Consumer culture and you: What qualifies as consoomerism and what doesnt? -

[Legoshi]

I'm a firm believer of the saying "buy cheap, buy twice." I hate buying poorly made, cheap shit, regardless of what it is. The fact that most woke lefty types who complain about environmental impacts are the ones who buy cheap non reusable products is absolute irony. Oh, and I forgot about the ones who go vegan because muh "environmentalism" but buy the latest IPhone and fashion trends before dumping them.

I'm not the most eco friendly person out there, but I like to buy refurbished and used things if I can. I plan on buying more refurbished electronics in the future.

When it comes to photography, camera technology doesn't nearly become as obsolete as computers and smart devices. Many of the upgraded models are almost exactly the same as the previous ones and it's a good idea to wait for a few years when the price lowers. In fact, many cameras and lenses are still supported years after their releases. I love buying second hand cameras and lenses and most of my gear is second hand now. I usually use most of my gear for my career. I also love older cameras and lenses too but I want to be careful with the money I have now and show some appreciation for what I already have.

 

[HymanHive]

If you can't explain in detail why you need that product, you've fallen for marketing.

Here's a little psychological trick if you're ever unsure: Ask yourself if you can smell bacon, or imagine what you had for breakfast. picture it, remember the taste and smell. (this is a mental pallet cleanser to stop the compliance and marketing officials from selling you shit that you don't need)

Then think about if you need that product again

 

[Interchanger]

I live a life mostly opposite a consumer, newest electronic good I got was a phone. And it was a cheep phone not even over a hundred. And the only reason I bought it was the audio jack on the old one broke and the screen had been cracked badly for about a year. New phone is great, can actually run some games on it which is nice.

 

[Thiletonomics]

When it comes to cars, given how in most cases, they are an necessity for people, at what point does a car purchase turn into consoomerism? Some example questions would be:

-Would leasing a luxury car, and then leasing another one once the lease is up, and repeat, is consoomerism, or just wanting to have that new car smell every 3 years, plus not having to deal with maintenance hassles (especially with German luxury cars) that come after the warranty expires?

-Let's say that a car that you like very much gets totaled in an accident, and completely written off. Buying a new car of the same model wouldn't be consoomerism at all, or would it?

-Is buying a car that's on the expensive side in general, i.e. luxury cars, instead of the cheapest brands, i.e. Mitsubishi, or a good-conditioned used car, considered consoomerism at all?

-Would switching from an ICE-powered car, to an EV, be consoomerism?

-The only thing that I can think of that would be consoomerism is if you buy a new car, and it has so many issues to the point that the car is declared a lemon, the dealer buys the car back, and then you buy the same brand, or flat out same car again, i.e. a Tesla.

 

[Haim Arlosoroff]

Samworth Hydington has already given the knockout lesson on CONSOOMERs.

They have a Firefly Cargo Crate STARTING AT $62.00/ Crate + Shipping. This isn't Rick and Morty where everything is unique and yet blandly identical and simple because its an extended childhood helping to stagnate your life, until you're bitter and you want to punch nazis so you feel connected to something like a good democrat drone. There were only 10 episodes, how many shitty joke T-Shirts can there even be? Imagine every month, 60$+ Loot Crate plus the shipping. Exclusive Firefly collectibles, gear and shiny apparel? Sign me up, there's no goddamn way I could be disappointed. They had 10 episodes, this isn't star wars with (formerly) an extended universe. How many crates before you start to get background set props that you can't even find in the show?

Loot Crates are the most consoomerist thing I can think of, they're literally gifting you things like you're a child on christmas day or having a birthday with friends. But you don't have friends, or you wouldn't be buying things that act like surrogate friendships. We're finding massive piles of beany babies that everyone forgot about, why do funko-pop collectors assume what they're doing is anything more than burning piles of money in the yard. They're not going to value funko-pops, because they already know they don't value beany babies. Men acting like boys, so they don't see themselves as adult failures. For corporate profit, and nothing else.

People used to have culture, now they have stuff. People used to tie dye their shirts, now we just buy them and never wear them. I hate the commodification of things, women hire nannies so they can have kids and a career which other women also now need to as well in order to pay the bills because labor costs are through the floor because supply doubled when we hired the willing career woman. People buy food because no woman (or man) can cook any more. women are getting weighted blankets "scientifically proven to dramatically reduce stress & anxiety" instead of having a social circle and a man about the house. Its like quick sand. Pets instead of kids so you don't have to get nannies living a life that contains ever smaller life in it. Just stuff, hoarding collections of surrogacies for having a life.

