I’m not too sure it’s as difficult as you are making it out to be. We see something similar with “black wall street” where black communities were committed to keeping their capital within their communities and black owned companies. We can even see this with the Amish and how they have survived as a community. I’m not completely sure if you can keep 100% of the capital within certain communities; but in a similar sense, we can at least attempt to be more meaningful with how and where we spend our money. The tech community chooses which company they support and do “business” with, similarly with fashion and many other things that aren’t completely necessary. I feel like that would at least be a start. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will correcting the public’s spending habits. But it has been done and can be done again. There just needs to be the right incentive; to which, I’m not sure what that would be.

If you might allow me to disagree with you slightly…

The key to this, as in many things, is balance; in ALL things. Voting with your wallet does work, its a form of influencing and controlling the direction of the capital. It just doesn’t work in a long term sense because people stop there; like boycotting. It is hard to boycott a company that has a monopoly on a market that has become a necessity, even if it’s only a necessity to a niche community.

The key is, that you spend on smaller businesses, that are closer to the consumer than at large conglomerates. If there is none for the market, create one and encourage people to support your business that doesn’t have any political ties yet. For example, I live in a capitol city, and my neighbor a few houses down has started a small chicken coop in their back yard; i began buying my eggs from them as its much cheaper and I don’t have to worry about my funds being reallocated in support of something that would harm me or my community as they are a part of my community. Also, I deliver pizza as a third job for a small, mom and pops place and encourage those political minded people to spend money there as the pizza is made with fresh ingredients and made there. Takes a bit longer but we are too small to allocate funds to political matters and organizations; we do small events for the schools in the community but that is about it.

Once said businesses start to grow too big, rinse and repeat. Find another small business and support them. As support dwindles from a company that is growing too large, their options become more and more limited.

This seems not to work due to peoples mindset and preferring convenience over meaningful spending; which is something that I know not how to combat. What say you, friends?

Well, I am intrigued! I’ll give it a look; thank you!

That is pretty amazing – do you continue reading a book you don’t particularly like? It is hard for me to continue something that doesn’t captivate me; especially with fiction. Are you more of a fiction or non-fiction reader? Or both?

I’m the same way… especially with the MMO genre. It’s really sad but I just end up playing the same games these days.

Very good point lol, that is a great way to put it – I might have to steal that from ya next time I’m bickering with some gaming friends.

I can’t even bring myself to do that – I feel like it would be time wasted and get mad at myself for not having better and faster judgement lol. Better than me for at least giving it a try instead of researching and deciding based on that alone!

This is totally valid and understandable. Do you find yourself feeling this way in media as well; like TV shows or movies? BoJack Horseman comes to mind when you mentioned unlikable characters you are supposed to root for. I can’t say that I’ve had that experience within a book but I do find myself in certain shows rooting for some characters that are assholes or unlikable.

I can’t say that I have found much humorous works – though I haven’t particularly looked for it. The best I can think of is Christopher Hitchens’ “Hitch 22” memoir having some funny moment in there. Do you have any recommendations?

I am the same way with not reading more. It is why I choose super thick books to try to make the experience last longer if I like it. I end up rereading the same things until I might stumble upon something else. Is there a book or some books you find yourself rereading for comfort or extended enjoyment? I imagine this might be more difficult with fiction.

That is interesting, you don’t find that world building further engulfs you in the setting; or is it that when world building is overdone? I see this complaint a lot with The Lord of the Rings, and agree that it can be overdone – however I do feel that verbose world building done right can be extremely immersive. What do you think? Do you prefer simple settings and descriptions? We might differ on vocabulary usage, I find that learning new words in fiction can be a bit fun, though distracting, to your point; but I find overusing normal words can be a dull and banal experience. Do you like sprinkles of strange words in small dosages or do you prefer just normal words with as little honeyed words as possible?

I can agree with you there – I am not a big fan of Peterson myself, even before becoming a fan of Destiny and Dawkins; but I do find myself more engaged when reading things I disagree with to strengthen my arguments and worldview. Have you ever had this experience?

I agree – especially after a particularly good book, it can be hard to find something to follow up with!

I’m not a fan of fiction in general; but especially YA fiction; did you ever like YA fiction when you were younger, and have outgrown the genre or has it never really been your thing?

Ah I see, I sort of like reading things I disagree with; even in fiction. (I am extremely picky with fiction.) I find it more interesting to argue with characters in my head or in journals and sometimes they might poke holes in my belief system that I have to think about in order to patch it up – if it can be. It seems to be more rewarding to read unlikable characters; do you agree?

Very true, but I figured it can’t be that much more difficult than reading Robert Burton’s compendium “The Anatomy of Melancholy.” And that is true, I read that in the introduction of the copy I have, which is interesting. How do you feel about it? Apparently it is a very polarizing work.

I definitely had to read it again when I first saw it too; its a very weird but fantastic response that I’m going to start saying.

What a massive win; information should be free to consume.