I’ve been noticing these statements that are generally true, but the reason they’re being used is to serve some other agenda. For example, “all lives matter.” Like, yeah, absolutely that’s true. However the reason why people say that is to undermine the message of black lives matter. The statements are fine in a vacuum, but they’re not said in a vacuum.

When someone says “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism” this might be a true statement, honestly I don’t know enough about the topic. However, when discussing what to and what not to boycott, this becomes a lesser of 2 evils thing. “For every device you buy, a slave is involved with its production.” I was quite surprised to find that there are no “fair-trade” electronics. So, just buy whatever electronics, no? Well sure, but there are still things you can do to decrease the number of slaves you ‘employ’ (what’s the right word for that?). This is by primarily not buying new devices all the time. A bit of a lesser of two evils situation.

Another one is coffee beans. Sure, those who harvest fair trade coffee beans are probably still underpaid, but they’re at least not literal slaves.

So, is there ethical consumption under capitalism? No, not really. The show “The Good Place” talks about this, although you have to get to the finale to see it discussed (would recommend tho). But is there slightly more ethical consumption under capitalism? Absolutely.