I think it’s more accurate to look at it as the same kind of survivorship bias as the companies themselves. Investors aren’t voters or politicians, they’re pools of capital. The bigger the pool, the more sway they have over things. If an investor were to consistently vote in such a way that did not maximize their returns, their pool of capital would shrink relative to those who do. Thus over time, the most influential investors will be the selfish ones and the less greedy ones will be naturally pushed out.
Thinking about it terms of them “wanting more money” makes it seem like they are a static entity with opinions and if only we could get better ones things would be ok. It ignores the way in which capitalism is a process that produces the outcomes we see. It’s an inevitability that an economy run on these principles will turn out this way.
Was it called Fellowship? I’m keeping my eye on that, but it seems like it’s not exactly what I’m looking for. I think it’s only small group content and from what I’ve been told the fights are a lot of “avoid the bad stuff.” I really miss the kind of fights we had to strategize and optimize for. I might still try it anyway when it goes 1.0, but I’m really hoping for something a little different.
I want a game that is just the dungeons and raids parts of WoW. No outside grinding. You just log in with your guild and smash your face against bosses together.
Look at it from the other way around: Capitalism is dependent on endless growth to function. To that end, consumerism is one tool by which capitalists sustain that endless growth rather than the problem in and of itself. It would be no good for them if people were able to just buy a thing when they needed it and it lasted a really long time. So they find ways to induce demand. A shiny new phone every year with planned obsolescence, advertising and other forms of cultural influence that equate happiness with disposable consumption, monopolistic tactics to crush alternatives, lobbying for government policies to limit alternatives and promote financial conditions that encourage consumption over saving, etc.
You can still say that at the end of all of this people ultimately "decide" to consume or not, but... what is that accomplishing exactly? Is our plan to just hope that every single individual person decides to lower their consumption, no matter how difficult or burdensome that might be given their situation? Especially considering how lopsided the actual emissions are towards the very wealthy? And if people started doing that... do you think corporations don't aggressively push back in whatever way they can? Because that plan isn't working either.
The "personal responsibility" angle isn't actually taking responsibility, it's just acting smug and accepting our doom is inevitable, but not your fault because you already "did your part." Get organized or we all die. It's that simple. It won't be easy, but it's our only real option.
Notably, this is all a very daunting task. While we need national and international action, that isn't the only thing that matters. Activism in your community can help too. Plenty of stuff happens at the level of cities, towns, and counties. Roads and transportation. Zoning laws. Any gov or HOA requirements around grass and gardening. Tree planting. The gov's relationship with utility providers. Fighting back against destructive development projects like data centers, parking lots, etc.
This is going to depend a lot on what the town is like though. Some places are going to be too poor to build any infrastructure projects like trains without funding from higher levels of gov. Some states have passed laws which try to limit local gov's ability to enact environmental legislation. In some places it might be a pretty big uphill battle politically to make any big changes.
Ultimately the important thing is to gather enough people who can be engaged in the process that whatever your goals are become achievable. And hey, going back to the consumer side of this, if you have a lot of people, a boycott or strike becomes more of an effective option.
So to echo your final dismissive line: Go touch grass (then rip it out and replace it with native plants). This is coming from someone who's been dealing with chronic depression for years and is finally making an effort to get out there and connect with people again. If I can do it, you can. (Maybe, idk your circumstances, maybe you have a condition even worse than mine.)
I’d totally watch a comedy/slice of life/horror anime about a Japanese person having to go live in America. If for no other reason than to see a whole anime where most of the cast are Joseph Joestar level English speakers.
My town is very much a blue maga kind of town. Middle class suburbanites who are totally not racist but...
Something particularly bad is there's a community center that I walk by when I'm going to some stores that just has zionist shit plastered all around the building. It's really disgusting.
My friends from college are generally more aligned with me. Although some of them are a bit less informed on stuff so come across a bit libby sometimes.
Next innovation: the schmoozebot 9000. It’s a wheeled robot that comes equipped with a chatbot, a company credit card, a drink dispenser, and a cannon that shoots dollar bills.
Y'know, I might actually prefer that. The bad CGI horses are already immersion breaking, so why not just go all in? Some of my favorite comedy anime have made sparing use of live action bits mixed into the animation and it's always hilarious.
Whenever I want to sum up what capitalism is all about.