Nobody has families, and large friendship circles. Nobody wants to own property and manage it unless its to rent it out so you can make money to spend money renting substitutions for having a life. Whats the point? Even the immigrants aren't having kids. We're becoming a vast boring meaningless genetic death spiral. We're min-maxing our checkbooks and our lifestyles on one side of the equation and then spending it on consoomerism.

Its one thing to vacation every year with your wife, that's living. Buying products you don't value but collect anyway is sick.

When it comes to cars, given how in most cases, they are an necessity for people, at what point does a car purchase turn into consoomerism?

When you start accessorizing and spending in excess of what you need, heated seats for your wife? Not Consooming. Heated Seats because the dealer told you to get them, made them sound not optional? Consooming. Are you buying the product to buy the product? Do you care about the difference? If not, don't do it. Don't. Save your money.

Now things get complicated if you went with the model with the larger engine. Did you need it? Are you going to show it off to your friends? If you didn't need it, and you actually don't show it off then its consooming. If you got friends and your driving the big truck potentially to use it but also to show it off then it might be consooming but you shouldn't worry about it if it made a difference at least once and your friends didn't mock you for it. Social signalling isn't consooming if the purchase had the social effect. Wise hedging and buying the winch when you're off-roading it is smart, you'll find that out. A decorative winch that doesn't function? Imagine showing your friends that like it was a smart purchase. Thats Consooming.

Expensive shit is sometimes not consooming if you're getting a social effect worth the cost, if you're getting a use out of it you couldn't with the cheaper option, or if your hedging against some misfortune which might befall you. Consooming isn't bad once or twice, but like drinking to excess and losing the next day to it, you should try to keep it under control financially. If its an addiction, which doesn't even bring you joy, you need help and you should confess it to a friend or loved one.

 

[Piss!]

The difference between collecting stuff as a hobby and being a cuck soyboy consoomer is simple: people who collect the same stuff as me are the based ones, who do it for smart reasons. Everyone else does it for stupid reasons.

There is not really a good way to divide the two.

My general rule is that I try not to buy stuff if I already have one of whatever the thing is that works fine. For example, I have a TV that's big enough for me and my wife to sit on the couch and watch from across the room. I figure I am good on buying a new TV for at least ten years, maybe twenty. And, hell, I only have this one because my friend gave it to me when he replaced it with a bigger one. Why did he need to do that? Go figure.

 

[Lemmingwise]

I hate the commodification of things, women hire nannies so they can have kids

This has been happening for centuries though for those who can afford it.

 

[Haim Arlosoroff]

This has been happening for centuries though for those who can afford it.

From my point of view, Consoomerism has existed for centuries though for those who can afford it. Its just that the middle class sometimes learns how to really act upper class.

Although, I meant full time nannies not "hired a baby-sitter once to go out on a friday night" nannies just to be clear.

 

[ArnoldPalmer]

I can put this pretty simply. You might like looney tunes, but you probably don't have a room in your house dedicated only to Warner Bros. Memorabilia. You might enjoy NASCAR, but you probably don't fill all of the negative space on your garage walls with Dale Jr. stickers. You're probably also not one of those boomers who tries collecting every specimen of Coca-Cola bottle ever made.

That's the dividing line. When fandom becomes worship. The Coke can guy isn't a fan of the soft drink, he's a fan of the brand itself. That's what makes a consoomer.

 

[Scarmiglione]

I see the big difference being the pursuit of an aesthetic or anaesthetic high. The anti-vital consoomer seeks distraction and escape from the world while the vital connoisseur wants to feel the world more deeply and intensely than he can at present through other pursuits. You can try to split hairs about degree of devotion, quality of product and so on, but the deciding factor of whether a person's interest in something is impressive or revolting is whether their engagement with it is a more or less human act. Is the viewer/reader/buyer/whatever trying to turn the finer and more interesting parts of his being off through his preferred practice, or is he trying to feed and stimulate it?

