#finally! i can think [categorical thing]! it is an unalloyed good!

[gothprentiss]

hey. hey. i cannot make any inroads on your ethics but hey. hey listen. if you nod along with posts like this one

look into how this stuff is processed sometime 👍

i mean, full disclosure: i do genuinely think “i love animal products ❤️ they’re biodegradable” is kind of antivegan cope because, you know, no one ever seems to be talking about natural plant fibers versus synthetics in these contexts— despite the fact that, on average, they comprise significantly more of your wardrobe and significantly more of your short-term, short-life garments— but also, and more importantly: i do not know what kind of beautiful little production chain is being imagined here, but the idea that you go from sheep or cow or so on to your wardrobe to the compost heap to fresh soil in 5-15 years, zero environmental impact, is really out of touch with most factors of consumption. leather for example can be biodegradable, but a lot of processed leather takes significantly longer to decompose— not as long as pvc, but longer than you use it for— due to the nature of its treatment. if you buy leather goods you are virtually never buying untreated leather; tanning is a chemical process with pretty significant environmental consequences. if you are getting for example a wool coat, the odds that you can afford a 100% wool coat as opposed to a wool-synthetic blend are pretty low; same with sweaters. so maybe you thrift a leather jacket or a vintage 100% wool sweater and get some use out of it. you buy a pair of leather shoes and feel good about it. hey, their treatment and soles probably biodegrade too right? and without any lasting impacts on the environment? and maybe you overcorrect for “vegan item!!” fast fashion greenwashing and end up with items which are pretty much exactly as non-biodegradable as their plastic equivalents, and exactly as short-lived because the quality of low-budget manufacturing these days seems to be constantly getting worse.

i don’t mean to scaremonger or whatever— there really isn’t much of a way out of this unless you have some serious cash to spend. but the idea of a totemic Ecologically Good category of material is obviously out of touch with how most people in the world get their clothes and loudly praising a product which is not actually in practice guaranteed to be better than its plastic substitute is oddly common on this website. cmon there isn’t even a character limit. there’s space to actually say something useful