“They say I’m the chosen one, so why do they complain when I destroy all their pots!? It’s not my fault that’s where they keep my rupees!”

- The Hero of Smashing Pots

  • 0 Posts
  • 14 Comments
Joined 3 days ago
Cake day: August 25th, 2026
  • WakeUpSmashPots@lemmy.todaytoComic Strips@lemmy.world•It’s That Easy [Tommy Siegel]
    1·
    59 minutes ago

    I didn’t say they “coined the term”, I said they “started the campaigns”, which I treat as a fact because it IS a fact, not an opinion, it’s an established part of our history at this point. Corporations did massive PR campaigns inundating us with advertising about saving our planet one plastic bottle at a time, and our entire culture of recycling is built off this messaging. The recycling symbol was also not created by plastic companies, but they took it and lobbied Congress into creating the plastic standards that put a strikingly similar logo on plastic that doesn’t actually mean it’s recyclable, just signifies the type of plastic, but failed to mention that, instead we just saw ads on TV telling us “look for this symbol and that means recycle!”, even today millions of people still think it means they can just toss it in the recycle bin, and it created the false impression that plastic companies are doing more than they actually are.

    The fact that the thing you’re outraged about is “maybe corporations have most of the responsibility here” is wild to me. What you’re calling my “world view” is actually just a desire for people to hold power accountable and stop licking boots and making excuses. What I’m sick of is people acting like the small guy is making excuses for not doing better when most are barely surviving out here, meanwhile mega corps are pouring their fecal matter everywhere and saying “you can clean that up one carbon step at a time!”.

    Not once did I ignore the fact that a lot of people have changed their behavior, and not once did I suggest that we shouldn’t all do our best as well, but our best on its own will literally never fix the problem, not even close to enough people recycle, or worse, have access to actual recycling. Take plastic for example, the vast majority of plastic is not recyclable from a functional standpoint, what I mean by that is most people’s local recycling plants do not have the means to recycle many of the plastics that are technically recyclable, and that’s not even to mention all the plastic that literally cannot be recycled regardless of access.

    Literally all I’m suggesting is “maybe we should focus on systematic solutions since it’s such a big problem”, and you’re acting like that’s some extremist political standpoint.

    Also I didn’t miss your last sentence, but I’m not sure if you realize, but pretending the responsibility is equally on individual people recycling and big corporations, you’re actually dismissing the amount of power and influence that corporations have when it comes to this issue.

    I’m glad you are recycling and have better habits, I do my best as well, and I have mad respect for anyone doing their best to save this planet, but let’s not pretend that even close to enough. I am only trying to get it across that we must hold corporations responsible and should not be diminishing that. If my comment came off as “who cares if individuals recycle”, then I do actually apologize as that was not what I was getting at. Even if it’s not going to change anything in the biggest picture, we should absolutely still be doing what we can on an individual basis, if anything, just out of principle.

  • WakeUpSmashPots@lemmy.todaytoComic Strips@lemmy.world•It’s That Easy [Tommy Siegel]
    1·
    2 hours ago

    This point exactly. It seems to me that a lot of people don’t really understand how profit motive works in our capitalist world. Corporations will burn the entire planet so long as the burning is far enough down the road that it doesn’t affect today’s profit projections. I find it sad, because we as a species learned quite a while back that the only way capitalism can actually work is with a strong hand steering it to make sure it doesn’t drive us right off (another) cliff. This is the entire reason for the rise of modern liberalism (not talking liberals as in Democratic party, talking liberalism as in liberal democracy, which was a political/economic movement to protect capitalism from eating it’s own tail).

    Of course this is why I’m not a liberal, I think the idea that capitalism is a beast that can be tamed is flawed, liberalism and capitalist regulations are just Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a hill. Ultimately under capitalism we have individuals with far too much power, basically kings, but instead of kings of land, kings of industry, which is actually a far more dangerous form of power, because it’s significantly more versatile and can reshape itself for survival when needed, it can even run PR campaigns to fool the populace into thinking it’s changed, when in reality it’s just the abusive narcissistic spouse convincing you to come back for another beating.

    Anyways, I digress, corporations will ONLY prioritize profits in the short term, to ensure things are built that benefit society we must have strong regulations guiding them, paired with charismatic leaders who can push back against the “wah wah baby doesn’t like big bag government” messages coming from their corporate PR campaigns, claiming “we can’t possibly survive” even though they are swimming in massive profits.

  • WakeUpSmashPots@lemmy.todaytoComic Strips@lemmy.world•It’s That Easy [Tommy Siegel]
    21·
    3 hours ago

    It’s not about some kind of petty hate for corporations, it’s about facts and reality. Systematic problems require systematic solutions. Most ordinary people are just trying to survive and will utilize whatever the lowest common denominator is at the moment.

    You realize that the “carbon footprint” and “personal responsibility” campaigns were all started by oil corporations, right? You realize all the recycling ads and “nonprofits” were started by oil and plastic companies? You realize that the anti-smoking campaigns were also run by big tobacco corporations? There’s a reason all of these ad campaigns put the responsibility on the regular person, and not the multi billion dollar corporations making the actual things and making things accessible.

    Arguments like this always sound like they’re trying to be “logical”, like “obviously everyone needs to just start doing the right thing” while completely ignoring the material reality, the “personal responsibility” argument goes completely against human psychology and leads to defeatism, “well, not enough people will start caring enough to recycle or stop using plastic, etc, so humanity is doomed anyways 🤷”. Stop defending corporations, they’re literally the ones that create the world around us that we have access to.

    Stop pretending anything other than systematic solutions will solve any of this, and systematic solutions start with public discourse, like what we’re doing right here.