Edit: Jesus Christ, people. If you buy a $150 Thinkpad made by slave labor instead of a $1,200 MacBook made by slave labor, you’re still supporting a capitalist economy based on slave labor. We all do. We have no choice. The number of smug liberals in the comments saying “well I buy a cheap used laptop” or “well I buy coffee beans and make my own coffee” are completely missing the fucking point.
Don’t tell yourself your consumption is moral. All of us make unethical choices every day because there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Accept your shame and guilt and let it drive you to do better.
I also get annoyed when people criticize when wealthy people support leftist causes. Like, yeah, Bernie Sanders (or whoever) has a lot of money, so the fact that he isn’t blinded to injustice by his own privilege is a good thing.
I forget who said it, but…
“When I was poor and talked about greed and poverty, they said I was jealous, now that I’m rich and talk about greed and poverty, they call me a hypocrite… I’m starting to think they just don’t want to talk about it.”
Russel Brand
Unfortunately he has gone full conspiracy grifter at this point, but he does have a way with words and he has used it to say some good things in the past.
Nobody wants to admit it, but the reality is it’s natural to everyone, we all want both external freedom, the power to change the world with money, and internal freedom, to feel that ones conscience is in harmony with the universe
The difference is Bernie doesn’t wear a large diamond encrusted gold necklace spelling out “Socialism” in large letters.
A Macbook and Starbucks are fashion statements.