Nowadays, advertisements surround us from every direction. We are constantly encouraged to purchase items we would never have considered needing. A simple online search on our mobile devices triggers an avalanche of offers and eye-catching images that eventually persuade us to make unnecessary purchases, whether they be gadgets, clothing, or accessories.

The ‘AntiConsumption‘ online community fights against consumerism, one post at a time. Its members share insightful content that inspires us to change our habits and reduce the accumulation of goods simply because they were suggested, rather than because we genuinely need them.

#1 Why Have I Never Seen Anything Like This?

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#2 Yes! You Should Wear Stuff For Years

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#3 Gucci-Poochie Can’t Go Potty

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In order to gain a better understanding of the psychological aspects of the consumerism issue that people face, we have reached out to a clinical psychologist based in the UK, Michaela Thomas. The founder of The Thomas Connection shared with us some insight based directly on her clinical experience.

We wanted to know if Thomas has encountered cases of compulsive or addictive consumption behaviors in her research or practice. We found out that: “Yes, I have clients in my clinic who can compulsively overspend or purchase items they don’t need. It’s important to understand the root cause behind this behavior, as it changes the treatment. If it is an acquisition behavior as part of hoarding, where someone collects more and more things, and at the same time struggles to let go of things they already have, even if they seem to serve no purpose to others, then that consumption builds up into other problems, like cluttering, unhygienic homes, and arguments with loved ones.”

#4 Meirl

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#5 Spooky Reusables

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#6 Never Forget, The Electric Car Is Here To Save The Car Industry, Not The Planet

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The psychologist told us about other, more complex instances: “If overspending is due to lack of financial planning, or wanting the dopamine kick of how good it feels to purchase something, that can be linked to ADHD, depression, mania, psychosis, or other dopamine-related issues. In ADHD, it can be really hard to resist sponsored content like Facebook ads or TV ads, telling you to get this thing NOW, in order to feel happier, or because otherwise there is a sense of FOMO, if you don’t have this thing NOW.”

#7 What’s Yours?

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#8 Bioplastics Made From Avocado Pits That Completely Biodegrade In 240 Days Created By Mexican Chemical Engineering Company ?

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#9 Climate Dad Knows Better

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Asked what the psychological benefits of adopting a minimalist or simple living lifestyle are and how individuals can cultivate contentment and satisfaction with less, Michela Thomas explained: “Psychologically, it can feel a lot less overwhelming in your day-to-day with less visual clutter. It is easier to organize ourselves and find things day-to-day with fewer belongings. If we keep buying more and more, we can find ourselves less satisfied with the things we already have, or now get. Often there is a mismatch between the pursuing and the consuming of something we buy – that we focus so much on acquiring things that we don’t have enough time sitting in the appreciation of what we’ve got. If we buy something less rarely and learn the art of mindfully savoring something after we have got it, we might feel more content and grateful for what we have. Having less is more, and doing less is also more.”

#10 This Small Act Of Kindness Can Make Such A Huge Difference! Love To See It

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#11 Ha Ha Ha Ha Sports

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#12 Regenerative Candles Creates New Candle As It Melts

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Lastly, we were wondering how parents and educators can teach children and adolescents about responsible consumption and develop their critical thinking skills regarding advertising and consumer culture. The clinical psychologist told us: “It’s helpful to engage children in the eco perspective of how fast fashion or mindless consumption impacts the environment, understanding the impact of using non-renewable resources. We can do that without creating eco-anxiety by showing in a neutral way that we try to reduce single-use plastic, or borrow books from the library instead of just buying new ones, or taking them to second-hand shops for toys and clothes. It then becomes part of their normal, just like we brush our teeth or look both ways before crossing the street – ingrained habits. In my child’s school, they have an eco council where children can volunteer to take part and review the school’s practices around sustainability, and come up with bright ideas. The children are our future, let them be part of designing it (in an age-appropriate way).”

#13 Where Can I Buy A Card With This On It?

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#14 Felt Like This Belonged Here

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#15 My Little ’98 Camry Compared To 2 Modern Vehicles

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#16 My Local Pizza Place Uses A Ball Of Dough Instead Of Those Little Plastic Tables To Prevent The Pizza Box Lid From Touching The Pizza

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#17 Capitalism Drives Innovation! The Innovations:

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#18 What An Idea!

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#19 Let’s Be Real

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#20 As A Pcos Patient Who Often Feels Bad About How She Looks, I Need This Reminder A Lot

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#21 Fuck Better Learning Materials Or Whatever, Let’s Build A Massive Shrine To A Couple Dozen Students That Do Something For A Few Months A Year

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#22 Instead Of Polluting The Planet With Confetti, Hole Punch Leaves Instead! ??

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#23 Bernie Showing Us All The Way!!

