this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2026
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From the other poster: Using a paper straw does reduce plastic usage. So will using reusable grocery bags. A person can quite easily do both. Deriding the paper straw as a useless step just seems unhelpful to me. When the plastic bags and straws are reduced, we can attack other angles too. As an anecdote, I rarely even get offered a choice of straw nowadays - it's either not present or paper. that's a minor win, but a win nonetheless. Some people worked hard to make that happen and this talk of placebo is derisive of that work.
This is you presuming to know the motivations of all other people and deciding for them when they stop working on new things. Just because I want people to be involved in their political processes doesn't mean I stop at the voting booth, or can't also be doing service in my community. I don't love the catchphrase 'Blue no matter Who' - but I recognize that not voting blue is always going to be detrimental to the cause until enough people are involved in local level organizations to change the candidates from the ground up. Until we get there, I recommend we vote blue.
Discouraging civic engagement only benefits the wealthy. Wanna fight fascism and oligarchs? Encourage people to participate instead of telling them it doesn't matter or there can only be revolution instead of incremental progress.
That's my whole point. Don't discourage.
More encouragement of participation is better. Tell me that's wrong.
Plastic pollution in the ocean is not from consumer waste, it's from industrial fishing. Plastic straws LITERALLY DO NOT ADDRESS THE ISSUE. It's a fantastic example of this.
Look at the people telling you to engage in these ways.
This is the epitome of the issue I'm talking about -- you people seem to presume the engagement ends at the simple step. For some, it will, but those people weren't likely to engage larger in the first place and reducing the consumer waste doesn't hurt.
For others, it will make them aware of the larger call to action, to get them to join advocacy groups that punish industrial and systemic issues.
I can't stop fascism or climate change or pollution on my own. I need MORE people engaged and telling people we need all or nothing solutions can only lower the number of people willing to take action. Individual, even trivial steps matter.
Look at the people telling you to give up.
No one is saying to give up. The fact that you hear "stop wasting your energy trying to solve things in ways that are controlled by the people profiting from the problem" and interpret that as "give up" tells us all exactly how engaged you are with anything that actually might make a difference.
Your lack of reading comprehension tells me exactly how much you think.
My point being: 'give up' is what some people, who would otherwise be our allies, are hearing. Stop telling *them* to give up.
You won't make more anti-capitalists by squashing the people who see the problems and want to solve them just not in your way. That only accelerates us towards the fascism you claim to be against.
The actual point being that nobody who hears "give up" when they're told to stop wasting energy on the "solutions" provided by the people who don't want the problem solved will ever be an ally until they first stop giving oxygen to the non-solutions. Until then they are an adversary, not an ally.
Can you reddit fucks please learn to say "That's not what I meant"