My wife related to me that she was glad we use Qobuz for our music streaming service, since she had read it was one of the more ethical services in terms of artist payments. I’m happy to see ethics driving consumer decisions around what services to use.
I remember, in the 90s, some friends telling me not to eat at Wendy’s because Dave Thomas supported “conservative causes.” I read a biography of Dave Thomas. He was an orphan and the main cause he championed was orphanages. As Johnny Depp’s character says in John Waters’ Cry Baby, “orphans have special needs.” Somehow the plight of those without parents became coded as conservative and my friends were definitely against it. After that conversation, I finally felt like I understood the phrase “kneejerk liberal,” which was a fairly common one in those days.
Now, those same friends are on X and Spotify. Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, directs a lot of his money and investments into defense tech. Elon Musk, CEO of X, just gave over $100 million to the campaign of disgraced Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, so that corruption could remain the coin of the realm in Texas.
I wonder if this happens as a result of apathy that develops over time.
Jonas Downey writes about people returning to X.
But I’m not here to argue with people making their own personal choices. We live in the reign of oligarch capitalism, and everybody has to make whatever ethical compromises they’re willing to stomach within that system. (Some of y’all have some really questionable stomachs, but I digress.)
I am here to argue that your social media participation has value, and chickening out on this issue is just cowardice wrapped up in excuses.
Downey goes on to relate how, in the case of social media, participation is what gives the network its power and what allows it to generate ad revenue. If everyone stopped posting to X, it would die. Attention and use is currency. It’s our currency to spend however we feel is right. Sometimes, it’s literally the only thing we can do to try and make a difference.
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