Hey all, I think of myself as a good person who makes rational choices but lately I haven't been able to shake the feeling that I'm not living up to that.

I don't want to discuss what it is but I'm in the habit of habitually consuming something that I really enjoy, even if it's just for about 10-15 minutes at a time, and don't want to stop. The problem is that whenever I think about it I conclude the following:

  • It's probably bad for me. Sure some people ingest this stuff and live long lives but it's at best slightly harmful and probably worse. Lots of heart attacks due to it
  • Production is exploitative and blood soaked. Everyone involved except the people who own everything is suffering to some degree. PTSD is pretty common.
  • It's pretty environmentally destructive, governments are corrupted to ignore a lot of it but there is a huge amount of land clearing and some pretty foul pollution.
  • It's entirely possible to live without, and much cheaper too.

Like I said though. I really don't want to stop and there would be a transitional period where I'm a bit stressed out and have to rebuild lots of habits. Here are the excuses I've come up with so far:

  • Indigenous people did/do something vaguely similar if you squint a bit.
  • It's very popular to do this thing and I might get social backlash for stopping.
  • It's the car- uh corporations producing it, and I'm just the end user so it's not my fault.
  • Some people aren't in a position to stop it so I shouldn't.
  • It's got a pretty long history of use.
  • If I stop the industry will still exist.
  • It feels really good.

The thing is, all of these ring a bit hollow to me? so could you help me out a bit?

  • F04118F@feddit.nl
    ·
    1 month ago

    How about solidarity with other addicts? If they see you quit, they will feel pressured to also quit, have you thought about that?

    I did not realize in advance how much my quitting would hurt the other addicts.

    Not quitting fully (either still using on some days or only fully quitting the least popular parts of the addiction) seems to console them a bit.

    It's a tradeoff you'll have to make: do you

    • .. make other addicts slightly uncomfortable by quitting?
    • .. or continue to harm your health, low-wage workers' mental wellbeing, destroy nature and the climate, contribute to pandemic risk and unnecessarily hurt the animals you consume?

    It's not an easy choice.