What is it like being a consumerist?

Were/Are you a consumerist? Brand-addict? Do you know people like that?
I have this mental image that we live in a consumer society, ads running everywhere, people buying based on brands, etc. First I wonder why people don't realise or care about this, but then I ask myself if I'm a significant part of that unwittingly.
I've see friends wearing brand clothes (pic related), discussing phones, being hyped about the opening of a Green Eat nearby.

But I don't like or try to avoid McDonalds, Nike, popular music, etc. Not on an ideological level, I just feel rejection towards brands people like a lot. Maybe it's autism.
I have my same seven years old computer, rarely play vidya (I bought or donated to some random indie games to help the creators).
I wear plain clothes. I would feel very stupid wearing a Vans logo, being a walking ad. I have no virtue-signalling decorations on my home.
I go out of my way to remove any kind of branding and logo from my stuff. I just inked my new mousepad's brand

When I think about it, the only "hedonic" things I really like is consuming (healthy) food and media. I like eating varied fruits and vegetables, cooking, making those retardedly complicated vegan recipes, etc, and listening to a lot of music (I try to pay to small artists, and only them) and watch series constantly complaining wherever there's propaganda. If I couldn't pirate series I wouldn't know what to do, actually, maybe I'd unironically pay Netflix. And only because I like discussing media and news on the internet.


tl;dr: I'm a boring fuck by today's standards
Am I alone on this?
How do the average normalfag live? Are people really consumerist or is it just a cartoonish view?

You buy shit you can't afford and put it on a credit card because it "improves your credit" and "stimulates the economy". My mom bought a camper roughly 12 years ago, used it maybe half a dozen times, and left it to rot and decay. She got a motorcycle last year, which to my knowledge she has only ridden once, because she's normally too tired from work or just outright busy.
I buy a lot of weed, but I'm pretty sure that's not consumerism and just a habit. I wouldn't say buying food is consumeristic unless you're extremely anal about the brands you buy for shallow reasons.

To buy shit and take pride in it… To put plastic crap on the wall, and feel good about your collection… It's pathetic.

Fits my uncles family to a T, constantly buying material in some idea that it better illuminates their personal particularities - that their personalities are demonstrated through commodities. They're all exceedingly smug about it.

Wear my same running shoes from a few years ago, and new clothes are all self-printed. Bought a pair of Jordans recently, just because my shoes were falling apart and I needed new ones, then I fixed my old shoes, and these gaudy shoes have just kind of sat about. I was kind of excited I admit, I'd never had shoes like this, and when I told some of my friends that it would be nice to just have some nice shoes, they all leap down my throat talking about I should have bought XX or XX version retro, what pair am I buying next, I have bad taste because the pair i bought is ugly. Well, I ended up never wearing them and I'm not feeling all too great about a few friendships right now considering how aggressively they behaved over shoes

it's all basic marketing principles, you try to make people not just buy your shit, but identify with it, desire YOUR shit specifically because it represents your target audience's personality (on paper at least, on practice after a while it ends up being more of the costumer basing their personality on the commodity, due to the nature of commodities as objects of desire and so on and so on). this results in a society where communities and groups of people in general (specially online) are more differentiated by what specific thing(s) they consume than anything else, the objects stop being mere objects to be desired but necessary for the subjects' identity to function.

I feel it OP.
This turned into a fucking blogpost but you aren't alone OP, I think part of the reason I agree with leftist philosophy and theory so much is that I don't give a shit about 90% of what capitalism produces and don't very motivated by money or material goods in the same way many people seem to be.

Oh yeah, I've known people like this. Never in debt, but my mother sometimes buy some retarded machine to do stuff she doesn't need, or stuff for me when an old one was still pretty well.
I always prefer reusing old stuff, and buy used stuff, though I'm never cheap about it. If it works it works, if not, I get a new one and spend an hour online complaining about planned obsolescence

I found this question odd at first because I literally buy mostly vegetables, fruit, cheese, seeds and dried fruit "loose" and/or in bulk. Pasta when I'm drowning is stuff to do and need quick meals. I just checked my rice and legumes and they have an actual brand, I never noticed, the package is quite plain, it just says Yamani Rice and such.