I spend more money on movies than i ever did on league of legends back in high school, but league is the consoomer practice. it's something i could only do as a means of hiding from the bullshit of school and people. the effect was anaesthetic, and would generally leave me feeling unsatisfied. The stimulation is simple to cover the unpleasant realities of life but doesn't come close to touching any deeper needs. the most it can offer you is a temporary high of virtual power over another miserable loser if you win. the holes in life aren't filled, only covered over for a while. Film on the other hand is this ongoing process of fascination and learning to me, there's appreciation of the tricks and techniques and strengths of the medium and how these are used to explore life in new ways. I'll pay to see something old in a cinema that i could see for free on a tv at home because it's a purer experience that let's me better get in contact with the sensations the artist wants me to appreciate in his work. Film is something i can appreciate in a spirit of true play and pure curiosity, not a tired and desperate pursuit of respite. when you look at the open mouth of a guy with a youtube channel unboxing a funko-pop you aren't seeing something childish. what's disgusting is how tired and haggard they are inside, that and the cargo-culted veneer of childishness they're unsuccessfully using to get away.

Star Wars wasn't cool in childhood because it was simple, you don't go back to that pure joy by turning your brain off and trying to psych yourself up into believing the luke skywalker action figure really is the coolest damn thing ever. Star Wars is cooler in childhood because the average child has more of the spirit of a true connoisseur than the average adult. Especially true before ipads became a thing. Star Wars was cool because it's damn cool and children are generally pretty good at liking what they like and disliking what they don't like. Look at how adults talk about star wars, perverse incentives everywhere, everyone concerned about how they look if they feel one way or another about the thing, it's sickening. Children didn't understand that a certain movie was either based or libtard, they just liked stuff that was cool.

A man full of vitality will seek experiences that make him feel more deeply than he does already, a beaten down degenerate slave-animal-creature will seek experiences that take the colour and feeling out of life so things remain bearable, pursue things that might grant some power or belonging, to make things more bearable, will seek joy and stimulation while having forgotten how to follow his own instincts and curiosity, shaping themselves into unbearable imitations of men having fun.

A consoomer is sort of like a poser, a word I really like that doesn't get used enough anymore.

 

[Based Coffee Man]

IMO consoomerism is blindly buying things without much thought. Thing look cool. Buy thing. No research on the alternatives, product reviews, videos of the product if that is relevant, and so on. The internet is a valuable tool that people just abstain from using because the Amazon algorithm determined Product A is what they want.

I won't tell people how to spend their money but you'd be surprised how much shit you wouldn't buy if you just sat on it for a day or two. Think about if you really need/want it. Let go of FOMO.

 

[Pissmaster]

Man, I've always hated consoomers since before the term even existed. Its always been visible in Nintendo fan communities, with people posting outright resentment that Nintendo released a thing and now they HAVE to buy it. Not want, have, because if they don't, they feel lesser than those that did, and therefore aren't real fans. It's a Keeping-Up-With-The-Joneses mentality, and I hate to admit it, but I fell for that shit hard for a lot longer than I should have.

Speaking of the differences between collectors and consoomers, I've thought about that quite a bit. It largely comes down to whether or not you actually care about what you're buying.

I really like this post:

Buying stuff just for the sake of buying it. Take Amiibo for example: I just like buying ones that appeal to me personally, I don't really need every single character in Smash and their tiny counterpart.

I have an Amiibo collection too, and I stuck to just buying what I like. When you're deciding whether or not to buy one, ask yourself:

• Can I tell you anything interesting about this character that you couldn't just learn from skimming their wiki article?
• Can I tell you anything interesting about this character's creation process?
• Can I tell you any interesting personal anecdotes about this character, or a game they're in?

If the answer to even just one is a "yes", then go ahead and buy it. If the answer is "no" across the board, then chances are, you're looking to buy it because of someone else's influence over you. Maybe you've got a pie-in-the-sky idea of collecting them all. Maybe you've got FOMO and you can't wait to get home and photograph it for the forum where 20 other guys are doing that, and you want your stickies. Maybe you've got a deep-seeded fear that if you don't get up at the crack of dawn and wait outside of Target in the freezing cold to get your Wario toy, you're gonna see some hee-LARIOUS meme where someone positioned their Sonic amiibo right underneath Wario's ass, and now everyone else is doing their own variants, and you can't do one because you never bought Wario because you simply aren't cool enough to hang out with the true Nintendo fans.

