how can something be so courageous and yet so true

Nope sorry, there are many much less capitalistically aggressive alternatives to starbucks and apple. Slaves on the other hand literally (and not figuratively as in here) needed to keep slaving to stay alive. I would seriously feel cramps in my stomach if I walked into a starbucks with that sticker.

Im not judging her because of any hypocrisy. Im judging her because she's a mac user.

It's because they aren't using a used ThinkPad

As Linux enthusiast I think I have to jump in and say if you're not using a 10-year-old Thinkpad bought second hand running EndeavorOS you're not a true socialist

(Obviously I'm not serious but Poe's Law is a bitch)

Macs naturally can not be stolen or obtain second hand as a gift or in some other sort of deal.

Damn you capitalism for forcing me to buy a mac!

Oh, I didn't know you needed apple products, the most monopolistic tech company to exist, to survive. That explains why their fans are so rabbid. I better switch from Linux otherwise I'll die.

Also a product isn't a bad product, just because it is produced under capitalism. A computers ability to compute does not depend on its mode of production.

Paying $7 for very shitty coffee is still a strange decision to me, but I understand

You can pick up a refurbed MacBook for under $800. Or maybe it's a hand-me down. Or maybe, like me, at the end of a contract their employer said "We ran out of money so consider your laptop payment."

And additionally progress of society has always to be driven by immanent critique, wich is critique from inside the given historical social order.

Who would criticise human society if not its humans? How would any will to change it ever emerge?

... or maybe she thought it's an edgy sticker and fits her style?

Idk. But if you really were serious about smashing capitalism, it's kinda irrelevant how much stuff you buy, there's a lot of groundwork to be done, organizing and educating. For all we know, that may be what she's doing in that photo.

If she dressed in rags, owned nothing and was homeless, I fail to see how that would accomplish anything more.

Although I prefer to support local businesses, not a fan of massive corporate chains. My city has dozens of local coffee shops that serve fair trade products. I can walk to a half dozen of them, whether or not I bring my ancient 2011 laptop. But I do love my principles being questioned by smug internet randos so 🖕

But Apple is one of the good embodiment of capitalism. It is a symbol of excessive consumption, surveillance for profit, and consumer-right abuse.

That being said, is not like most popular alternatives are any better. If people don't have time to switch to or even heard about better alternatives (upgradeable open hardware running an open community-driven OS), I guess it is not their fault.

Starbucks, however, has many alternatives (at least in the U.S.) that doesn't involve as much union busting and harmful labor practices.

Oh sorry, I forgot I had the option of pulling a "Sliders" and finding myself in Socialism world, where I can get a tax-payer funded laptop and coffee I get according to my needs, paid for by what I can give with my abilities... Completely fair to judge me for that!

Well an argument against Apple products specifically is that they promote anti consumer trends.

Proprietary cables, unrepairable devices, having an ecosystem that is hostile to third party devices, popularising things like sealed batteries or removal of headphone jacks.

Apple actively is making the tech world worse imo.

Another point to her cause I haven't seen in the comments -

How old is that MacBook and how many hands has it passed through? In my experience, anybody with new (any tech really but ESPECIALLY) Apple products keeps that shiz pristine. I grab a cheap laptop off CL though I'll absolutely sticker it up.

My vote is she's in a school program or something that requires macos stuff and grabbed it second hand off someone on the cheap.

I use a 300usd MacBook pro from 2013 that I put Linux Mint on. It looks exactly the same as a 2024 MacBook Pro.

Your not allowed to have things if you don't support capitalism, you must live like a preindustrial peasant or else you are a hypocrite. /s

Really a fucken mac and a cup of coffee is trivial compared to billionaires and their private jets and mega yachts.

1200$ isn't even that much for a luxury item jeez and its not even really a luxury item. For an absolute fuck load of jobs, as well as online billing and banking and a whole host of other crap its 100% a requirement to own your own laptop. Yes it would be great if that wasn't necessary, hence the anti capitalism, but individuals fucking themselves over by trying to pointlessly abstain from participating is not going to solve things.

