Tommy Siegel | Bluesky | website
Transcript
Comic in 4 Panels:
Header: Itโs That Easy!
Panel 1: The year is 1994. A dad with short black hair, in a blue shirt, red shorts, and white sneakers with calf high white socks, kneels with one arm resting on a knee and the other raised demonstratingly in front of a kid in a green ball cap, yellow shirt, blue pants, and green sneakers. There is a round metal trash can behind them.
Dad: Pick up your litter and save the Earth!
Panel 2: The year is 2004. Same dad, but in brown cargo shorts, brown shoes, and ankle high white socks speaking to the same kid. There is a green recycle bucket behind them.
Dad: Recycle and you can save the Earth!
Panel 3: The year is 2014. Same dad, but wearing a bike helmet, black athletic pants, and black sneakers to the same kid. A bike is behind them.
Dad: Reduce your carbon footprint and you can save the Earth!
Panel 4: The year is 2024. Same dad, but heโs in the same outfit from panel 1. There is a massive fire behind them.
Dad: Completely restructure global economic systems and you may be able to save a remnant of humanity!
You make it seem like these desires arise spontaneously. Corporations have been using advertising in a systematic way since the 20th century to induce demand and shift behavior patterns of the masses.
With your logic, all business decisions can be laid at the feet of common people. "Yes, shrinkflation exists and is terrible, but it is for ordinary people, so they are to blame." "Sure, companies sell bullshit insurance to consumers, but the people buy it, so it's really the masses who cause it." And so on.
Then you should direct your attention in two directions to deal with that, I think:
Look, I get it. We've been fed a story about individual responsibility for generations. It's hard to break free from that mindset.
I experience this myself when I see cigarette butts on the side of the path when walking my dog. "Fucking smokers!" is my first reaction. But then I remember that people who smoke are suffering from an addiction they were tricked into and the only thing they get out of smoking is poverty, sickness, and possibly death. On the other hand, the immoral corporations who sold them the cigarette butt lying on the ground have made a tidy profit of the smoker, as well as the trash that the company generated.