Speaking of which, fuck the people who keep all their Amiibos in boxes. Congratulations, a wall in your home now looks like a well-stocked Walmart. A consoomer home for a consoomer retard.

And while I'm at it, the most consoomer thing I ever hear in the world of video games is "I'm buying this just to show my support for it, in hopes they'll make a sequel". I've seen this logic applied even when a sequel was bad, and yet, they still bought it in hopes that the franchise would somehow magically git gud again on the next one. There are also the kind of idiots that buy multiple copies of the same game with no intention of playing them for that same reason. Just try asking them to buy you a new copy - they'll never do it, they're just chasing the high of buying that game for themselves the first time.

At that point, you're going beyond consooming. That's hoarding. You are coming up with flimsy reasons after the fact to justify buying a fourth copy of Bing Bing Wahoo. Yar har fiddle dee dee, you are a hoarder.

And if you're in that deep, you've got to back up and take a SERIOUS look at your life. Something, or someone in your life is causing you stress and anxiety to the point where you're acting irrational and trying to bury your distress in the best way you know how.

So, find that person causing all of your problems and BEAT THE FUCKING SHIT OUT OF THEM

 

[VIPPER?]

The line is where you start form your identity around the brands you consoom. There is nothing wrong with buying stuff, even in buying shitty toys, or even buying lots of them from the same one producer. All that does is show they make good stuff (or at least stuff you want, if it doesn't satisfy some definition of "good")

The real niggatry is collecting shit becuase you like the brand, and not because you want the thing itself. Like with Amiibos, there's people who want them for the DLC it contains, people who want them because they want the figure, and people who collect them because it's Nintendo merch and they need Nintendo everything because their Nerd Cred is damaged if they don't have every Nintendo thing. It's the latter people who are the real retards.

Shoe collectors are another good example. I've met some who are absoultely niggerish about it and collect limited edition Nike shoes because they are Nike shoes, and a lot of their persona/identity rests on being ever so hood because no hood tranah boy doesn't have Nikes. But I've also met a couple who collect them because "lmao this shoe literally has blood in it"/"lmao this shoe literally gold" and so on. Both are retarded, but only the Nike fanboy who needs Nike in his life to justify his persona is the real Consoomer™ and the other guy just has shitty taste in home decor.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

nigga technology. technology for niggas. basically un-nessecery tech made for lazy people who dont really need it.

 

[Spunt]

When it comes to cars, given how in most cases, they are an necessity for people, at what point does a car purchase turn into consoomerism? Some example questions would be:

-Would leasing a luxury car, and then leasing another one once the lease is up, and repeat, is consoomerism, or just wanting to have that new car smell every 3 years, plus not having to deal with maintenance hassles (especially with German luxury cars) that come after the warranty expires?

-Let's say that a car that you like very much gets totaled in an accident, and completely written off. Buying a new car of the same model wouldn't be consoomerism at all, or would it?

-Is buying a car that's on the expensive side in general, i.e. luxury cars, instead of the cheapest brands, i.e. Mitsubishi, or a good-conditioned used car, considered consoomerism at all?

-Would switching from an ICE-powered car, to an EV, be consoomerism?

-The only thing that I can think of that would be consoomerism is if you buy a new car, and it has so many issues to the point that the car is declared a lemon, the dealer buys the car back, and then you buy the same brand, or flat out same car again, i.e. a Tesla.

Consooming is not necessarily about what you buy, but why you buy it. If you're buying a car because it would benefit you (you want an affordable car, a comfortable car, a fast car, a reliable car, a car that feels 'right' for you to drive) you're not a consoomer. If your purchasing decision is about what other people will think about the car you drive, that's consoomerism. If you buy an Overfinch Range Rover, a Hummer H2 or a Merc G-Wagon because you enjoy the ownership/driving experience of those cars, then you're not a consoomer. Of course almost nobody buys those kinds of cars for those reasons, they're really stupid fucking cars that aren't particularly good at anything except draining your bank account, people get them because famous rappers/sportsmen/drug dealers buy them and you think that you'll get trickle-down coolness from those people as a sort of cargo-cult cool, which is consoomerism in a nutshell.

 

[Bugl]

I would define it as any purchasing behavior which becomes compulsive OR involves a cargo-cult mentality.