consumerism

GDP versus Lasting Growth Rooted in Love

In what feels like a throwback to another era, banks and big business are once again talking about ‘growth’, and economic development. Both of which amount to the same thing to the men and women of money – profit. After over a year of utter turmoil, death, illness, heartache, social and economic lockdowns, some nations […]
The post GDP versus Lasting Growth Rooted in Love first appeared on Dissident Voice.

Star Trek: Progressivism and Corporatism Don’t Mix

The television series Star Trek has appeared in several iterations with a few handfuls of movies thrown in that have fired the imaginations of viewers of all ages for nigh 55 years. In particular, Star Trek captured the viewership of many progressives because Star Trek was much more than science-fiction intrigues or the swashbuckling adventures […]

The Explosion of Choices

Barack Obama wore only blue and grey suits during his tenure in the White House, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs sport the same clothes day after day. When rational individuals aim at maximizing their utility,  choices become imperative to maximize satisfaction and in turn to heighten ones happiness. Then, why these highly successful people restricted their choices in clothing? Not[Read More...]

Washing Away One Trail of Tears After Another

White Washing: According to one Merriam-Webster definition, to whitewash is to “gloss over or cover up,” which, in a sense, is what the racial form of whitewashing does. It creates a White world where sins against people of color, including Blacks, Native Americans, Asians, Latinos, and other minority groups cease to matter because, in revisionist […]
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True Cost

A week back while I sat in the car waiting for my father, outside the branch of a commercial bank, I noticed a young man walking on the pavement. He was drinking soda from a green, plastic bottle that he thoughtlessly chucked at the corner of the pavement after chugging the soda in a hurry. I watched the urgency in[Read More...]
The post True Cost appeared first on Countercurrents.

How consumption is the core of the climate change problem, and the decline in climate activism

Looking back at the climate change movements for the past couple of decades, it is easier to notice the role of governments and corporations of the Industrial era, in triggering the massive climate change effect. When it comes to main causes of climate change and global warming, more than often, fossil fuels, chemical affluent and pollutants are the usual suspects.[Read More...]

Debunking the “Opium of the People” Maxim: Football is about Politics and Class Struggle 

Noam Chomsky is right when he says that, in the US, sports creates the necessary “fantasy world” required to shield people from understanding, organizing, and attempting to “influence the real world”. Referring to sports commentary and phone-in shows, Chomsky, in an interview with AlterNet, marveled at the intellectual and analytical skills of people engaged in […]

Charter School Disinformation About “Choice”

Perhaps no other word is more central to charter school discourse than the word “choice.” “Choice” is not only a central concept in charter school discourse but a persistent source of disinformation. Disinformation refers to the deliberate hiding of the real context and relations of things so as to disorient people and cause them to […]
The post Charter School Disinformation About "Choice" first appeared on Dissident Voice.

How Biden Flubbed Town Hall Foreign Policy Question

Toward the end of Joe Biden’s October 15 town hall session, a Trump supporter asked Biden the only foreign policy question of the night. “So peace is breaking out all over the world,” the questioner claimed. “Our troops are coming home. Serbia is talking to Kosovo. And the Arabs and Israelis are talking peace, which […]
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Plastic Meets the Road and Capitalism’s Role in Climate Change

Earth Day & Capitalism Like Vinegar and Oil?
Continuously, discussions focusing on degraded ecosystems and tipping points forcing climate change to ramp up to chaos many times center around the “C” word.
Not “c” as in “cancer.”
“Capitalism is destroying the planet,” said Pat DeLaquil, an energy policy expert working with various governments, NGO’s and the private sector to “help achieve economic development and combating climate change.”