Ethical consumerism replaced political boycott with paid market-based moral gestures

Evidence

2. Buycotting. The second great neoliberal innovation in murketing is the creation of the phenomenon of “buycotting,” or as it is sometimes called, “ethical consumerism” (Yates, “Critical Consumption”). Instead of seeming to bypass the market altogether, as in the first case, here everyday participants are enticed to believe that it is possible to mitigate some of the worst aspects of market organization by paying an “ethical premium” for particular commodities and helping to make the world become a better place. Previous generations had sought to punish firms that were perceived to violate ethical norms by boycotting them, viz., organizing the wholesale withdrawal of purchasing power from the products of the targeted firm. In the current neoliberal era, people have been weaned off the notion that concerted political abdication from market behavior can ever succeed in its objectives, and instead have been seduced into believing that the market itself can offer sufficient choice in expression of political programs along the entire spectrum. Worried about global warming? Imaginative entrepreneurs have endeavored to purvey “carbon offsets” to consumers. Want to help African AIDS patients? Get yourself an AMEX Red Card. Want to support small independent producers in underdeveloped countries? Other entrepreneurs have conveniently developed “fair trade” brands for coffee, textiles, glass, and other imports. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 405

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘buycotting’ as the neoliberal successor to boycotting — a useful term for critiques of ethical consumption.
• SEED: An essay tracing how ‘ethical consumerism’ quietly forecloses the possibility of collective withdrawal from markets — each purchase asks individuals to express political preference through price instead of through organized refusal.
• XREF: connects to: Consumer rebellion staged as shopping defuses actual political mobilization — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 394; Consumer conformity in culture industry is exploitation dressed as humanitarianism; Trivial compliance gestures progressively erode moral resistance — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 258 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Affirmation culture degrades recognitive politics into feel-seen consumerism. #corroborates (0.90) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 102
• Consumer boycotts transformed economic power into political power in colonial America #contradicts (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1596
• Consumption practices have replaced political conviction as ideology #corroborates (0.82) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 853
• Consumer conformity in culture industry is exploitation dressed as humanitarianism #expands (0.80)
• Trivial compliance gestures progressively erode moral resistance #expands (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 258