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I know this is a bit of a meme, but there is no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism. It’s entirely a question of where you choose to draw the line.

This applies to a lot of causes/principles I care about, but to illustrate with my stance on LGBT issues:

• If a company openly donates directly to anti-LGBT causes? I’d boycott them, no further questions needed.

• If a high ranking member of a company donates to anti-LGBT causes using their own (likely unethically obtained) funds? I’d boycott for sure unless their product/service is an absolute necessity.

• If a company is headquartered in a state/country that is anti-LGBT? I would definitely boycott as long as there is a suitable alternative.

• If a company pays/employs people who are anti-LGBT? Gosh, well, that’s probably most companies. Is it possible to account for how every individual employee/beneficiary chooses to spend the money they make for their work? I have no capacity to make choices at this point.

Those are my lines.

When I shop at the supermarket, I have to accept that there are likely people working there somewhere with horrible beliefs whose income is financially supported by my patronage. When I buy clothing, I have to accept that there are probably products I’ve purchased that are made through exploitative labor practices. When it is within my means to spend capital more ethically, I will. But it is absolutely not possible for me to ensure that every dollar I spend goes to a worthwhile cause or to someone who deserves it.

The Good Place really illustrated this point well in the later episodes. In the modern world where everything is so much more interconnected than ever before, we need to redefine traditional ethics to better consider what is practical for normal people. And the worse your circumstances are, the harder it is to have that luxury of choice.

Mali*, not Malaysia. Malaysia’s TLD is .my

Give me the outcome of The Good Place as well where you can choose oblivion after there’s nothing left to do.

San Junipero was one of the few “happy” episodes of Black Mirror but it didn’t ask the question of “where are we in 10,000 years?” like The Good Place considered.

Yes, and they’re pronounced the same in the US.

Kilometer has the same stressed syllable as odometer in American English.

Easier just to distinguish pronunciation as -ometer vs -meter.

If that’s how you choose to read into my comment, there’s no helping you.

Why would you even assume I’m white? Do you think I just moved to China on a whim? All Chinese people have to be born in China and nowhere else?

Fuck this.

You’re right. A lot of people in China would probably disagree with me. But a lot of people in China lack the basic critical thinking skills to even question their circumstances, because secondary schools (if you even have the means to attend one) don’t like students who ask too many questions.

A lot of people in the US would also disagree with me politically, because they think they were chosen by Jesus to oppress brown people and spread glorious capitalism around the world. But that doesn’t make them right either.

I am a Marxist. I’ve done my homework. What do you want me to do, start quoting Zizek or Gramsci to pass your shitty litmus test?

China is an experiment in socialism gone awry, because like the rest of the world, those with power lust over capital. I lived in a T3 city in China where things were relatively quiet, but flew out to visit a friend way down in Shenzhen periodically. It’s hard to see billionaire kids racing their Ferraris down the street there while the poor masses look down from the windows of their destitute coffin house apartments and think that this is somehow a socialist success story.

China is as capital-driven as any other world power. The government just likes to participate in it a bit more directly.

But sure, you’re the expert, not me, so I’m sure this is all just capitalist propaganda intended to denounce great Mao zhuxi and sabotage the workers’ revolution.

My man, I lived in China. You don’t have to sell me this bullshit.

I’m going to level with you, I don’t have time to watch an hour long video for a topic that is likely just government-approved talking points.

In practice, I just don’t see any difference in the way the mega rich in China control society, just as they do in the rest of the western world. There is too much aesthetic reverence for the West in the upper eschelons of Chinese society.

It is just as dystopic as the West with the way workers are used as fodder by megacorps with no regard for their well-being. Any country with such widespread income inequality cannot call itself a socialist success story.

China is a terrible example of a socialist economy, and the others are still mired by poverty. One could claim that is due to capitalist sabotage, but I don’t think it does socialism any favors to use them as success stories.

Just to add onto this good answer, you are really only expected to tip for sit-down restaurants with service and bars.

For takeout, cafes, fast food, etc., you don’t need to tip. A lot of places these have payment machines that just ask if you want to tip by default. You can safely hit “No tip” on these if you don’t want to.

Ostensibly it’s just to replace the tip jar for those who don’t use cash, but the prompt appearing every time you pay by card has convinced a lot of people that tipping is what you’re supposed to do in those situations, when in reality you have no obligation to.