Come to think of it, people do that. A poster from a TV series, or virtue signalling with empty liquor bottles of important brands and biker brands.

My house is barely decorated with random little crap I found (dominos laying around, an old plastic sculpture I made), some out of context writings on the wall and an old trunk that I actually use but is also quite A E S now that I painted it black.
Ted Kaczynski would be proud.


Examples please. Please not dank leftist memes.
Kek, people know about models of shoes? wtf
I do use brand shoes and clothes because I want to start looking elegant as far as my aspergers allows me for social/professional reasons, but never ever a single logo on sight.


Yes, the comodification of identity is the cringiest thing about capitalism. At least I can get it if you believe it to be a viable economic model, but this is just sad and well accepted.
Why? Everyone sucks the dicks off books like Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World, but they only use it as analogies to whatever politician they don't like being Hitler.

It's crystal clear. Everybody knows we live in a consumer society. Why doesn't this knowledge not kill it? People are just that bored and devoid of conversation topics?


This and OP is already a blogpost, feel free to share more, I'd like to know how other leftists live actually. The "leftists" I know are retards.

the only reason i would ever want money is for self indungent crimes like PC, a small well build apartement, and for entertainment, i really just want to enjoy life not waste it away working some shit job

spend most of my money on looking fleek af in gucci and bape clothes

nothing wrong with looking fresh, hate the game not the player

only people who oppose branded clothes are niggas in trashy baggy trousers and autistic clothes

people are born into the "consumer society" (let's just call it what it is: the Spectacle), they can't just do away with the only thing they know and allows them to survive social activities among others, who are too born into the spectacle. and whatever criticisms of the spectacle made inside of it are doomed to fail, because they get absorbed by the system and regurgitated into yet another label for marketers to classify consumers into, regardless of the content of this "criticism" (i mean for fucks sake, look at Black Mirror. it has an episode talking about this very thing and it's treated as just another thing to sell to "woke" people).
and yes people are that boring and devoid of conversation topics. easier to be a lemming than to be interesting

i should really, really just read the knife man book already

No, just normal, blank stuff. Sometimes I'll think about getting something provocative made and I'll decide against it every time. I just want to be left alone, so I dress to disappear I guess

I wear non-branded t shirts and jeans and spend quite little in clothing. I think simple clothing looks the best and the fashion nowadays seems very retarded looking. Is being frugal autistic now?

Good looking clothes are cheap. Produced by Third World labor, but there is no ethical consumption under capitalism anyway. At H&M you can find well-fitting shirts with a good cut for 5€.

A good cut is important, or you will look autistic. Some shirts have extremly big sleeves but short on the bottom, especially the crap from Fruit of the Loom. I don't know for what kind of people this is made for, dwarfs who only work out their arms?

...

I have some air Jordan's from high school that started falling apart and I just ductaped them back together

ye same, current day society really is;

you can make it fun, if you're a male try to work out and focus on becoming somewhat disconnected from the commings and goings of current day society.
Be like Varg, but without the murder and youtube channel and with friends.


I've done that multiple times with posters of anime I liked and I do not see the problem.
If you buy something because you truly enjoyed it's alrite, imo.


ahaha, ye.
when i was studying japanese (on my own, not in uni), i often went to 4/jp and I remember getting into a thread there about a guy who dedicated his entire life to anime.
ends up in Japland, with a corporate job and little free time, but with a lot of anime goodies.
he made that thread because he began to wonder why he kept feeling so alone, why he didnt really feel anything anymore when he bought a new figurine or dvd.
in the end his identity simply collapsed.


there is nothing wrong with blogposting from time to time, typing to people without it being about politics is great to take the edge off.

It gives people an identity which they don't have and honestly can't have.

