Here’s a non-exhaustive list of ineffective, meaning minimally lifestyle invasive, ways of “making a difference” in the world:

  • Recycling.  Simply throwing your empty plastic bottles and used newspapers in a bin labelled recycling is probably the laziest way known to man to make a difference.  But it gives you feel-good-juice and the illusion that you’re doing something about the side effects of consumption.  Damn the cost!  We want our hit of good feelings!
  • Paying $2 to buy a pink ribbon to wear for breast cancer “awareness,” or any other “awareness” bullshit for that matter.  How does simply being aware of some horrific disease help to eradicate it?  Isn’t it far more effective to practice the known ways to prevent it from ever happening?  No, because then you’d actually have to get off your ass and do something about it, psychologically and physically.  It’s far easier to plop down $2 and pin a ribbon to your chest for a month or participate in a 2 hour “walk for the cure,” then go about your business hoping that something comes along that doesn’t make you have to change.  Has all that money and time spent trying to find a cure been effective (“cure” being the lazy (wo)man’s plan for health)?  About as effective as the war on drugs has been.
  • Buying a hybrid vehicle.  Isn’t this the ultimate in feeling good about making a difference?  Not only are you consuming less fuel, you’re polluting the environment less than the other guy in the Hummer, and making him feel guilty at the same time.  Doesn’t it feel good knowing that you’ve taken the burden of the world being consumed by pollution off your shoulders and placed it on someone else’s?  And, you still get to engage in your destructive lifestyle to boot!  What a bargain!  Pretentious-snot-nose-difference-maker to the world: “Whew! Now we don’t have to worry about that any more.  It’s someone else’s problem now!”
  • Dropping your loose change into the “Make A Wish” jar at your local Wal-Marts.  The selling point of most charities is not actually making a difference or putting the money donated towards real, effective action (the keyword being effective).  People don’t give a fuck what happens to their money once it leaves their hands.  All they care about is that short surge of feel-good-juice they get from thinking they are doing stuff to make a difference.  Now they can tell all their friends and family they have contributed to the betterment of society and be on the merry way.  “Make A Wish” is only an example.  This applies to ALL charities.
  • Taking a “diet” pill or buying an exercise machine or gym membership to “get healthy.”  There are many factors that contribute to health.  Fitness is one.  So is a healthy weight.  Simply buying a pill, powder, or other concoction and thinking you’re doing something about your weight is an illusion.  It makes you feel good, because you don’t have to take the all critical, difficult action necessary to actually change your lifestyle for the better.  That’s much, much harder than popping a pill and going on your merry way.  Oh, and having that exercise machine sitting in the corner puts you one step closer.  Doctors and nutritionists are the enablers, and bank on you not taking real action so they can keep pumping you with complete crap.  They’re the ones raking in the cash from this bullshit, to the betterment of their bank account, not your health.

Here’s the exhaustive list of effective, meaning maximally lifestyle invasive, ways of truly making a difference in the world:

  • Stop consuming.  100%.  Rip all your clothes off and disconnect yourself from the economic matrix that has you, move back to the jungle, your natural habitat, and live in the wild.  It’s the only true way to make a real difference.  Everything else is just feel-good-juice masturbation.
  • Die.

If you’re not prepared to engage in one of the effective models, then it’s best to not even give a fuck.  Recycling is ridiculously expensive and has no hope of reducing the side effects of our lifestyle (trash, pollution, disease, etc).  “Fighting” cancer using monetary weapons hoping for a magical cure someday is no different than throwing your money in a drainage ditch and making a wish upon a star.  Helping kids by giving celebrities money to visit them as they lay dying in the hospital is, well, fucking stupid.  And leaning your hopes for health on the medical establishment makes you a fucking lazy, piece of shit dumbass.  The only real reason to buy a hybrid is to save money on gas and get the tax write off.  You aren’t any closer to saving the environment by polluting it less.  Zero pollution, zero consumption is the only truly effective method.

Stop giving to charity and stop leaning your hopes for a better world on a proxy.  Bottom line:  accept the consequences of your consumption; save your money and time trying to balance it out so you don’t feel guilty.  Ignorance is no excuse.  Simply relying on popular media to deliver your information is a form of retardation.  Find the truth.  You’ll know when you see it because it will be simple, relatively free and click with your common sense (if you still have any left).