[orange character is smiling smugly, doing a finger gun, in front of the “1860 WEEKLY SLAVE MARKET” in which a crowd of people are browsing slaves, while some slaves ask “please help…”]
There is no ethical consumption under capitalism bro, everything is equally bad
I won’t stop buying slaves until the state compels me not to, until then to each their own and let’s agree to disagree and I’ll have you know my family needs their labor
It’s great that you can live without slaves though, keep being an anti-slavery activist it’s awesome!
You’re the best!
You are using technology. Technology uses lithium and cobalt from conflict zones and areas using slave labor.
You are a hypocrit.
No moral consumption means that it’s impossible to interact with this society without supporting some awful shit. It doesn’t mean do whatever lol doesn’t matter haha
Owning slaves wouldn’t count. That’s pretty direct harm.
Based on their past work, OP/the artist is not a hypocrit, they’re intentionally making the character sound like an asshole.
Yeah, this misses the mark for sure. “No ethical consumption under capitalism” is the response to someone calling you a hypocrite for being critical of capitalism while still necessarily engaging in it. Which the OP is doing, as you pointed out.
The point is that just because there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism doesn’t mean we should drop all pretense of trying, because there are still levels of unethicality.
The better analogy would be a 19th C American using products derived from cotton picked by slaves
Or the other way round, in the modern day the slave owners are the owners of the cobalt mines or whatever