I grew up poor and for better or worse my dad was frugal and taught me a lot about how brands deceive. We always had the offbrand of everything, I never got whatever the latest thing was until the fad wore off and I was uncool for even possessing it by the time I got it. It frustrated me to no end growing up, but now I'm like that. I remember feeling like we were 'the communists' from that one Seinfeld episode. He taught me to not be a sucker and that's an important skill. There's no difference between Count Chocula and Puffed Cocoa Rice Flakes (tm).
If I hadn't moved away young & experienced poverty I think I would have ended up becoming sucked into the whole Nvidia, Intel, Monster, Microsoft, Samsung, Razr and Anything Green branding… In that eSports 250 fps always hyped up and oblivious scene. I narrowly avoided becoming that by just dropping out of society.

This may be a cold take but I think it would have been cool to like be a transgender streamer and get paid to show tits on cam and play overwatch for thousands of hours but what is that doing for anyone? It's clogging servers, demanding more need for the heatdeath of the universe, increasing entropy, all for some jerkoff fantasy and requires massive amounts of sponsorships, branding, selling out completely…

Man, this.
I remember one time before I was really aware of anything (but my life was falling apart regardless), I took acid with a friend, we went to downtown and saw basically a skeleton dying on the sidewalk. My friend said, "I think that guy's dying. Maybe we should do something."
It didn't even register in my mind. I just wanted to avoid it altogether like all the times you ignore people potentially dying right there in front of you in urban environments. Neither of us had any means to act at all. The only thing we could think of doing was going out and buying something to make ourselves feel better. I realized after that, that is exactly what normal people do. I later became homeless myself and felt the same kind of abandonment.
In order to fill the void, and never being capable; equipped with the toolset of a social conscious, being without the capacity to help others because you're so strained just trying to cover your own ass and keep your little apartment-school-work world together, so you have to just blindly buy and spend to avoid the pain of identifying with The Other who suffers and dies due to capitalism.
Shortly after this I shaved up and became a monk and dedicated my life to just feeding people as much as I could, and I think everyone should take to distributing free food as far and wide as possible to relieve this kind of horrible symptom of the human condition in late capitalism.

They lack the knowledge/language to articulate what they know or to build a systematic understanding of it. This is deliberate on the part of the ruling class and enforced through media and education. And everything is saturated with ads that reinforce the idea that buying shit will make your life better. Other than that, religion, and various cultish ideologies, there's very little offering people a sense of worth.

I'll watch it some time. If I understood correctly, I felt the same about Mr. Robot. Pic related is a small part of a rant about it to a friend, and the pic mentioned at the end.
I then went on calling it a "faux pop view on anti-stablishmentalism" and ranted about the real issues being the social engineering behind consumerism, the CIA's hand on geopolitics, etc.

Being "woke" about consumerism is another consumer product. Also, "They live" is overrated, but it does sell T-shirts.

How do I get an identity?

I want anyone to appreciate that I like learning, and discussing stuff, even though I have terrible opinions as Holla Forums can testify. I don't share this identity with anyone. I listen to music I don't like until I find something different. I never met someone not put off by the mere concept.
I never met anyone openly willing to hear the other side of a political discussion. It amazes them that I'm intersted in communism, but read some part of Mein Kampf. Exploration is my indentity, but nobody gives a fuck I guess.

I still have a lot of branded clothing from a few years ago, im way more simple now but i wish i could just tear the logos off

I can relate. I remember in high school and college that people would talk about how they liked [thing] and I'd try to engage them by asking what they liked about it. - telling them I was curious about it too. They'd just get pissed off and act like I was challenging them. Apparently the depth change from "I like this" to "I like this about this" is TOO MUCH.

If you lack identity, you will always lack it. You can try and foster an identity, like the consumerists, the nationalists, those silly men in silly hats, but you'll never find it, you'll only find a vague image of an identity.

You don't "get" an identity. Identity as a concept is descriptive rather than prescriptive. It's more related to the role you play inside a community than anything else. What i feel most people want when they say shit like this is not really an identity per se, but more the sense of an identity, i.e. what "having an identity" symbolizes.
And what once was the sense of an identity has eroded by now, thanks in part to late capitalism.

