The Dictatorship
I’ve spent decades studying overconsumption. This Netflix doc still depressed me.
Marketing used to be about identifying consumer needs and making a product or service that satisfies those needs. Not anymore, according to the timely new Netflix documentary “Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy.” As Americans across the country vie for the best Black Friday dealsNic Stacey’s documentary offers a sobering look at a culture that has become obsessed with consumption and the companies that fuel that obsession.
I thought I was cynical enough about the role of big business in our capitalist doom spiral. After watching “Buy Now!” however, I am now even less hopeful that business can be asked to break the devastating cycle of sell, buy and discard.
After watching ‘Buy Now!’ however, I am now even less hopeful that business can be asked to break the devastating cycle of sell, buy, and discard.
In 1970, pre-eminent economist Milton Friedman told The New York Times that the unbridled pursuit of profit should adhere to the basic rules of society, both legally and ethically. But Stacey has now convinced me that business is no longer conforming to the “basic rules of society” — neither legally nor ethically.
The film begins by arguing that big business has no conscience. That’s not a new idea. Business history is replete with stories of ethically bankrupt companies. But the film structures its thesis via “five rules of profit maximization.” These rules, it argues, have made it so we simply cannot trust businesses to act in the interest of greater good.
The first rule of the doc is “sell more.” Encouraged by people like Friedman, industry has become very adept at creating an unending stream of buying opportunities. The fast-fashion industry is a good example (think online clothing companies like Shein). A recent study estimated Shein creates 1.3 million new items every year. And as has been well documented, many of these items end up in landfills or piled up on the shores of countries like Ghana. Out of sight and out of mind. Amazon’s one-click buying button is another example of a savvy convenience that encourages us to pull the proverbial trigger, over and over and over again.
The second rule of profit maximization is “waste more.” Examples of our throwaway mentality are clothes that quickly shrink, stain and tear, appliances that don’t last, and phones whose limited battery life practically requires regular replacement. In 2022, the United Nations estimated that 5.3 billion mobile phones would be thrown out by the end of the year.
Sadly, business is complicit in all of this, with some companies making it difficult or simply not cost effective to repair their products. Some companies may even design their products in such a way that makes repairs impossible. This “planned obsolescence” is a particularly damaging aspect of the consumption cycle. But perceived obsolescence is also part of this problem, wherein constant style changes and “updated” product designs render early models obsolete, even if they technically still work.
The third rule of profit maximization is “lie more.” I found this portion of the film to be particularly depressing. Businesses lie to us constantly, from the now scientifically dubious theory that drinking wine every day is inherently healthy to the myth that recycling is both widespread and effective. My doctoral dissertation was on ecologically conscious (green) consumer behavior. But those recycling labels on products are more about making us feel better than anything else. We are being overrun, to the tune of 400 million tons of plastic waste produced a year. And it’s getting worse.
The third rule of profit maximization is ‘lie more.’ I found this portion of the film to be particularly depressing.
Companies, the film argues, are experts at “green washing,” lying about how their products are recycled after use. Coca-Cola is currently being sued by environmental activists who claim its sustainability claims are all just another marketing ruse. The Center for Climate Integrity, a fossil-fuel accountability advocacy group, published a report in February alleging that companies have known for decades their claims about recycling were simply false. And yet they kept telling us the exact opposite. The evidence is as clear as it is disheartening.
As the documentary continued, I began to feel the need to join a 12-step program for wayward marketers. But the pain was not over yet. The film’s fourth rule of profit maximization is “hide more.” Electronic waste recycling? Don’t even ask. Meanwhile the images of 20-foot-high stacks of clothing piling up on the beaches of Ghana were repulsive. This country of 30 million people receives approximately 15,000,000 pieces of used clothing every week. There’s a giant collection of plastic and other garbage floating in the North Pacific Ocean. This “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” has a cute nickname, but an ugly punchline. We are poisoning our planet.
The film’s fifth and final rule of profit maximization is “control more.” Businesses must control the narrative. Employees who don’t follow along are as disposable as the tons of plastic we throw away every day. Repeat the lie enough and hopefully it becomes reality. Never apologize. Never confront the consequences of your actions. Hide the garbage, push the plastic into the ocean, ship the rags and old phones to Africa. Keep calm and consume on.
James A. Roberts is the Ben H. Williams professor of marketing at Baylor University, where he has been a member of the marketing faculty since 1991. He has published approximately 125 articles in numerous academic journals and at conferences around the world and is the author of two books, “Shiny Objects” and, most recently, “Too Much of a Good Thing: Are You Addicted to your Smartphone?”
The U.S. military on Wednesday carried out new strikes in Iran, shooting down four attack drones and targeting a ground control station. The military stated both the drones and ground facility posed a threat to the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official said in a statement to MS NOW.
The official said the ceasefire agreement remains in effect and described the U.S. military actions as intended to maintain the ceasefire.
“Today, U.S. Central Command forces shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. forces also struck an Iranian ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone. These actions were measured, purely defensive, and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” the official said in the statement.