I don't drive, I don't own a car, I fucking hate cars, but I don't shit on people who have one because I understand its necessary for them. And even with me trying to abstain I still end up dependent on cars a lot and in a lot of ways it fucking makes my life more difficult. I am fucking mad at the systems that made that a requirement not at the people who are just trying to survive in the system. Its not magic how we ended up here, people in power made choices.

Thats what's so annoying about these lines of reasoning is you get accused of hypocrisy if you don't intentionally make your life shit

Imagine owning a laptop that you can't replace ram or the ssd of.

If everyone is going to be paid fairly for their labor, plenty of electronics are going to dramatically rise in price, as they rely in materials that are often obtained through people working in miserable conditions, sometimes reaching extremes such as child slavery.

I for one am willing to pay more if that means we fight against the abuse generated by this system.

that would be me with my $150 kitted out ebay special thinkpad (ignore that i own four of them, they're spare parts and i can gift them to people. They're good laptops) somewhere, in a place, i don't like business establishments.

To be fair, no system is perfect. Allowing people to both disconnect and be better at least acknowledges that the society needs both an eye inside and an eye from outside in order to improve

I love it when people use the absolute-unethical capitalism comment when we do have initiatives out in the world that are progressing to indeed bring better conditions to workers or help solve other problems.

See the following, in no particular order; also note that most of this is with reference to textiles, but some overlap with other sectors:

• United Nations (aka Global Compact, Global Compact on Migration, Global Compact on Refugees)

• OEKO-TEX

• The Textile Exchange

• Forest Stewardship Council

• Science Based Targets Initiative

• Global Standard (aka GOTS)

• International Accreditation Forum (aka ISO)

• SEDEX (aka SMETA)

• PETA

• Good Jobs First

• Fairtrade Labelling Organization International (aka FairTrade)

• B Lab

• Bluesign Technologies

• Social Accountability International

• Climate Neutral

• amfori (aka BSCI)

• Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (aka WRAP)

• 1% For The Planet

• Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

• Sustainable Apparel Coalition

• Stichting ZHDC Foundation

• Fair Wear Foundation

• Global Green USA

• Global Reporting Initiative (aka GRI) via Corporate Register

• Regenerative Organic Alliance (aka ROC)

• Better Cotton Initiative (aka BCI)

• CELC Developpement (aka European Flax™, Masters of Linen™ Certified)

• Belgian Flax & Linen Association (aka Belgian Linen™ Certified)

• European Union (aka Ecolabel Certified)

• United States of America (aka USDA Organic)

• American Apparel and Footwear Association

• Canopy Planet

• Ecological and Toxicological Association of Dyes and Organic Pigments Manufacturers (aka ETAD)

• Better Work aka International Labor Organization aka United Nations / International Finance, Corporation aka World Bank Group

• Open Supply Hub

• TÜV AUSTRIA

• International Association of Better Business Bureau

• Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

• U.S. Green Building Council (aka USGBC)

• CSP Worldwide (auditor)

• Ecovadis (auditor)

• MSCI (auditor)

• Sustainalytics (auditor)

I'm sure there are plenty of others out there, but I think at least for the textile sector, there is a consorted effort towards a better economy for workers, users, and the planet. See also Fairphone and their FarTrade Gold program, as well as Framework laptops.

Oo k. But why the male actor guy?

Let me know when someone dies without Starbucks. I have all life, so take your time.

Vaguely related.. reminding me of my struggle as I research investing in new laptop.

Looking for something powerful enough for live DJ, live music production performance with groove box, keyboard, etc, ideally graphic design sufficient as well. Want ability to move my crafts to a buddy's studio or a proper gig.

Big needs of course are robust processing power/ram, loads of storage ideal, battery life a big plus, quieter than gaming PC preferred, lots of ports a must, and goddammit I want it to last more than a few years before it declines sharply.

I really don't want an Apple. Been there; done that; over it. College graphic design machine had a graphic card that crapped out extra early. Plenty of spots would recommend Apple. Haven't gone too deep on Linux so no idea if software and live performance will work on that consistently and reliably. Generally use mostly Windows 10 these days.

If anyone has any insights or recommendations on a lappy that checks my boxes I am all ears and eager for discussion!

What a stupid fucking analogy. Protesting capitalism with stickers in Starbucks = living under slavery. Fuck off.