My dad was like that too, we barely talk now due to conflicting personalities but I think in terms of spending I'm a lot like him, some would say frugal others cheap.

Idk… sounds hot anyway but seriously, it's not like it's any worse than most any other job.

Every time I see the word consumerist on Holla Forums it seems to be using an entirely different definition of the word that no one else uses. When I think "consumerist", I think about being highly critical of anti-consumer practices and having a fucking spine and not buying products that you know damn well are shitty. You know, like all the things that website literally called The Consumerist does and advocates for? These are all things that I agree with and have always done myself.

On the other hand, when Holla Forums uses the word consumerist, they apparently mean a word that is exactly the opposite: one who goggles up whatever crap markets present them with and finds it impossible to say no to anything.

I have never seen the word used irl in a different way than Holla Forums uses it, especially not how you're using it. It's always been a derogatory term for someone who buys useless shit because of some compulsion or desire to look or feel good.

Same here, but according to The Google and Wikipedia, both are used. Basically one puts emphasis on quality, and the other in quantity.
ITT we also complained about the quality of some products, so I we used both.

I buy physical books, despite recognizing that there is no reason not to pirate ebooks instead.
I also prefer nice hard covers, despite knowing there is no reason to pay extra for that.

Does that count? I don't even know what consumerism means. I don't care for brands, but I do care for labels like "eco" or "bio" on some goods. I also prefer local brands to foreign ones, all other things being equal.

Explain your terms so I can answer better.

I don't think that counts, I have a hard time reading off a screen myself.

Consumerism is the culture of consumption for the sake of consuption. Virtue signalling about the products you buy, your new phone, buying crap you never use because it was on sale, identifying with brands, etc. Plenty examples ITT.
Basically buying shit just because, or even be proud about it.

No, you just pay for things you like and make you feel more comfortable reading. That's if you actually read them and don't leave them on display on a shelf because you like the cover. I hate those people.
I like physical hardcover books too (or small paper cover ones to carry around). But I always buy used ones, new ones are stiff, expensive, redundant and it's not environment-friendly. And idkw people put them on shelves. I very rarely read the same book twice, I just sell/gift/donate it. The few I have are on a box in my wardrobe.

Why are old works reprinted at all? Aren't there thousands of collections of the works of Poe in perfectly fine state that nobody uses? Just go to an old bookstore.

Is your mom hot?

well I collect anime merchandise, maybe that counts? that said, I never show them to anyone anywhere, so it is for personal gratification only

that is pretty much the only stuff I buy without it being quite justified for use (and actually, I try to acquire things for free when possible - I don't mind a 10-year-old giveaway TV or computer if it works for what I intend to use it for)

What do you guys think about "planned obsolescence"? Is it a conspiracy or is it real?

pic unrelated

I'm pretty sure that sometimes it really is planned with full knowledge
but I would assume that more often than that, it is just capitalism working like it works - produce the thing that is profitable.
and since usually the profit from a consumer good doesn't increase by increasing longetivity, no effort is made to maximize that

of course, there are goods that are made durable. they're those goods which do need to be durable to be profitable - so things meant for professionals, industry, armies, etc, for those market segments that wouldn't buy your shit if it didn't last

It's absolutely real. I work at a company that sells printers and inks/toners and the only reason we use different shapes of ink cartridges/toners for different machines is so that generic ones don't put it out of business. Because of the changes that happen for every model and new models always being released and the old ones phased out eventually old inks/toners don't get made anymore and it forces you to buy a new printer just to use the new inks/toners.

Are you using the word "conspiracy" to say "fake theory"? "Planned obsolescence" is the supposed conspiracy, so "conspiracy or real" implies a dichotomy that doesn't exist.
People someone say "conspiracy theory" to mean something is a false belief, idkw, the phrase doesn't mean that at all.