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#24 It’s Worse Than You Can Imagine In Japan

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#25 These Bags Are Crocheted From Recycled Yarn. My Sister And I Make These Bags From Old, Unwanted Sweaters And Cardigans

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#26 Kroger Potatoes All Individually Wrapped In Plastic. I Don’t Understand Why Potatoes Can’t Just Be Sold As-Is? Why Is The Plastic Necessary?

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#27 Weddings Can Get So Wasteful And Polluting, So It’s Always Nice To See People Embracing Reuse. This Idea Of Requiring New Things On Your Special Day Is Outdated And Promotes Unnecessary Consumerism, So Anyway Yes, Let’s Appreciate Second-Hand Wedding Gowns!

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#28 Street Sticker

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#29 This Entire Bin Full Of Brand New, Intentionally Destroyed Shoes, Destined For Landfill. All To Prevent Reselling And To Maintain An Artificially High Price

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#30 It Never Worked In The First Place. Ever Since The Pandemic Started, We Are All Collectively Realizing This

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#31 Eating These Corporations Is The Only Way To Truly Save The Earth

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#32 This Aluminum Can Comes Wrapped In Plastic

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#33 Saw This On R/Tumblr, Knew It Fit Here

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#34 We Need A Different Economy

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#35 You Can’t Tell Me That Driving Through The Night Would Be A Better Option Than This

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#36 This Library Has Cake Pans You Can Check Out

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#37 There Was Once A Time When

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#38 I Believe It Fits Here

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#39 Am I The Only One Infuriated By Cooler Screens?? These Video Screens At Gas Stations Are Worse Than Just A Glass Door In Every Way

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#40 This Should Be Normalised

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#41 Buy Nothing

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#42 It’s Not A Lot, But It’s Definitely More Than Nothing

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#43 I Hate That This Is Becoming A Trend, So Wasteful

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#44 Definitely

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#45 One Apple Slice In This Plastic Baggie, Advertising A Movie About The Ocean…

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#46 “One-Time Use” Froyo Spoons That I’ve Been Using For 8 Years

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#47 Anti-Medical System ❤️

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#48 McDonald’s Has New Reusable Containers For Dine In Orders Now

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#49 Reminder That The Skincare Industry Is Predatory

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#50 I Came Across This Years Ago And It De-Programmed Me From The Consumerist Mindset. From Matt Haig’s Reasons To Stay Alive

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#51 Dumpster Absolutely Full Of Still Frozen Meat And Food. Got Free $13 Ribeyes. Couldnt Take All

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#52 A Shopping Mall, Where The Lights Are Always On, The Music Always Playing (Even In The Parking Garage!), Even If The Shops Are Closed

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#53 “The Void You Fill With Consumerism Is Your Own Disempowerment.” Pasteup In Austin

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#54 The Sheer Amount Of Stuff That Could Be Recycled Or Donated At The End Of The Semester That’s Just Tossed Out

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#55 1944 Ad From The Us War Advertising Council. “Be A Saver Not A Buyer”

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#56 Irony. Not For The Average Consumer

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#57 Things Used To Last For More Time

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#58 We Can Do Our Best But At The End Of The Day The Force Of Capitalism Is What’s Destroying The Planet

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#59 The Bastardization Of One Times Square

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#60 If You Want To Stop Climate Change, Stop Buying Stupid Shit You Don’t Need

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#61 On Many Japanese Toilets, The Hand Wash Sink Is Attached So That You Can Wash Your Hands And Reuse The Water For The Next Flush . Japan Saves Millions Of Liters Of Water Every Year

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#62 On Black Friday 2008, 34 Yr Old Walmart Employee, Jdimytai Damour, Was Asked By His Employer To Use His 6’5 Body As A Barrier For A Crowd Of Over 2,000 People

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#63 Eco Friendly

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#64 Pretty Much Sums It Up

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#65 Tis The Season Of Waste And Unnecessary Purchases!

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#66 Today I Made Almost 4 Gallons Of Laundry Soap. I’m The Third Generation In My Family To Use This Recipe. Eat Your Heart Out, Tide Pods!

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#67 In NYC They Just Cut The Lights Off Of Trees After The Holidays And (I Assume) Throw Them Away

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#68 No Amount Of Wealth Could Ever Stop This

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#69 Under Capitalism

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#70 Got Laid Off From My Job. I Have A Mug I Really Love But Has My Old Company’s Logo On It. Instead Of Throwing It Away, I Ordered A $3 Waterproof Vinyl Sticker To Put Over It. I Love The Mug Even More!

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#71 Wow This M&ms Statement Is Crazy

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#72 An Old Comic That Sent Me On The Path To Anti-Consumerism

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#73 I Carve Avocado Seeds And Made This Axe Necklace! ?

