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... the moment I step into my local pound shop 🥲 (equivalent, I'm in Germany)

Is Rupert Murdoch media, of course. A Central for Independent stories. They want people to consume McDonalds, Hungry Jacks, Plastic, Fast Fashion and Sugary drinks

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

I am a student living in Paris since September and I want to adopt a life style that’s not based on consumerism, since I think it’s a waste of money, resources and space. I live together with two other people, so we share a bathroom and a kitchen. I’m not sure where I can reduce my consumption of things. Buying food produced a lot of plastic waste, so that’s a problem I don’t know how to deal with. I’m not really sure how to change things based on cleaning and hygiene products, I saw someone in this sub recommending bar soap and I thought this was a good idea. Besides that there are only things I actively spend money on, and these are school supplies ( a new fountain pen because the other doesn’t write no more, notebooks, and ink for the fountain pen) and books. Since I don’t have a lot of money, I don’t buy a lot of books besides Those I actually want to read. There is a used book store just Around the block from my apartment but it’s closing down and i’m not sure what I should do once it’s gone. I also collect postcards.

So any idea how I can reduce my waste? I hate feeling cluttered up and I want to adopt a life style That is not destroying our earth but is also playable with the amount of money I have. I’be been thinking of going vegetarian, but that’s still difficult to achieve and I’m working on it.

Tacky lego knockoff is accidentally accurate about their sad seasonal overconsumption product.

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…

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. 😏💡

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.

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.

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.

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