Like said, sometimes probably is literally planned obsolescence (or at least an implicit way of doing it by deprecation, like in ), but I think people overstimate how often. Not because I believe in the goodness of manking, but rather that there's a lot of early obsolescence from lowering quality where it's not profitable.
It's mostly the game, not the player. The rules are what should change, and quality enforced for certain items (eg. it's pathetic that ice-cream sellers give out plastic spoons that brake so often)

Install Gentoo, cuck.

No thanks, asshole.

Intel has recently(ish) started making processors incompatible with windows 7, and only compatible with windows 10. This is not because of any sort of fundamental difference. They've simply put in a few lines into their driver package that will tell it to not install when run on windows 7. There are patches that will remove this check, or you can do it yourself if you know which of a small handful of lines to change/delete, and the driver will install just fine and the processor will work perfectly.

No, she's an old butch lesbian who's been smoking for 30 years.

i have a friend who is super anti consumerist and shows this by buying all kinds of the latest most expensive electronics, apple products, subscribes to all the hottest normalfag entertainment and pre orders games that i tell him to wait and see over. generally just finding all the ways to spend all of his money short of substance abuse and gambling.
it took getting fucked by destiny 2 and no mans sky to get the guy to show a little skepticism, but who knows if that will last.

I was always anti-consumerist on most things besides pokemon games growing up, like its only this year that I got a smart phone and I got it for like 40 bucks at walmart. I hate wearing most graphic t-shirts as I honestly don't want to be a walking billboard for a brand.

These days I have some slightly more consumerist desires, but its mainly limited to shit like board games knee-high socks.

i dont know why i would pay more to have a gaudy logo splattered all over a shirt made uncomfortable by the damn paint they tend to use. makes it feel like i have dried mud all over the shirt.
shouldnt i be paying less for something so awful?

So if I pirate a game or download a book, and then after enjoying it I buy the game/book as a physical copy, thats consumerism?
I don't need it, I won't even use it, I am only buying it for the sake of saying I own it, after having enjoyed the free copy.

Books are a great decoration. I'd rather have a book on the table than flowers. Just aesthetic to look at.

For a narcissist. I happen to know one, they cover their shelf with hilarious garbage like The Art of The Deal.

whats narcissistic about wishing to be a wizard?

this


With "just because" I meant something retarded and unfounded like in
It's about making it a lifestyle, and be pathological about it.

If you literally do it just for that, maybe yes, but I can't make up my mind on it, idkw. I do get it, it's nice, and sounds a bit shallow at worse but doesn't sounds like a consumerist lifestyle

I like the idea of paying for something you liked or would have payed before using it. I've bought discs to contribute to the musician, and I prefer real books to read from, but I would never buy a book just to have it. If I want to contribute to a game developer I'd rather any day donate directly to them than pay for an "official" store copy.
If I feel like wasting money, I'd buy a new book, not have one I'll never read. But that's me.>walking billboard for a brand.


Christ

Yes, books look very nice, I just can't stand it in my own house. Pic related feels so insincere.
I've seen people come off as smug fucks, so I guess I feel too self-aware about it, and would rather just have them in a box.

I thought you said she wasn't hot.

That's terrible. You couldn't even pick up a book without knocking something over.

I guess the only things I'm really guilty of being consumeristic about are my phone, my computer, and my car. I currently own an S7, but I'd like to get out of the planned obsolescence through ending updates, so I think I'm going to get a Librem 5 when that launches. I built my computer in 2010 and it's getting on in age, so I'd like to build a new one in the near future. I'd also like to buy a Surface Pro (even though I don't like that the battery isn't replaceable) or something equivalent to use as a portable computer and read PDFs on. I currently own a Volt which I bought used and am honestly very fortunate to have. It helps cut down on my overall consumption (I can't remember the last time I bought gas), but in the long run I'd like to get a used Tesla (rocket jesus, i know i know). I'm aware of the downsides of car ownership from a societal perspective, but god damn I just love driving so much.

Really, all I want out of life:

Yep. But I shouldn't have chosen the most extreme example, but it illustrates my point


That sounds just like "consuming things" really, not consumerism as a lifestyle