Two hours deep into a thrifting haul, as your vision blurs and the polka-dot blouse and cat crop-top in front of you seem to merge, it feels like you\u2019ll never be able to stop. You\u2019ve found cute pants and a jacket that are absolutely worth the price, and you\u2019d love some nice new boots for the winter. The trip will cost less than $30 in total, adding a new variety to your wardrobe without draining your wallet. And best of all, you don\u2019t have to feel bad about any of it; it\u2019s all secondhand.<\/p>\n
Giant shiny malls and their associations with American overconsumption have long been cast into a realm far away from the world of liberal environmentalism. Thrift stores, however, with their musty embrace of safe consumption, allow for the perfect vehicle of anti-capitalist capitalism. Since nothing\u2019s new, it barely feels like you\u2019re consuming anything. No resources have been used, so where\u2019s the harm?<\/p>\n
Statistics on the highly reduced carbon footprint of thrifting compared to shopping and articles on the benefits of secondhand clothes stand at the forefront, affirming that there\u2019s nothing wrong. Beyond thrifting\u2019s essential purpose of providing clothes for lower-income communities, sharing that you enjoy thrifting marks you as \u201cone of the better ones.\u201d Not only are you making a sacrifice for the sake of ecology, but it\u2019s a sacrifice that\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n
And thrifting is fun, the perfect activity for gossiping with close friends or getting to know a new acquaintance. With Berkeley\u2019s abundance of thrift stores, it\u2019s impossible not to find a good spot nearby, calling out for the perfect afternoon with others. On top of that, fashion is fun, too. It\u2019s liberating to express oneself with all the clothes one desires, and there\u2019s an urge to stand out in the sea of well-dressed students on campus. Thrifting makes fashion accessible to more than just the rich.<\/p>\n
Yet we know our overconsumption is destroying the planet. Our use of resources is getting worse by the year, quickly outrunning what the earth can naturally provide for us. It feels like our actual consumption isn\u2019t the only thing increasing \u2014 our need to buy and indulge is racing ahead just as rapidly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a way, thrifting allows you to consume even more than shopping, thanks to its low prices and endless variety, allowing anyone to buy anything. There\u2019s a sentiment that if you\u2019re unsure of an item, it\u2019s better to just buy it anyway. There\u2019s not much to lose, and it\u2019s better not to risk missing out on something you want.<\/p>\n
The joys of capitalism have been so deeply ingrained into our society that it\u2019s often hard to step back and see where the actual joy lies. There is a lack of permanence in the things we buy, with promises of new deals and new items constantly lurking around the corner. Thrifting as a hobby isn\u2019t always just an activity to fulfill a need for clothes, fashion or outward expression, but an attempt to scratch the itch telling us that having more stuff will make us happier.<\/p>\n
Of course, there wouldn\u2019t be much harm if this itch only applied to thrifting. But it\u2019s difficult to isolate a consumerist mindset to only environmentally friendly spaces \u2014 to leave one\u2019s urges within the thrift store. Once certain desires are fed, you can\u2019t suppress the hunger when it reappears.<\/p>\n
Just as thrifting allows you to obtain all the old clothes you want, why shouldn\u2019t you also be able to get all the new clothes you want? What about the most recent iPhone? And your dream car? Or the beach vacation house you\u2019ve always envisioned for your summers? What will you buy as your paychecks get bigger? As money grows, the desire only gives way to more destructive consumption.<\/p>\n
Even within environmentalist action, our first priority is often not the environment. Instead, we prioritize a more environmentally friendly form of consumption, ultimately being led by environmentally destructive mindsets. Environmentalism becomes dependent on action, not thought.<\/p>\n
At UC Berkeley, the culture of thrifting thrives, becoming more and more popular with each local shop, student clothing organization and cute outfit seen around campus.<\/p>\n
Yet an undercurrent of environmentalism and anti-consumerism flows throughout UC Berkeley as well. It seems essential for that undercurrent to emerge and highlight the importance of us caring for what we have because it is all that we have.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t to say that we should abandon thrifting. On the contrary, more people should opt for secondhand clothes over fast fashion and other forms of shopping. Additionally, thrift stores must continue to exist to clothe those who cannot afford other options.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, we desperately need to reconsider our reasons for consumption and shift our social interactions and our happiness away from consumerism.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t stop thrifting. Don\u2019t stop enjoying fashion and self-expression. Don\u2019t stop replacing activities with more environmentally friendly alternatives. But consider whether you are buying because it will add value to your life or whether you are buying because you can do it without repercussions. Because in the end, a lack of repercussion in action does not promise a lack of repercussion in thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two hours deep into a thrifting haul, as your vision blurs and the polka-dot blouse and cat crop-top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7830,143,145,144,8054,8053,149],"class_list":["post-7968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-environmentalist","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-overconsumption","tag-thrift","tag-uc-berkeley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}