Re:Unwanted Corkpull
by mindslight on Thursday September 30, 2021 @12:05PM
(#28707921)
Oh, the supreme irony of cargo cult self awareness.
The author visits the entire pantheon of collective condemnations of consumerism, while never reconciling their own situation. The only things they don't like about their cork pull is its appearance and brand - by their own admission it works really well. These are relativistic social constructs that are pushed by marketers to get us to buy endless shit. You can't remain in their framework while trying to go against it! If one truly cares about the various social condemnations of consumerism, then one needs to wholly reject the foundational consumerist propaganda - a cork pull is a tool, it exists to facilitate a job, not to become part of your identity.
When you focus on functionality, the a similar core problem does still exist - items that are adequate, but somehow suboptimal. But the utilitarian metric at least gives you a framework that can converge, rather than endlessly floating in the doldrums of fashion. You can ask questions like "which of these options is most similar to items that I have used that worked well?" and "will the functionality gain be worth it", rather than falling for marketing. It also enables you to perform judgements soon after buying an item, and simply return it to the store if they've really made a piece of junk, as many things are these days.
In general, like always, the answer is to stop buying so much shit. Install adblock, don't let the (social) media tell you what you should want, and be realistic about whether you're actually going to use some item or whether you're falling for the hope of being able to use it. Doing so won't solve the world's problems, but it will minimize your part in them.
The author visits the entire pantheon of collective condemnations of consumerism, while never reconciling their own situation. The only things they don't like about their cork pull is its appearance and brand - by their own admission it works really well. These are relativistic social constructs that are pushed by marketers to get us to buy endless shit. You can't remain in their framework while trying to go against it! If one truly cares about the various social condemnations of consumerism, then one needs to wholly reject the foundational consumerist propaganda - a cork pull is a tool, it exists to facilitate a job, not to become part of your identity.
When you focus on functionality, the a similar core problem does still exist - items that are adequate, but somehow suboptimal. But the utilitarian metric at least gives you a framework that can converge, rather than endlessly floating in the doldrums of fashion. You can ask questions like "which of these options is most similar to items that I have used that worked well?" and "will the functionality gain be worth it", rather than falling for marketing. It also enables you to perform judgements soon after buying an item, and simply return it to the store if they've really made a piece of junk, as many things are these days.
In general, like always, the answer is to stop buying so much shit. Install adblock, don't let the (social) media tell you what you should want, and be realistic about whether you're actually going to use some item or whether you're falling for the hope of being able to use it. Doing so won't solve the world's problems, but it will minimize your part in them.