No Stupid Questions

Not trying to gotcha you or nothing, but it's funny, that image being hosted on amazon aws.

Fuck Nestle indeed. I've been boycotting their shit since they started hawking water bottled in communities without reliable access to clean water.

That's not even just a US perspective. That definitely applies to North America in general and Europe. There are supposedly anti-monopoly laws but huh, would you look at that... it's almost like they're ineffective.

Donxc forget the other issues on supermarket chain. Which are also an oligopoly.

One of the reason why european farmer are getting angry is that they are pushed to sell at low prices by supermarket purchasing departments and see the price of their products multiplied by 10 when sold to the consumer.

Not consuming highly processed food from Nestle is doable. Not buying anything at the supermarket gets complicated unless you have money and time (and I wouldn't be surprised that many neighbourhood and organic shop still buy food through the large supermarket purchasing chain)

My local farmers market is really nice.

Nestle owns a whole lot more than what's shown on that chart.

!fucknestle@lemmy.ml

I started foraging and buying from farmers markets...

... some friends and I have been discussing a monthly meetup where we exchange around food or other things we do, like handiwork. I wonder what's involved in baking up a bunch of corn flakes that aren't made of garbage? Maybe it'd be fun to have people over and figure it out. Mix up the recipe a little each month, or pass it around between the group members.

I'm not trying to shame you like this is obvious, but I have also been thinking about "how can I escape this corporate hellscape???" and this is starting to be more the direction I'm heading.

I partly agree but I do think you have cause and effect (or disease and symptom if you will) swapped around. You‘re saying people don‘t do boycotts because they are futile. I would say it‘s the other way around and to answer OPs question, I think it largely comes down to commodity and mindlessness. But either way I think you are definitely right to suggest there must be systemic change and that all of this co2 compensation bullshit is just corporations guilt-tripping us into thinking we can consume our way out of this mess. However, the problem is that both approaches, the personal boycotts and the systemic change share a common factor, which is the requirement of mass action. If people aren‘t mindful enough to stop buying a particular kind of yoghurt, how are you ever going to get them to vote, much less stage a revolution? I think we need to get out of our passivity and boycotting things is a step in the right direction to establish a feel for personal agency.

What, haven't you all spent three months to grow one head of lettuce? Just skip breakfast for breakfast and eat cereal for dinner!

I am not a historian, but I get a sense that perhaps the intellectuals at least seemed to think that democracy (in the USA specifically, but also perhaps everywhere?) were just waiting to see how this grand "experiment" turns out. So there has practically always (since 1776 when the fire of democracy was re-ignited in the world after its long hiatus) been this expectation that we might someday fail, and each time something highly challenging comes around they likely re-visited that thought that perhaps it would be soon?

The difference is that this time, it's for real. Even if there were solves already in-place for both globalization and automation, how would climate change be dealt with? I am not saying that it's a 100% certainty - nothing ever truly is, until it has already happened - but I am agreeing with you that there seems less room for hope than ever before, that our way of life will survive intact.

I predict, for instance, that people will start demanding that their employers offer them housing. They might even start demanding longer-term contracts. In essence, they WANT slavery, as opposed to what is coming: anarchy & lawlessness. What good is "freedom" when you have no home, no job, no food, and can't do what you want anyway? This whole "government = bad" idea will cause many people to take refuge in the only other thing that offers even a glimpse of a good(-ish) life: enslavement to corporations. In return they will house, feed, and clothe you - if only barely - and you will in turn commit your very soul to looking after their needs rather than your own, including devoting every waking moment of... oh my, we are already there! (except without the "taking care of you part")

It's also because "the free market will fix it" is neoliberal bullshit that is pushed precisely because it doesn't work. It's just a way of blaming consumers for the horrifically immoral actions of corporations and they've suckered you right in.

Regulations could immediately stop Nestle using child slaves, no boycotts required.

Or at least require actual prices instead of crap like "3 for $8.00 with card". You have to read through several different fine-print prices at the very bottom of the label to find what the actual price is.

We have per weight pricing on a lot of items in The Netherlands. It's great for comparing different items when you're in the supermarket, but doesn't really work against shrinkification. You simply don't remember the price-per-kg from last week.