Don't let quixotic liberal marketing campaigns lead you into reactionary traps; of course what people decide (or are induced) to send their money on matters to any cohesive material analysis of the circuit of capital, disruptions of the realization phase of the circuit requires boycotts as an available tool, consumption is not merely personal, it's also structural and leveraging that structure requires convincing quite alot of people to INDIVIDUALLY withhold money from a firm

So again, unless you have a magic psychic beacon, the convincing part requires a moral narrative as a component of the necessary organizing. Because the logistics of boycott organizing still requires individual initiative, integrity, and discipline to work

Not purchasing candy is not a component cell of collective action. A component cell of collective action would be showing up to the meetings every week and holding the discipline agreed to within the group based on material analysis of the system you are trying to change

If the component cell of collective action requires showing up to meetings every week to convince people not to purchase candy, then I hate to break it to you, but yes not purchasing candy in that instance does become a component cell of collective action

[–] meatcringe@hexbear.net 2 points 13 hours ago

💚

[–] frisbird@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

I think you and I are on the same page here, for the most part anyway. The problem I am trying to illuminate is not that boycotts require not purchasing, but rather that not purchasing is not the effective part of a boycott. The effective part of a boycott is the organizing, the not buying is a result of the boycott not a cause. You cannot create a boycott by not buying. You can only create a boycott by organizing. And as you say, once you are organizing to create a boycott, your personal choices suddenly start to matter - not because of their economic impact but because of their propagandistic impact.

This is critical to understand. The effect of even 10k people not buying is totally unnoticeable. 10k people stop buying specific things every day whether through death, illness, preference, or economic hardship. But the effect of 10k people all connected to the same movement, or all physically located in a single place, or all doing it deliberately at the same time? That's noticeable. Again, not in the bottom line, but in the expression of power and the tabling of a threat of future impact to the bottom line. That's what moves capitalists.