Relax Babe, We're All Going to Hell
My continued qualms with self-righteousness in the modern age
Introduction
I was roaming social media, doing a morning doomscroll if you will, and I saw a reel from a Black female goth influencer who wanted to give tips to “baby bats” (those who are fresh in their pursuit to dressing more goth-like) to assist them with finding gothic clothing pieces for their arsenal. In the video, she addressed the primary concern that many “baby bats” have, which is the struggle to find affordable and cute goth pieces, and how the pricing can keep people away from the fun of exploring the subversive clothing style, and suggested thrifting and showed more info on how thrifting can be your saving grace in your pursuit to be a budget friendly goth.
Despite having no interest in building a goth closet, I watched the video all the way through which was filled with great ideas such as fashioning unexpected (aka: non-trendy) pieces to fit a desired aesthetic, and also picking textures that you may not originally expect when thinking of “gothic” clothing. I thought it was fun, well-made, and a great source of information for those seeking it.
Then, I ventured into the comments.
I found copious amounts of people (particularly women of all shades, backgrounds, and regions) making mention of how they find it hard to thrift due to various constraints such as living in a small town with a very restrictive aesthetic (resulting in thrift shops to carry strictly business-wear for instance) so they prefer to shop new and would love to be able to thrift otherwise, or maybe even that they prefer not to thrift and would rather buy new pieces due to their ability to keep even the fastest of fashion pieces in good condition for over a decade despite the general consensus that fast fashion wears down into nothingness within just a few washes.
These comments and concerns were reasonable and also kindly and aptly put, in my opinion of course, but the creator seemed to not think the same as I did. As she took to every single comment and made each person aware that by choosing not to thrift, whether it’s due to your region, your ability to maintain clothes, your general preference to buy new, or whatever it may be, that you are someone who supports child labor and would rather climate change be delivered upon all of us time now. Since she (the creator of the video) is the one who is smarter and better than the rest us all and realizes that there are enough thrifted clothes for all of humanity, she goes to heaven when she passes on to the next life because she does the good deed that us new-clothing-shoppers refuse to do for the greater good. She, in her own roundabout wording, is better than us and would never support such terrible crimes against humanity.
…All of this, of course, as she films videos on her smartphone which utilizes parts mined in places that have active genocides right now, made with labor in factories that have unfair labor practices. But of course, that doesn’t make her a person who supports genocide. No, of course not. Because in her comment section, we must stay focused on the fact that we are people who support child labor if we buy any new clothing, and any rationale, in her words, is a “weird way to say that you support child labor and climate change lol”.
It’s not the first time that I’ve watched someone who seemingly has “good intentions” cannibalize others to bolster their own viewpoints, ego, and morale, especially considering how I literally wrote about this same sort of thing a few months ago:
However, with the advent of AI in a worsening world, this appears to be an issue that only seems to get worse and worse with time.
The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions—Maintaining the Scope of Consumerism & a Pinch of AI (because that is also ruining the planet)
No one is born wanting to destroy the planet, at least, that’s what I would like to believe. I do not believe that babies come out of the womb with tap-to-pay at the ready to contribute to consumerism and climate change. Hell, I don’t even believe that it’s something that’s taught (as in, taught in that manner so overtly). However, I will say that buying things feels awesome, getting a new shiny thing feels awesome-r, and for those who are extensively AI inclined, I’m sure that having AI write that email for you is suuuuper awesome (I for one don’t mind writing, along with writing emails. But considering I am someone who has experienced Elementary, Middle School, High School, and College, I have certainly experienced people who literally abhor writing in any form including a simple email).
In a way, we are all just here on Planet Earth, chasing what feels good for us, and unfortunately that can have devastating effects on our ecosystem. It’s not exactly because of us per se (as in doing things maliciously to harm the planet), but it’s more that by chasing these things that feel good, we end up becoming a part of systems that were not created with the planet in mind.
For most of us—I say, as a 90s baby—our problems with consumerism began before we were even born. Waste began to become a serious problem in the 19th century as American cities rapidly grew. Cities were able to maintain sanitation standards in the 1890s with the advent of many beneficial waste collection standards, however things worsened once again after WW2 created the perfect environment for a boom of consumer purchases as well as the rise in disposable goods and packaging that prevailed due to concerns about germs that made prepackaged products seem more sanitary and desirable. We ended up with today’s recycling movement(s) from these events—creating a net-positive for society—however, these solutions are no longer effective as landfills are filling up and are leeching toxic chemicals to humans, and to the planet.
Mind you, this is only from an American historical lens. Consumerism is an issue that affects all continents, and has affected the entire planet even beyond today’s Shien’s and Fashion Nova’s of the world (that new Starbucks teddy bear cup that you abhor with a passion? yeah, its been a thing for years in other countries such a China for example with very little cultural resistance in the way that Americans have shunned Starbucks as of recent for the creation). Once goods and services were suddenly able to be dispersed globally when the Soviet Union collapsed, when China opened up its markets in the late 20th century, when the World Trade Organization was formed in 1995, and as well as many other serendipitous events that contributed to consumerism and capitalism, consumers were granted revolutionary access that allowed for unprecedented levels of consumption.
