - but I found the take on frivolous waste and the consumerism of the holiday refreshing from what I’m used to in the US, where the holiday is so entrenched in the culture.

That being said for Australia, plentiful Xmas crap has been in stores for weeks now. It may be worse here in that respect since there’s no Thanksgiving holiday to slow any rolls.

[96583UP]

i wonder what percent halloween candy is just thrown away

has to be like 90%

[washing machine]

Screw the Halloween haters. You're not thinking creatively enough about the anti-consumer potential. Kids need Halloween.

The costume element is my wife's time to shine. She loves flexing her theater chops making our son's costume every year. He's always the only one with a hand made costume, and for now he loves it. I do worry as he gets older whether or not he'll get self conscious being the only kid not in the flavor of the year costume bought on Amazon, but then I think that when he gets a lot older he'll fondly remember his mama's DIY pride and ethics as a Halloween tradition.

As for the candy...melt it all together and mold it into an easter bunny. Freeze it for springtime and stick it to the sugar mongers. You come to me with consumer problems, I give you solutions.

[96583UP]

what if the candy has AIDS

[spike]

Screw the Halloween haters. You're not thinking creatively enough about the anti-consumer potential. Kids need Halloween.

The costume element is my wife's time to shine. She loves flexing her theater chops making our son's costume every year. He's always the only one with a hand made costume, and for now he loves it. I do worry as he gets older whether or not he'll get self conscious being the only kid not in the flavor of the year costume bought on Amazon, but then I think that when he gets a lot older he'll fondly remember his mama's DIY pride and ethics as a Halloween tradition.

As for the candy...melt it all together and mold it into an easter bunny. Freeze it for springtime and stick it to the sugar mongers. You come to me with consumer problems, I give you solutions.

Except they don’t. My kid, and thousands of other kids, were just fine here!

But it is cool your wife does DIY costumes. What do you do with them afterwards?

[BurtReynolds]

Feels like people barely trick-or-treat anymore.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

[Bammer]

This is RM so *lobbies for thread title change to You are a white cis male heterosexual American gen x consumer”

[washing machine]

Screw the Halloween haters. You're not thinking creatively enough about the anti-consumer potential. Kids need Halloween.

The costume element is my wife's time to shine. She loves flexing her theater chops making our son's costume every year. He's always the only one with a hand made costume, and for now he loves it. I do worry as he gets older whether or not he'll get self conscious being the only kid not in the flavor of the year costume bought on Amazon, but then I think that when he gets a lot older he'll fondly remember his mama's DIY pride and ethics as a Halloween tradition.

As for the candy...melt it all together and mold it into an easter bunny. Freeze it for springtime and stick it to the sugar mongers. You come to me with consumer problems, I give you solutions.

Except they don’t. My kid, and thousands of other kids, were just fine here!

But it is cool your wife does DIY costumes. What do you do with them afterwards?

Maybe nothing is subtracted in a childhood without Halloween, but something is added when it's there. So cool to see kids in the neighborhood come together and run around.

The costumes go into the old costume inventory afterwards. When his friends come over they'll sometimes put them on and run around in the backyard. They're mostly paper maiche backpacks made into turtle and snail shells, some headgear, and some tie dye sweaters

[spike]

i can't believe BIG PUMPKIN has gotten to reid so effectively. i blame his theater kid wife; i bet she used to work shifts at the town haunted house.

[washing machine]

Orange you glad there's no Bluey Halloween episodes?

[spike]

halloween is 365 now anyway. half the kids come to school in costumes every day.