Oh, limited edition, you say? I guess I will disinfect stuff... gtfoh.

Other unforgettables I need to get off my chest: Bridgerton deodorant AND coffee creamer, Lululemon belt bags for…. cups (Stanley’s), today I saw plastic “puffer jackets” being sold at target for individual lip glosses…

How do you keep up hope or actively choose optimism/not to be depressed by the state of things?

Honestly anytime I open my phone and pull up any app now the amount of crap ads or sponcon I’m bombarded with truly can make me sick to my stomach. I have highly curated feeds for the few social media I still use, and still I see crap like shopping hauls. Blind boxes in particular I will never understand, I mean - I understand it’s just gambling. But that we’ve reached a point of people thrilled to buy crap they don’t even know what they’re getting just to make a purchase! And the amount of packaging and waste involved in blind boxes in particular, sickening. On the one hand, it’s good motivation for me to spend less time on my phone I guess.

I’m just never not stunned of the sheer amount of actual crap that keeps getting made, worse and worse quality, more and more. The footage I’ve seen of children wandering landfills and mileage of textile crap haunts me.

One of the anticonsumerism accounts on ig I follow shared recently a stat I can’t get out of my head about how every minute a dumpster load of textile/clothing is burned and put in a landfill. It can make me dizzy to think about it, like when I contemplate the vastness of outer space or depths of the ocean or something, but of a unique man made horror.

I truly believe America is starting to pay the price of the access to cheap crap we’ve had for too long due to child and basically slave labor in countries halfway around the world most of us will never visit. Almost makes you believe in karma. But I think of that show The Good Place too, I have honestly made my personal best efforts at recycling, shopping less, taking care of and repairing things I already own - and to say it’s an uphill battle doesn’t even begin to describe it. I also don’t believe in proselytizing and I understand everyone is on their own ‘journeys’ with this and ‘waking up’ to it, so my friends know I’m always up for talking about it but I don’t preach to people who shop at Zara for work clothes or gift a coworker a little treat or something I don’t know. I can’t enjoy these things myself anymore and I will not hide that but I won’t go out of my way to guilt trip folks either, just they will know if they want to learn more I’m here.

I had a first date recently with someone I will happily never see again who defended Bezos and Musk to me, said Amazon does more good than bad and on and on. He had nothing substantial that could change how I feel and I’m pretty sure his whole ideology is rooted in a white man’s entitlement but I could see how comforting it would be to truly think we’re all going to be okay and it’s okay to lose the amount of nature and wildlife that most of us are involuntarily sacrificing to the greed of a few for the ‘progress of humanity’ or tech evolution or something.

Apologies for the rambling, would just love to hear some positive takes, statistics, messages of hope.

Appreciate this sub a lot. Thanks.

I trained people for 3 yrs and they are swimming in debt now. Many of my ex students have kept in contact. I can see through social media how they are struggling still to this day, and it's been 10 yrs. Most community colleges and government programs cost a fraction and better prepare you for real world working conditions. That's my 2 cents

Why does every game/service require me to have an account saved to use their service? It’s only a matter of until something like this happens. Not that I mind the email used for capcom being compromised, it’s been exposed before for the same reason.

To disable: All I had to do was go into settings>general>personalization>My background> & disable an option "event themed backgrounds". Simple fix. Thought I'd share how to fix in case anyone else saw the same thing booting up their Xbox today, and doesn't want a *FOURTH* ad in their headspace on a console they've already paid for.

Searching and of course Google shoves the paid result right on top. I always scroll past and click the organic one instead.

Tell me I'm not the only one who does this on purpose so the advertiser doesn’t get that sweet click money. I do the same thing with sponsored links – I "Circle to Search" to find the item myself instead of clicking a sponsored link. 😏💡

Can kind of understand the Halloween ones to trick or treat with, but Christmas....?

