the holiday season is upon us and with it a deluge  of new tech trinkets and advertisements convincing  

us to indulge but of course this torrent of  consumption is nothing new especially in the free  

market capitalist consumerist nation of the united  states every year the holiday shopping season  

spanning across november and december sees  massive monthly profits for corporations  

while employees are crushed by inhuman workloads  and environmental destruction runs rampant  

and every year the connections from consumerism  to capitalism to the climate crisis are once again  

laid bare today we dive into the holidays and  the manufactured desire for more to understand  

how capitalism is driving the climate crisis  but it's not enough just to critique we will  

also try to understand what will dismantle  our current system and what could develop an  

ecologically sound and ethical world in its stead  this video was made possible by the people who  

support me on patreon get early access to all  my videos by becoming an occ patreon supporter

underneath the bright glitz of christmas lights  and shrouded under the cover of wrapped presents  

lies the stark reality of the holidays in the  imperial core starting with the celebration of  

colonial genocide in thanksgiving followed  immediately by the capitalist schemes of  

black friday and cyber monday that bleed into  a month of christmas celebrations foregrounding  

extensive gift-giving ceremonies holidays have  been co-opted by corporations and a relentless  

drive for profit and growth gift giving has  been present in the ethos of winter holidays  

for hundreds of years a tradition which some  scholars point towards the 19th century new york  

city aristocrats for starting as a way of  shifting december holidays from a season  

where poor people could demand food and drink  from the wealthy and celebrate in the streets  

to one of cozy celebration in the home encouraging  gift giving to children but the amount of gifts  

were generally small in the 1800s and it wasn't  until the rise of advertising around the turn  

of the 20th century that retailers especially toy  retailers saw the potential of holidays for profit  

and capital accumulation by the 2000s u.s retail  sales during the holiday season reached 416.4  

billion dollars and have only gotten bigger of  the many factors driving the us shopper to spend  

an average of one thousand dollars on the holidays  every year advertising is definitely making a mark  

advertisements make us feel good about something  we know deep down is either unethical useless  

harmful or all three they're the rose tinted  glasses that make the things in our homes  

seem necessary when they actually are not so for  a moment let's pull off those rose-tinted glasses  

and understand the impact of the capitalist  model on ourselves our planet and our holidays

the world today is highly unequal as  those in the imperial periphery toil  

under life-threatening conditions to extract  materials from the earth they fuel the lifestyle  

of those in the imperial core which is comparably  gluttonous especially for the white ruling class  

in core countries like the united states we buy  because we're told to we buy for social change  

and we buy to find happiness and while we buy our  money fuels an untenable system consumerism is a  

cog in the capitalist machine corporations need us  to buy more to fulfill quarterly growth goals but  

the consequences of these pursuits are devastating  the world emitted 49.36 billion tons of greenhouse  

gas emissions in 2016 and continues to emit more  each year and at the head of historical emissions  

output is capitalists stronghold the united  states here 40 of food goes to waste despite  

the prevalence of food insecurity the average  american throws out 95 pounds of clothes adding  

to the glut of textile waste that represents 4  percent of global trash each year yet all this  

waste and pollution is good for the bottom line of  the capitalist class because it means we're buying  

more stuff and industries don't have to worry  about the consequences clothing waste for example  

is accelerated by the relentless turnaround of  the fast fashion industry while we buy more their  

profits go up and waste continues to drive on and  even when those in the us are reluctant to throw  

things out we hoard our stuff in storage units an  industry which now makes 38 billion dollars every  

year housing all of our useless gadgets drummed  up by capitalism and let's not forget the global  

exploitation of workers that occurs on the daily  especially during the pandemic so acting against  

any of these destructive paradigms then means  taking a stand against capitalist exploitation  

of workers and the planet because in short  capitalism can't support us it's leading us down  

a path of planetary destruction that nothing short  of global systemic change can fix to end climate  

change to end this toxic cycle of unsatisfying  consumerist lifestyle we must end capitalism

the history of change is the history of  revolution from the russian revolution to  

the french revolution to the haitian revolution  as marx writes in clash struggles in france  

revolutions are the locomotives of history they  represent societal ruptures with the status quo  

that catapult us towards the future as we sit  on the precipice of global climate collapse  

revolution represents an avenue away from  planetary ecocide marx proposed a revolution built  

on the ire and action of the proletariat grasping  for socialism that would morph into communism but  

the proposed paths towards that revolution and  what might get built in the ashes of capitalism  

are varied ecosocialism is one such path it  seeks the ownership of the means of production  

also known as the factories and tools that  make the things we need by the very laborers  

that use them in doing so eco-socialism seeks  to rid itself of the parasitic relationship of  

the capitalist class that siphons profit from  laborers through underpayment and externalities  

as michael lowey and joe koval write in their 2001  eco-socialist manifesto eco-socialism insists on  

a transformation of needs and a profound shift  towards the qualitative dimension and away from  

the quantitative a valorization of use values over  exchange values essentially eco-socialism seeks to  

build an economic structure where production  is not based around how much profit we can  

extract from an item but instead how useful and  necessary it is in this quest some eco-socialists  

point towards the successes and failures of  previous socialist regimes like the soviet union  

as guideposts for a greener more liberatory future  one that initially wields state power to form  

and organize this new economy ecoanarchism  presents another vision rejecting state  

governmental and hierarchical power eco-anarchism  envisions a society of decentralized structures  

formed horizontally emphasizing the importance of  both human and natural liberation in collections  

of communities a world based on cooperation  rather than competition but of course these are  

very basic explanations of political tendencies  that have rich debate and histories regardless  

of ideology or the path change needs to happen  revolution must begin now because no true change  

can come through buying a field raven backpack  or an eco-conscious water bottle these are just  

minuscule gnats picking at the elephant in  the room to make change to avoid climate chaos  

and planetary collapse capitalism must fall  and in its stead eco-socialism eco-anarchism  

or another political tendency informed by the  teachings of solar punk permaculture degrowth  

indigenous culture and ideologies must rise  from its ashes unfortunately videos like these  

while very important do terribly with the youtube  algorithm and sponsors don't want to touch them  

but there is a way you can help becoming an occ  patreon supporter helps our changing climate stay  

afloat and independent as an occ patron you'll  not only gain early access to videos but also  

special behind the scenes updates and a members  only discord channel in addition each month my  

supporters vote on an environmental group that  i then donate a portion of my monthly revenue to  

patreon supporters are the financial backbone  of the our changing climate operation without  

them i wouldn't be able to take creative risks  and dive into difficult topics so if you want  

to help keep this channel alive or are feeling  generous head over to patreon.com our changing  

climate or use the link in the description and  become an occ patron if you're not interested  

or aren't financially able to then no worries  you can help the channel out by subscribing  

liking the video and commenting i hope you all  enjoyed the video and i will see you in two weeks