My friend doesn't exist. He's there to illustrate a point. I thought it was obvious; guess not. It wasn't derogatory sarcasm, but sort of like a polite counter example about how irrational the action he is proposing is in the larger context of society.

>However, incomplete abstinence is better than no abstinence. Every product you refuse to buy is another dollar that these greedy amoral profiteers are deprived from. I think that counts for something, even if it is not a complete solution.

What if you work at Kodak and realize that Kodak is in a critical moment in the camera universe. Film is dead, Kodak needs to radically transform itself in order to survive. My job which is also closely tied to my survival depends critically on the business not being Boycotted by anybody, that means Americans and Chinese people.

So basically by doing this boycott, our friend has possibly condemned all the employees to lose their jobs something that's tied closely to their livelihood. Literally harming people on American soil just so he and others can "barely" harm China by keeping a photo online. Is that not evil? Likely not. Just unawareness of nuance of the complexity of the geopolitical world. Nothing is ever that simple.

Notice how I emphasized the plight of an individual rather than the company or even the country? Things need to be brought down to the job level for individuals to understand that the consequences of harming of a company isn't so simple.

In short the consequences of "incomplete" abstinence in a complex world is complex in itself. It's not "better than no abstinence."

>We live in a society that is built on a fundamentally unjust framework. It's practically impossible to avoid being tied to exploitative supply chains short of living off the grid and hand making all your own clothes and farming your own produce - and even then you will need to effectively pay tribute to your local municipality or risk falling victim to state violence.

Not only is the framework unjust, but the complexity of the assigning justice is fraught with further complexity.

Yeah China is lying about Xinjiang. Yeah a lot of what China is doing here is unjust, atrocious and unprecedented. However think about why China did this? A terrorist attack on Chinese soil that is basically the equivalent of 9/11 happened to Chinese people happened and Xinjiang is the response.

Their actions are done in order to permanently stamp out terrorism with minimal resources, minimal violence while maximizing central control and eliminating as many freedoms as possible. I would say that China has succeeded in achieving this goal.

I would also say the violence and slaughter that occurred after 9/11 due to actual ground war started by the US is much worse than China. Including both sides the number of people who died violently should total in the millions. Additionally I would say that whether these actions were successful is debatable. From certain perspectives the situation has only gotten worse.

Starting wars and slaughtering terrorists counterintuitively doesn't eliminate terrorism. Forcing people into education camps and imposing absolute authority and birth control seems to work but has it's obvious atrocious downsides.

So which is better in your opinion? Mass slaughter or mass re-education and birth control? Hard choices, truly I would try to forge a third option but so far not even the United States is capable of doing that.

>As for media specifically, piracy is still a thing. Just saying ;)

;) so turning to theft is a justified response to an industry that wants to stay apolitical for the sake of business? Maybe think about the complexity of the consequences here. You are harming an entire supply chain that contains directors, VFX artists, VFX programmers, writers, comedians, etc, etc...

Notice how I emphasized the plight of an individual rather than the company or even the country? Things need to be brought down to the job level for individuals to understand that the consequences of harming of a company isn't so simple.

Personally, I pirate everything from music to software to movies. Literally everything. But of course because all of Hollywood basically stays apolitical about this China issue, it effectively justifies all my actions. Kodak and practically every single company on the face of the earth is doing the same thing. The more of the world I pirate the more justice I'm doing for the world. Of course things are just THAT simple.

No in all seriousness I do pirate on occasion. But I don't justify it. I'm not a saint. I do shitty things sometimes because I'm cheap. That's the way it is.