This, alone doesn’t even begin consider conversations around planned obsolescence (the creation of inferior goods on purpose so that consumers will have no choice but to purchase more goods more often), the general “appetite” of consumption by humans, the general evil-ness of capitalistic advertising practices, the fact that some facets of consumerism began because the lower class was suddenly able to afford the forms of goods that the upper class was able to afford (thus allowing for a larger population to consumer rather than survive), the fact that thrift stores have irritatingly become more expensive than buying new in many cases, and of course, the modern child labor and underpaid labor situation of it all.
Consumerism, evil labor practices, capitalism, waste management, capitalistic propaganda, the expansion of the affordability of goods which alone caused increased consumption, and climate change are all issues that are much more complicated than anyone should be led on to believe. I can’t personally, in good conscience, blame anyone for their “over consumption” practices when I have learned the bigger picture and a fuller story of events that led us here.
Everything is not so simple.
I also think it’s the hindsight of these systems and issues that now articulates to us the errors in our ways, and I can see why there is an attempt to do a huge societal transformation overnight to correct said ways by letting everyone know that, “Hey, we can fix all of the mistakes of the past if we just give all of these things up and commit to a lifestyle that benefits the planet.” By no means do I think that’s incorrect (that we could improve the entire planet by cleaning up our actions as members of it), but I think that it isn’t fair to those who believe in the lavish, consumerist lifestyle ideals sold to them that the only alternative that exists is one that provides none of the dopamine that the most harmful ones do.
Now, if you’re vehemently against doing anything negative towards the planet, I know you’re probably seething or something right now at that sort of perspective; that it isn’t fair to just expect people to do what’s right by the planet. But think about it: we all have this one life experience on this planet. How could you possibly tell others “Give up everything you love about experiencing life or else you’re a child labor supporter” and expect to make meaningful change—especially with such a complex, long-standing issue? How do you expect to convince people to, for example, choose thrifting over buying new when the goalpost is set so very far away from all the things that someone—who enjoys consumerism for example—wants to be able to experience in life? All the things in life that, sure, maybe they were propaganda-d into believing that they want, but they still want to be able to experience these things. You unfortunately cannot come at members of society aggressively to convince them to change their entire way of living in an effort to do the “right thing” without a viable alternative that provides the same desired effects of the original intention. If that approach was one that worked, then we would have cured the world of all its ailments centuries ago.
It’s Complicated.
We live in a very highly complicated world right now. In fact, I’d argue that the modern human experience™ is excessively complicated in itself, so it makes sense to attempt to make meaning in the simplest ways possible. I mean, it’s as Occam’s Razor states: the simplest explanation is usually the best one.
But with more and more individuals online and offline using this logic, we degrade and dismiss the unfortunate complexities of existing. Mind you, the world that we currently exist in still has complex fractals and remnants of a world that literally predates us, and you can take that to mean anywhere right before you were born, all the way to 5000 B.C. for all I care. Needless to say, our world is simply not as cut and dry as our anger and immense desires for positive change would lead us to believe.
Again, maintaining the scope of our current conversation around consumerism contributing to waste and the fury and self-righteousness of this one influencer (though, one with a sentiment that I have seen replicated all over the internet in this same context and with different contexts), the earliest recorded waste disposal system was noted between 3000 B.C. to 1000 B.C., with the first garbage collection service occurring in the Roman Empire. With all honesty, the Roman Empire wasn’t that long ago in the grand scheme of the history of our lovely planet, but even with all of this time that has passed, we still have not perfected this issue that has existed since 3000 B.C. I do recognize that there are certain factors that could get in the way of us solving this problem sooner or more effectively, but to some extent, we have to be real with one another and ourselves and recognize that our standard “just recycle” or “just thrift” or “just don’t buy anything whatsoever!!” solutions are just not adequate for the gravity of the situation that we’re dealing with.
We can all do our best to find solutions, to decrease actions that are harmful to the planet, to decrease actions that are harmful to one another, and so on and so forth. But for the majority of all the issues that we suffer with right now as a society (even going beyond the scope of the issues talked about in this essay), it would truly behoove us to not sling so much vitriol at one another for being born into complex systems that we cannot control, and for environments that we did not cause.
I don’t have anything overtly optimistic to offer or anything that could solve our infinite number of crisis that plague this planet, so maybe that makes this piece a bit pessimistic in more ways than one. Life is complicated, and our planetary issues even more so, so I just can’t personally feel compelled to “rally the troops” to do anything in particular, so to say.
All I can muster is to say that if you take anything from this, know that everyone is doing their best. There are innovators out there who are crafting extremely environmentally friendly products that can replace our current highly polluting products (e.g. jewelry that decomposes in soil and skincare packaging that decomposes in soil and a smartphone company that creates eco friendly, sustainably made smartphones), but let’s all be real here, this innovation is being done by normal, good-hearted people like you and I with big ideas and in most cases, without the mass resources to make it happen sooner or bigger. This makes progress and change take time, and with climate change worsening year after year, it makes our time feel much more limited, thus making the pressures we put on one another to just be great already even more aggressive.
We all get one life, and it sucks that a lot of what is enjoyable about existing hurts the planet. I have enough common sense to be able to be real as hell and admit that. I’m sure that one day, we’ll be able to find tons of solutions that allow us to solve all problems without compromising the societal love for “stuff” (just like what happened in the 1890s when new sanitation practices allowed for better waste management practices) but until then, just be nice to yourself and others. Aim for progress, sure, but as the saying goes: Don’t bother punching down or sideways. It doesn’t tend to provide the desired progressive results in the end anyways.