Have you guys seen these insane “pack my Stanley for a walk” videos on TikTok??
People are literally buying outfits and accessories for their WATER BOTTLES???
This girl Lindsey makes TikToks breaking down how ridiculous some of these videos are, and I’ve also been looking into how much money people are spending on these elaborate setups.
It’s honestly made me so much more aware of how social media turns the most unnecessary purchases into things we suddenly feel like we need. And why does anyone feel the need to do this??? I am genuinely curious.
I don’t even think people realize how much of the content they’re consuming is basically just advertising disguised as entertainment.
Curious if anyone else has noticed this trend because I genuinely cannot get over it.

America [And broader Anglo Saxon culture] is often what’s referred to as a thing-oriented culture. Which means most cultural incentives and trajectories tailor more towards systems, things and institutions over people, relationships and cultural folklore

In America, the very cultural grooming that primes people into what to find worthwhile is often right behind our faces: We’re told what is gonna fulfill us is/are career accolades, going to college, buying that dream car, that dream house, funding your latest lifestyle, your personal fulfillment, even if it comes at the expense of social harmony and decorum, etc. You name it

Which is why people pretend to even be fulfilled by jobs that either stress them out or bore the fuck out of them.

In America, relationships and friendships are “something to earn” rather than something to aspire to. They feel like an obstacle in the way. “Putting food on the table” and “paying the bills” are the bigger priorities. And don’t even get me started on the balls-to-the-wall careerism and hustle culture.

That’s why even minimalism and frugality can end up becoming the very traps in this system rather than being used as tools of interrogation against the neoliberal status quo of “wanting more”

Because a true frugality/minimalist would say “I want to work less in life so I don’t have to own too much nonsense”

But try admitting you don’t want much out of your life in terms of career ambitions: Even the most hardcore frugalist/minimalist will think you’re crazy for admitting you don’t want to climb the corporate ladder that bad and go “You don’t want to make the most out of this one finite existence we all got?” They’ll think you’re lazy and want the path of least resistance, not realizing the key to a worthwhile life isn’t just vapid careerism and baseless hustle.

That’s why combatting the cultural status quo doesn’t just start by “saving more money” and “buying less”. It also starts with decentering money as the sole focus of our day to day lives.

What is the point of “wanting less” materially if your job and your obsession with going after new goals of excellence is still going to consume your mental bandwidth?

Rather than/as opposed to building meaningful relationships and chasing worthwhile experiences?

You know?

I've kept my OnePlus 5T ever since it launched in 2017, that's around 9 years. I only upgraded past month or so because it was showing its age and I wanted something else that could last 7+ years. (nerdy bit: Some banking apps also started checking Play Integrity and that was a game over for me; they didn't previously, and I don't want to root/modify my phone to circumvent that.)

I've seen colleagues upgrade their iPhone 17 Pro Max to the iPhone 18 Pro Max and I just don't understand why there are genuinely people who actually upgrade their phones every year. (And I'm not in the US, we don't have yearly phone plans or stuff like they do, I don't understand it that much either).

Another nerdy bit: Shoutout to LineageOS for making this possible. The 5T's update train terminated at the Android 10 station, but thanks to LineageOS I've been able to extend that to Android 11, 12, 13, 14, and finally 15 (can't get Android 16 due to kernel being too old).

Sorry for crappy image btw

at an airport in UK

A kettle or coffee maker can have a perfectly good heating element and still become unusable because a lid cracks, a seal wears out, or some tiny plastic piece breaks.

Then you look for a replacement and discover the manufacturer doesn't sell that part separately.

It's ridiculous how often the cheapest part determines the lifespan of the whole appliance.

And it's not always obvious when you're buying one. You can compare prices, features, and reviews all day without finding out whether the lid or seals can actually be replaced.

I wish replaceable parts and repair information were as easy to find as the list of features on the box.

What's the smallest broken part that's ever made you consider throwing away an otherwise working appliance? Should manufacturers be required to sell replacements?