@GADDay Buckle up then, because I’m quite happy to argue with you too.
You have spectacularly missed the point I was making. I mean, not just a little bit, but to the extent that I’m wondering whether you actually read any of what I wrote. I was asked to justify why I personally wouldn’t want second hand gifts. I think I’ve explained myself quite clearly. If you think it’s just a case of having the ick then I’m not going to waste either of our time by trying to explain it yet again. I’ll just accept that you don’t have any understanding of OCD type conditions. You asked for honesty, which I think I gave you. If I’d realised you just wanted an echo chamber with lots of pats on the back for being so environmentally aware, I would have just scrolled on.
I do give a huge shit about the environment. Not just because I have much loved young nieces, nephews and God children who are going to have to grow up with the effects of climate change but because I have medical conditions that mean when it gets to extreme temperatures I struggle to catch my breath and have to go to work huffing and puffing like I smoke 20 Marlboro for breakfast. I do think we’re fucked because our governments aren’t matching the efforts of people like you, who commit to buying nothing new. If you disagree and think that they are doing enough to turn things around, then it’s not me who has her head in the sand.
I live in a one bedroom flat. I’m on pre payment meters so my gas and electricity usage has been closely monitored and often rationed for years. I don’t have children. I don’t drive. I walk as many places as I can and rely on public transport for the rest. I don’t go abroad so no flights or ferry journeys. I’ve never smoked. My clothes are mended until they can’t be mended anymore, at which point they either become indoor clothes or cleaning rags. My shoes are re heeled and re-soled until they are beyond repair. I don’t have a washing machine because it died after years of being repaired and I’m still saving up to replace it, so I use my mum’s. No tumble drier. My furniture was new when I bought it thirty odd years ago, but it won’t be replaced until it falls apart beyond repair. I live near lots of farms so it’s often cheaper for me to buy food locally than Dutch apples or Cuban melons, so I’ve done what I can to reduce the air miles on my food. My food waste all goes into my mum’s compost bin and I eat a lot of what she grows. My council is very strict on recycling. I can’t remember the last time I filled up an entire black bag for landfill. I don’t buy anything unless I need it and it gets used until it’s falling apart. Admittedly, not just because of the environment but, like millions of others, because we have to stretch our money as far as we can. Please do explain to me where you think I’m slacking and what more I could possibly do to reduce my carbon footprint. I’m genuinely interested.
I don’t think I’m better than anyone else, for any reason. I’m not looking down on you for what you’re trying to do. What I thoroughly object to, however, is being patronised and lectured about not having any understanding of what we face because I don’t want second hand crap, by people sat in their big three bedroom houses, with a couple of cars sat on the drive and their lap tops flicking between the Air B&B they’ve just booked in a dying village in Cornwall, and their long haul flight bookings to sunnier climes, while their cleaner runs herself ragged picking up Barbie dolls and hoovering up after the family Cockerdoodlepoo, DH texts to remind them to marinade the beef in time for dinner and they congratulate themselves for snapping up a second hand, barely worn pair of Jojo Maman Bebe wellingtons for their DC. In fact, it fucks me right off.
And nobody has called anyone a nasty middle class lefty greeny. I did call someone a name I perhaps shouldn’t have, but that name had nothing to do with their class, their politics or their efforts to do their bit for the environment.