So a perspective I haven’t seen here yet: in many places, Starbucks is the only suitable third space left. I.e. place that is not work/school or home. I have non-Starbucks cafes nearby, but due to astronomical and increasing rent for all the independent cafes in walking distance, they are in smaller buildings and they can’t afford to have people sitting for hours on laptops using the WiFi/talking to friends/reading a book. I still support my local cafes for food and coffee, or really short meetings with folks, but if I need to get out of the house and spend time in public where I’m not obligated to speedrun my coffee, Starbucks is The Choice.

And that’s why i might be inside of a Starbucks while hating capitalism. Because capitalism made Starbucks the only corporation able to afford proper cafe space.

(There is a library nearby, yes, but not with good space for sitting down and working on a laptop. And even having THAT Is a massive privilege)

(Also I actually do have a MacBook that I do my personal stuff on, because of various bits of software i need that are OS specific, which is annoying as heck but i got used to my work mac anyways and then found a nice one used… so yeah.)

Nobody is forcing you to buy a mac and a Starbucks 🤣

Bait post

Is that Michael reeves?

Both points sort of miss the mark, though the lower one moreso imo.

You don't need and $7 coffee and you don't need a $1200 laptop. You won't die without either. They are conveniences, and relying upon or expecting them is consumerism, a social manipulation tool of capitalism. Nothing is stopping you from directly opposing consumerism through your actions-- you don't need to buy their coffee, you don't need to buy their laptops.

If you're truly against late-stage capitalism, you should be exploring actions you are comfortable taking to disempower it, not complacently feed into it. Maybe make your own coffee, or quit the stuff. Maybe buy an old laptop and install FOSS software on it. Maybe just buy recently-last-gen parts second-hand and build exactly the computer you need for less money than you'd spend on something you only sort of like from a manufacturer whose monopolistic behaviors you disagree with.

All I've got to say in the end is that there are options, and doomer complacency is meaningless and counterproductive.

CLEAN IT UP FEED HOT POCKETS DILATE SEETHE CITY SLICKER DILATE CITY SLICKER JANNIES FEED JANNIES FOR FREE CITY SLICKER FUCK FUCK ON LEMMY FLOYD JANNY AND COPE HOT POCKETS JANNIES SNEED'S COPE DILATE I CAN'T CHUCK SEED HOT POCKETS COPE ON LEMMY SUCK FUCK COPE SEETHE SUCK SNEED'S CITY SLICKER COPE SEED FLOYD CITY SLICKER I CAN'T AND COPE FEED FOR FREE COPE FEED CHUCK'S

In response to your edit, there's a difference between being forced to buy products that employ slave labor and choosing to buy something that is extremely overpriced because of capitalism. Yes you need to live within the system, but that doesn't mean you buy the most expensive and wasteful version and then claim "well I had no choice!". You have choices. You're just being willfully ignorant of them and shifting the blame to someone else. Heaven forbid you become part of the solution and not just another addition to the problem.

FUCK CHUCK SNEED'S DILATE CHUCK'S SNEED'S CITY SLICKER FUCK SNEED SNEED'S SNEED'S CLEAN IT UP JANNY JANNY FEED CHUCK'S AND FEED SNEED DILATE COPE JANNY JANNY JANNIES HOT POCKETS ON LEMMY AND SNEED CLEAN IT UP COPE SNEED'S CHUCK SNEED JANNY CITY SLICKER SEETHE CLEAN IT UP CITY SLICKER CHUCK FUCK CHUCK SEED FEED FEED SNEED'S CLEAN IT UP SEED FEED SUCK CHUCK'S

Yeah, BS. If you choose to buy an apple product, new or used, you are still supporting capitalism even if in name only. The product is almost synonymous with pursuing a social cache rather than just useful and mundane functionality.

Needs more words

Least wordy leftist meme.

"artificially inflated in value"? I'd like to see someone's proposal for how they plan on making a high end laptop and a fancy drink made by someone else, which also comes with wifi and a nice place to sit any cheaper.

I wouldn't buy them but they're not artificially inflated.

Edit: wait where is the Starbucks? I don't see it in the pic

Yes you truly need Starbucks and labtops to live