If you refuse to buy from one unethical company, then you buy from a different unethical company. Or, if you refuse to buy from all unethical companies, you starve.
You have some agency to try to pick less bad options, but you can’t just refuse to participate in the unjust system.
I don’t think you understand what I meant by that question.
If you participate in society trying to pick the less bad options, someone could look at you and say that you are “going about your day normally”. And also, doing that should be what going about your day normally means because you should be doing that all the time.
I think that the call-to-action to not go about your day normally is effectively asking people to not participate in society at all, which is not practical for anyone unless they have a ton of privilege already.
I think I understand now, thank you, but I think that your definition of “going about your day normally” is not the author’s intent, it seems circular.
By your definition(if I understand it):
If I put in the work to avoid buying Israeli products, I am still going about my day normally, because I normally try to avoid supporting a genocide.
All of the members of the Samud Floatila were just going about their day normally when they went head to head with the Israel military, because they normally fight genocide.
Harriet Tubman and Nelson Mandela were just going about their day normally, because amazing activism is what they normally do.
I think the author’s intent is that if you learned you were supporting genocide, like many people that pay taxes to the US, Germany, and other places are coming to realize, then you should act to stop supporting the genocide.
It very well might not be the author’s intent, but it is very poorly worded to communicate any other intent.
I’ve known for many years that my government (in the US) is doing horrible things regarding Gaza. I’ve also known about horrible things my government does in other places, and to its own people as well. I don’t have the power to stop those things, though. I have tried all my life to make the world a better place, but I’m not the dictator of the world.
I can’t stop those things, but life must go on. So, yeah, I still go about my day “normally”, still trying to do my best to make things better, but with basically no power.
That’s not a rare situation either. More than half of the US had an unfavorable view of Israel during the 2024 election, yet both candidates for president (and most for other offices) supported Israel. And we didn’t really get a chance to choose those candidates in a primary either, since the incumbent president from the nominally left-wing party stayed in the race and no one meaningfully challenged him (as is (stupid) tradition) and then the VP got undemocratically shoed in when he bowed out of the race over age concerns, so we got stuck with another “centrist” candidate (where the center here is the center of the US ruling class, which is nowhere near the center of the US population as a whole). So I didn’t even have a chance to vote for a candidate that was against that particular genocide. I had to vote for the candidate that would do less genocide (including less genocide to my own people).
People outside the US may look at the horrible things that the US does and assume that the people must support those things, but that’s not the case. The fact is that the US is not run by the people as a whole. It never has been (by design), and it has been getting worse for a while now. Even the working class people who do support those things only do so under an intense bombardment of propaganda funded by the ruling class which they have been brainwashed by all their life. So I don’t think that driving a wedge of blame against them is the way either. The way to make things better is to unite the working class against the ruling class.
I very much agree with your perspective on things. Thanks for the back and forth. I do hope people feel encouraged to do what is within their power, if it’s at the supermarket, their school, or work.
We all have basically no power but together we still wield quite a lot. Each small action and conversation can help others act.
To paraphrase you a little:
If there is an unethical company and I refuse to buy from them am I giving up control?
Edit: Do I not control my purchases?
If you refuse to buy from one unethical company, then you buy from a different unethical company. Or, if you refuse to buy from all unethical companies, you starve.
You have some agency to try to pick less bad options, but you can’t just refuse to participate in the unjust system.
You asked:
And I think you gave one good answer with:
I don’t think you understand what I meant by that question.
If you participate in society trying to pick the less bad options, someone could look at you and say that you are “going about your day normally”. And also, doing that should be what going about your day normally means because you should be doing that all the time.
I think that the call-to-action to not go about your day normally is effectively asking people to not participate in society at all, which is not practical for anyone unless they have a ton of privilege already.
I think I understand now, thank you, but I think that your definition of “going about your day normally” is not the author’s intent, it seems circular.
By your definition(if I understand it):
I think the author’s intent is that if you learned you were supporting genocide, like many people that pay taxes to the US, Germany, and other places are coming to realize, then you should act to stop supporting the genocide.
It very well might not be the author’s intent, but it is very poorly worded to communicate any other intent.
I’ve known for many years that my government (in the US) is doing horrible things regarding Gaza. I’ve also known about horrible things my government does in other places, and to its own people as well. I don’t have the power to stop those things, though. I have tried all my life to make the world a better place, but I’m not the dictator of the world.
I can’t stop those things, but life must go on. So, yeah, I still go about my day “normally”, still trying to do my best to make things better, but with basically no power.
That’s not a rare situation either. More than half of the US had an unfavorable view of Israel during the 2024 election, yet both candidates for president (and most for other offices) supported Israel. And we didn’t really get a chance to choose those candidates in a primary either, since the incumbent president from the nominally left-wing party stayed in the race and no one meaningfully challenged him (as is (stupid) tradition) and then the VP got undemocratically shoed in when he bowed out of the race over age concerns, so we got stuck with another “centrist” candidate (where the center here is the center of the US ruling class, which is nowhere near the center of the US population as a whole). So I didn’t even have a chance to vote for a candidate that was against that particular genocide. I had to vote for the candidate that would do less genocide (including less genocide to my own people).
People outside the US may look at the horrible things that the US does and assume that the people must support those things, but that’s not the case. The fact is that the US is not run by the people as a whole. It never has been (by design), and it has been getting worse for a while now. Even the working class people who do support those things only do so under an intense bombardment of propaganda funded by the ruling class which they have been brainwashed by all their life. So I don’t think that driving a wedge of blame against them is the way either. The way to make things better is to unite the working class against the ruling class.
I very much agree with your perspective on things. Thanks for the back and forth. I do hope people feel encouraged to do what is within their power, if it’s at the supermarket, their school, or work.
We all have basically no power but together we still wield quite a lot. Each small action and conversation can help others act.
Thanks for this conversation.