At least three explosions were heard east of Bandar Abbas, a port city in Iran along the Strait of Hormuz, The New York Times and CNN reported, both citing Iranian state media. The explosions briefly activated Bandar Abbas’ air defense systems, Fars News Agency, a media outlet affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported early Thursday local time.
The latest strikes come amid an unstable ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting at the White House earlier Wednesday, President Donald Trump said Iran wants “very much to make a deal” but “they haven’t gotten there,” adding that Iran was “negotiating on fumes.”
“We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be,” Trump said. “Either that or we’ll have to just finish the job. Their navy is gone … their air force is gone, everything’s gone. And they’re negotiating on fumes. But we’ll see what happens. Maybe we have to go back and finish it, maybe we don’t.”
On MondayU.S. Central Command said in a statement that the U.S. carried out “self-defense” strikes on missile launch sites and boats in southern Iran in order “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.” That same day, Trump said in a Truth Social post that negotiations with Iran were “proceeding nicely!”
Julia Jester covers politics for MS NOW and is based in Washington, D.C.
Carla Herreria is an editor for MS NOW’s breaking news and liveblog team. She was previously a senior assignment editor at HuffPost.
President Donald Trump’s racist policy of welcoming white South Africans while excluding refugees from other countries is back in the spotlight after his administration raised its refugee ceiling — to bring in more white people.
Trump increased the refugee admissions ceiling by 10,000 for this year to allow more white South Africans to come into the country, a signed presidential determination reviewed by Reuters showed.
The document, dated May 21, said white South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity face an emergency situation due to the “incitement of racially motivated violence” by the government and political parties in the majority-Black country.
The document, found herecites an “unforeseen emergency refugee situation” that doesn’t actually exist. Trump and his allies have pushed false claims that a “white genocide” is occurring, but South Africa’s government — and even advocacy groups representing the country’s white Afrikaner minority — have rejected the claim.
Reuters reported that the increased refugee limit is now 17,500 — and that only three non-South African refugees have been admitted into the U.S. this fiscal year. Reuters previously reported that the administration wanted to bring in 4,500 white South Africans immigrants per montha number that I noted mirrors the number of white German refugees the Ku Klux Klan wanted to welcome to the United States a century ago — when its members were popularizing xenophobic slogans like “America First” and launching campaigns of racist terror against people of color.
It’s noteworthy here that white supremacists have latched on to racist conspiracy theories, such as the “replacement theory,” saying that there is some kind of plot to replace white Americans with nonwhite people, particularly foreigners. In reality, what’s actually underway is the exact opposite: a government effort to deport nonwhite people in America — including people who have lived in the U.S. for years — while Trump’s regime takes steps to import white people, and as some conservatives fret over white birth rates.
It’s hard to imagine the klan itself wouldn’t approve of this policy.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
Amid the Republican Party’s ongoing assault on Black peopleDemocrats are borrowing a tactic from 20th-century civil rights activists and putting corporate America on notice.
On Tuesday, the Congressional Black Caucus said it sent a letter to more than 200 companies and business organizations, urging them to oppose the GOP’s push to eliminate majority-Black districts after the Supreme Court’s Callais v. Louisiana decision, which effectively permitted racist gerrymandering.
In 2021, the companies sent a letter to Congress in support of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, saying the legislation was needed to guard against racial discrimination and voter suppression. Signees on that letter included AppleDell and Googlewhose executives have since aligned themselves with President Donald Trump’s regime.
“Many corporations spoke clearly during that moment about the importance of protecting democratic participation, defending civil rights, and advancing racial equity,” the CBC’s letter reads. “Today, those commitments are being tested.”
The letter presses the companies to issue statements condemning the GOP’s push to dilute Black voters’ power, as well as information on corporate political spending. The pressure campaign follows the CBC’s public call for student-athletes to boycott public universities in states where Republicans have taken action against majority-Black voting districts.
Meanwhile, 16 Democratic state attorneys general sent a letter last week to three donor-advised funds urging them to lift restrictions on donations to the Southern Poverty Law Centeran anti-racist organization known for helping law enforcement officials take down white supremacist extremist groups. The charity-based arms of Fidelity and Vanguard, as well as a company called Donor Advised Charitable Giving, imposed the restrictions after the Trump administration’s baseless indictment of the SPLC. I recently wrote about how Trump allies have used these charges to downplay and outright deny the existence of racist extremismas well as spread lies about liberals being responsible for groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
This scrutiny of corporate America and its acquiescence to the MAGA movement has me thinking of a conversation I had with the Rev. Al Sharpton and the “Morning Joe” crew last week. During our chat, Sharpton warned that companies that align themselves with Trump’s war on diversity do so at their own risk, because Democrats could take steps in the future to hold these companies to account.
These letters show a strong interest among Democrats in pressuring companies that appear to be propping up, or placating, the rise of what many people see as Jim Crow 2.0.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
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