"Deferred gratification means no gratification on the scale of a lifetime.
If you are living a life that is not gratifying now… you are not living."
Link: https://www.resilience.org/stories/2026-02-18/joyful-hedonism/
"This culture strips that essence from each of us. We have created a system that channels reward...to a very few people, while literally destroying everything else. By stealing our embodied contentment, this culture erases our lives."
Just because the form looks right -- there are medical schools; they have buildings; they have teachers; they give courses, etc. -- does not mean that meaningful teaching and learning are occurring when consumerism supercedes serious institutional assessment of competency. For schools whose graduates directly affect public health and safety, this condition is a clear violation of public trust.
-- Michael Gordon (University of Kansas)
⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #MichaelGordon #Consumerism #MedicalEducation #PublicHealth
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Panopainting #Kayaks #Everglades #Florida
I put stickers on my computer to make it seem new and tamp down the desire to buy a new computer that I don't need. It worked at first, but the yearning is back.
I think the solution is... more stickers. :)
New limited release colors on trail/dirt running shoes. Sigh. They just turn some shade of dirt…#consumerism
Oh well, at least I can start my car by connecting my watch to my fridge from the bathtub. #capitalism #consumerism #plannedobsolescense
somehow gives me hope that the utopian potential for fostering the anti-capitalist imagination i've seen in consumer culture is shared by someone - as i'm constantly on the verge of giving it up... https://jacobin.com/2026/02/working-class-consumerism-staley-epstein #consumerism #resistance #anticapitalism
The Working Class Can’t Be Bought Off Quite So Easily
https://jacobin.com/2026/02/working-class-consumerism-staley-epstein
> In one email to Jeffrey Epstein, former CEO of #Barclays Jes Staley explains that the reason the #masses aren’t in revolt against the #rich is that they’re placated by #consumerism and #celebrity culture. Unfortunately for them, people aren’t that easy to deceive.
Experiences Over Electronics
I used to be that guy. You know the type. First in line for every gadget, every shiny new toy. New computer? Already pre-ordered. New watch? I had it before you knew it existed. New phone? Please. I had one before it had a name. God forbid someone else had something cooler than me. I was wading knee-deep in consumer bullshit, thinking every new device was somehow going to fix the gnawing void that most of us pretend doesn’t exist. Then something weird happened. Life. Real life. It didn’t […]https://ericfoltin.com/2026/02/12/experiences-over-electronics/
I have less of a problem with “everyone can just do anything” and more with the incredible waste it takes to keep generating similar things.
https://stellify.net/at-what-cost/
One man’s struggles with #PostWar #consumerism We review #SloanWilson’s #1955 #novel #TheManintheGrayFlannelSuit: http://wp.me/P23AlC-FV
“The attrition of civic memory and craft knowledge, a reduced attention span and loss of discrimination, the attenuation of nuance and the homogenization of vocabulary — in all these ways the decay of literacy currently serves both the manufacture of consent and the accumulation of capital."
--George Scialabba
People more likely to fix old devices due to inflation; rising prices is killing consumerism
RE: https://mastodon.social/@kottke/116013120934445460
CONTEXT
the Government Pension Fund of Norway is the largest sovereign-wealth fund in the planet; investing over a real, EU trillion in businesses worldwide.
where did they get the money to start the fund? FROM SURPLUS PETROLEUM & FOSSIL FUEL REVENUES. Norway nationalized key sectors of their economy, starting with oil & gas.
so the Norwegian government uses oil & gas money to rid the country of #petromafia #consumerism thru investments not taxes.
take that, neoliberal capitalists.
Is it me, or are the web search results more and more products and companies? I want articles and discussion not marketing. Does everything evolve towards commerce? Am I romanticizing the web of the past? I’ve been on it since 1994 (a tiny bit) but mostly from when had a computer of my own 2004 (holy heck that wasn’t long ago).
I know stuff changes… social media platforms, blogging, etc. Searching the web stuff I feel fuzzier about though.
Used google a lot, last year duck duck go.
Could be me. I mean the internet is a lot of things but also the Yellow Pages now (the old fashioned phone and address directory… can’t believe I feel like I should define this, lol). I’m also not a big computer geek.
#internet #searchengines #www #capitalism #consumerism #OneOfTheOlds
Starting to read this giant tome today. Been waiting for me for a couple of years. Quite the challenge for the slow reader at 842 pages, plus notes, etc.
Well lookee lookee. #ai got beat out by #consumerism in the U.S.
*arches eyebrow*
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/01/26/ai-wasnt-the-biggest-engine-of-us-gdp-growth-in-2025.html
Looking back at my "wishlist" of stuff I thought I wanted at the time (saved in Linkding) is amusing because most of it I forgot about or don't even care about anymore. Glad I dropped items in the wishlist rather than hit "Buy Now", saved me thousands.