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#74 Doing The Work For Us

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#75 Ad Free Subways Make The Inside Look Larger And Lighter

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#76 Libraries Are The Bastions Of Anti-Consumption

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#77 I Feel This So Hard

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#78 New Amazon Marketing Technique: Manipulate People Into Believing Consumption=happiness

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#79 Of Course The CEO Of Kellogg Is Going To Say That Constant Consumption Is What’s Going To “Save Us From A Recession” These People Are Unreal

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#80 Starbucks Mobile App Claims A 30 Min Wait. Employees Claim A 2+ Hour Wait. Manager Says Corporate Wont Shut Down Mobile Orders

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#81 Bunch Of Escooters Becoming Ewaste

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#82 One Family Decided To Count How Many Yeti Products They Bought Over The Years. Top Comment Was Yeti Offering Even More Products To Their Collection

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#83 ?

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#84 $2000 Garbage Bag, Unreal

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#85 This Gross Commercialization Of Bob Ross Into Mints And Energy Drinks

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#86 Spotted In The Wild At A Hipster Coffee Shop. They Said They Sell At Least One A Week…

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#87 Reality

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#88 Single Use Phone Chargers, Being Marketed As “Green”

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#89 Cookie Waste

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#90 This Belongs Here

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#91 Got To Love How There Are Ads Litterally Everywhere

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#92 N-N-No You C-Cant Do T-This That’ll Hurt Our P-Profits

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#93 My Brain Refuses To Comprehend This Price

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#94 I Felt Like Sharing. For A Household Of 3 To Only Produce 1 Bag Of Trash For The Week Feels Good. Wish It Could Be Zero

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#95 This Is Why I Despise “Collectibles”

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#96 Ok But At Least He’s Reusing Lol

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#97 $13, An Hour Of My Time, And A Good Amount Of Material Kept Out Of A Landfill. I Love Refurbishing Things!

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#98 Why Is Packaging So Much More Eco Friendly In Paris Than USA? And How Do We Make These Changes Here?

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#99 But Why Cover It In Plastic!?

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#100 This Might Belong Here

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#101 Soup In Edible Bread Cups

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#102 Green Chef Sent Me Two Separately Packaged Green Onions For The Same Recipe

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#103 “Wind Farms Are Ugly” Corporate Media

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#104 The Sad Truth (Oc)

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#105 Consumerism Will Be The Downfall Of Humanity Unless Something Radically Changes

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#106 Why I Hate Life Hack Videos

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#107 God I Fucking Hate It Here. Spotted In A Shopping District In Denver

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#108 I Just Cannot Believe This Is Real. This Is Enough Soap To Last A Few Generations

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#109 What In The Sh-T

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#110 Alright Everyone, What Are Your Limits?

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#111 Someone Was Posting Links To Shein, So I Gave A Link To An Article About How Awful The Company Is. This Was Their Response

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#112 Do We Hate Plastic Stuff Or Single Use Stuff More???

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#113 I Work At Supermarket. This Is What Our Uber Orders Look Like

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#114 Reminder: The Owner Of Wapo Sells Coffee Pods At Their Other Business. Don’t Fall For This Greenwashing

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#115 Thought That People In This Community Would Be Interested In This

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#116 What Happened To Buying 1 Console For Them All And Them Learning The Value Of Sharing?

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#117 Disney Is One Corporation That Needs To Die

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#118 Excessive Packaging Is So F***ing Wasteful

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#119 Milka’s Greed

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#120 This Line, Nearly 3 Hours Before The Taylor Swift “Merch” Shop Opens In Philly

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#121 Who Buys This Crap?

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#122 Do Not Provide Your Children The Choice Of Paid-For Higher Education

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#123 Catedral De Barcelona Inviting You To Mass And Buying A Phone

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#124 Anon Is Happy With His Computer

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#125 This Bullsh*t

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#126 Sorry Future Generations

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#127 If It Ain’t Broke

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#128 Embodiment Of This Sub

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#129 I Hacked My Car Radio To Support Aux. Now I Don’t Have To Listen To Annoying Commercials On The Radio. Also I Dont Have To Buy A New One That Support Aux. Win-Win Situation!

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#130 I Hate This Type Of Useless Stuff

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#131 This Is Ridiculous And Makes Me Feel Icky When I Look At It

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#132 Corporations Would Literally Kill You To Turn A Profit

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#133 This Makes Me Feel Ill

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#134 Since 2018, The Affordable Restaurants Are No Longer Worth It. Food Quality Goes Down As Prices Go Up

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#135 A Store To Purchase Amazon Return Items

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#136 A Cardboard Six Pack Holder From A Major Beverage Manufacturer

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#137 A Rare Positive Post Here: If Only More People Treated Their Possessions This Way

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#138 Rest Well This Holiday Season!

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#139 And The Base Package Is $45,000

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Source: boredpanda.com