Is consumerism the most cancerous American cultural export?

source?

Finland has made media literacy part of their basic curriculum. They're apparently disturbed enough by fake news (and its progenitor, advertising) to do something about it, while we are asking our corporate benefactors to do it for us in completely stony-faced seriousness. It's disgusting.

I'm not anti-capitalist, or anti-consumerist, or even anti-corporate. But part of being realistic about business is recognizing what is and isn't its proper role. Rather than begging corporations to practice social responsibility on our behalf, we should practice our responsibility ourselves and make sure people grow up with capacity to make their own decisions, using the institutions we already have set up for that specific purpose. And instead we're talking about fucking buying guns for school.

Maybe if you had media literacy curriculum, you'd recognize that this is satire.

Consumerism is capitalism's drive, its motivation, and it works.

Motivation is a tricky thing. Take the communists, they appeared motivated but really the system was decaying from within. The bureaucrats had no intention of doing what was right, only making their performance look good on paper and not rocking the boat.

Contrast this with capitalism. We should be in a time of peace and tranquility yet it is a constant maelstrom, every so often a bubble bursts or the market overreacts to some minor event only for savvy investors wait to buy everything up for firesale prices. New companies steal market share from the old then they too age and die. There is always something. If there isn't someone will fill the gap.

If people were content with the little things they would become docile and complacent, they would stagnate. Consumerism makes people want more even when they have everything.

Greed drives progress

>People wanting to buy stuff is an American cultural export
Nice brainletry, dude.

And what exactly is wrong with being content?

Finland has more mass shootings per capita than the USA fwiw

No, morons are the people who think advertising doesn't by its very design work without you knowing it works.

How many times have you walked past dozens or even hundreds of items in a store you've never tried to buy the one thing you're familiar with? That's advertising. Brand loyalty is the strongest element of modern advertising.

We wouldn't want to explore space if we were content with Earth.

>morons are influenced
>Being manipulated is a choice

why should i give a shit about space?

people aren't naturally content. If nothing else a capital market for food will always explode. Setting up other capital markets is just a question of exploiting a basic psychological drive (hunger, sex, competition, security, etc)

Look at what crops up on black markets in failing states and you'll see how capitalism works in its most base ways. Communism, on the other hand, demands individuals act against base drives.

If you don't want the human race to go extinct eventually.

Not worst than identity politics

...

A market is not exclusive to capitalism, you dunce.