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No social movement in history has ever been powered by people being considerate about their consumption patterns. I'm not saying it's a waste of effort, but I am saying this is unlikely to be sufficient to any cause. In fact, I'd posit that it has a far greater (and largely negative) impact on your life than it has a positive one on other peoples' lives.


As a counterpoint, here's a brief history of social movements that were powered (in part) by considerate consumption patterns:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott

They were organized of course, which starts by communicating your cause and action to other individuals.


Boycotts are precisely the type of ineffective political action to which I'm referring, so I'm not sure i understand your point.


To pick an extreme example, should you steal something that's lying out in the open in a dodgy area because someone else will if you don't? Some things you do for yourself, and an action isn't required to have an effect for it to be moral.




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