Do you know of any groups that methodically work to undermine consumer culture? (I’ve hardly been able to find any, which is surprising as it seems to be a widespread problem.)
Do you know of groups whose mission is perhaps not this specific issue, but something related, who have tactics that push back against consumerism?
I’m curious what effective ways to do this would look like, and whether there are people organizing somewhere.
There’s anti-advertisement groups doing away with ads in the public space, there’s skipped food groups to recup what’s being trashed, and there’s always the improvised “self-discount” technique of walking into a supermarket as a group and leaving with full carts without paying.
Then of course there’s all the adjacent struggles. You will find a lot of critique/action against consumerism in your local anarchist/feminist/anti-racist cliques. One word of advice though, judgemental anti-consumerism can be harmful to people who struggle every month to fill the fridge (that is, a lot of people who may be very radical in other ways). I mean, climate change is very much produced by the higher classes, so looking down on poor folks for eating candy or acquiring a television is not going to help our cause.
Most of us have our kinks and addictions, but some are more visible than others. Admitting we’re all contaminated by consumer culture is a good starting place to dismantle its inner workings in our minds, homes, workplaces and community centers.
Most politically active folks organize far away from social media, and our online spaces are not the reflection of what’s happening in the streets. Some avoid social media for surveillance concerns, others precisely because it’s a consumerist system in and of itself.
I mean, as you said consumerism is a foundational piece of modern oppression and wage slavery worldwide. It’s hard to organize in the open without making very powerful enemies.