That’s the problem with this entire post. Who is saying any of this? Whose morals are we talking about? If you can just as easily recycle something as throw it in the trash and you choose not to recycle because your rent is too high and your boss is a piece of shit, that’s just nonsense. On the other hand, as a vegan, I personally do not have any moral objection to you illegally hunting animals for food if that’s the only access to food you have. What is the point of any of this, is this some kind of vaguebooking about some other post?
Giving a shit about recycling is mentally taxing. One of the worst parts of being poor is the mental strain of uncertainty inherent in your life which makes long-term planning and delaying gratification increasingly difficult. Any ounce of willpower you have needs to be spent maintaining or improving your situation, not used up doing things that have literally no impact on your life.
This is why veganism is typically seen by poor people as an extravagant virtue signal of wealthy people. Poor people may choose to eat fewer animal products because they are expensive - but few would turn down a free well cooked steak. Caring about animal rights or the environment is something only the wealthy have the mental bandwidth to do - telling a poor person that they should do these things only serves to alienate them.
I’ve been pretty poor - I was just reviewing my social security statement and I made less than $15k two years in a row. I’ve been the overemployed kind of poor (working multiple jobs) and the underemployed kind (out of work). I’ve been a vegetarian throughout, and I’ve always managed to put my recycling into a bin.
I also have ADHD, and there are times when I get overwhelmed and do have to compromise my morals on something like throwing stuff away instead of donating to get through a move when I don’t have the bandwidth.
But those are stories about me, not generalizations about everyone who is poor or everyone with ADHD. If you want to talk about your own struggles, that’s great, we’ll listen. But you don’t get to generalize about everyone else you have decided must be just like you. Being poor sucks, but if you are bound and determined to wallow and to bring everyone else down with you, that’s on you. These generalizations are not making some kind of classist point you think they are.
At any rate, what I was trying to say was that recycling doesn’t solve every problem poor people face. I didn’t say “Don’t recycle if you’re poor because it does nothing.”
That’s the problem with this entire post. Who is saying any of this? Whose morals are we talking about? If you can just as easily recycle something as throw it in the trash and you choose not to recycle because your rent is too high and your boss is a piece of shit, that’s just nonsense. On the other hand, as a vegan, I personally do not have any moral objection to you illegally hunting animals for food if that’s the only access to food you have. What is the point of any of this, is this some kind of vaguebooking about some other post?
Giving a shit about recycling is mentally taxing. One of the worst parts of being poor is the mental strain of uncertainty inherent in your life which makes long-term planning and delaying gratification increasingly difficult. Any ounce of willpower you have needs to be spent maintaining or improving your situation, not used up doing things that have literally no impact on your life.
This is why veganism is typically seen by poor people as an extravagant virtue signal of wealthy people. Poor people may choose to eat fewer animal products because they are expensive - but few would turn down a free well cooked steak. Caring about animal rights or the environment is something only the wealthy have the mental bandwidth to do - telling a poor person that they should do these things only serves to alienate them.
I’ve been pretty poor - I was just reviewing my social security statement and I made less than $15k two years in a row. I’ve been the overemployed kind of poor (working multiple jobs) and the underemployed kind (out of work). I’ve been a vegetarian throughout, and I’ve always managed to put my recycling into a bin.
I also have ADHD, and there are times when I get overwhelmed and do have to compromise my morals on something like throwing stuff away instead of donating to get through a move when I don’t have the bandwidth.
But those are stories about me, not generalizations about everyone who is poor or everyone with ADHD. If you want to talk about your own struggles, that’s great, we’ll listen. But you don’t get to generalize about everyone else you have decided must be just like you. Being poor sucks, but if you are bound and determined to wallow and to bring everyone else down with you, that’s on you. These generalizations are not making some kind of classist point you think they are.
Who said anything about not recycling for those reasons? I said that recycling isn’t going to solve all of the problems that poor people face.
Nice cliche veganism toss-in though.
That’s literally how your post reads. Maybe you should save up for English classes.
It’s “literally” not. You’re “literally” interpreting it that way. Maybe you should’ve actually paid attention to the ones your parents paid for.
Touché
Thank you for seeing clearly.
At any rate, what I was trying to say was that recycling doesn’t solve every problem poor people face. I didn’t say “Don’t recycle if you’re poor because it does nothing.”