It's a response to the phenomenon where seemingly no matter what you buy, no matter where you buy it, somewhere along the supply chain someone got hurt or got taken advantage of, and the environment was most likely hurt as well.

Ethical people (ignoring the definition of what that means as i'm not really feeling like writing an essay) usually want to avoid any products that cause someone or something to be harmed during production. But under capitalism that'd mean never buying technology again and having to quit society as having a smartphone is mandatory nowadays, though you'd probably starve first if your best friend isn't a 100% eco friendly farmer (and even then that farmer probably uses a combine which is made out of quite a few parts, production of at least one or two definitely involved some form of abuse)

So the slogan "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" highlights the fact it's not an individual's fault, and the invidivual is not to blame, when they buy something that unknowingly (or knowingly but out of necessity) brought harm to the people or the environment involved in making the thing.

In the olden days you could feasibly survive by being a farmer who kills maybe a couple of his stock a year for meat. You knew exactly where your patatos came from (your field), you knew exactly where your clothes came from (your best friend is the town seamstress), you knew exactly where you furniture is from (the lumberjack who gets wood for the carpenter is your brother).

But then things got more complicated, and capitalism encourages cutting ethical corners in favour of profit

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 0 points 1 hour ago

that phrase doesn't really attempt to tackle the general idea of consumption, just the one under capitalism.

Yes, exactly why I said it's a platitude. It's thoughtless and trite. I'm saying: consumption is not ethical, no matter which system. There is no ethical consumption.

So the slogan "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" highlights the fact it's not an individual's fault, and the invidivual is not to blame, when they buy something that unknowingly (or knowingly but out of necessity) brought harm to the people or the environment involved in making the thing.

That's a cop out. It paints consumers as mere puppets or robots who are unable to make choices or decisions that could lead to a reduction of suffering.

In the olden days you could feasibly survive by being a farmer [...]

The good ol' days, how many times have I heard that one. In the good ol' days there was often imperial rule. In the good ol' days, slave trade was the norm. In the good older days, your little town or village could be overrun by wandering horde of Mongols or even just the next village over that had a different tribe. In the good ol' days, if you were disabled you were fucked, if you had a different skin color you were fucked, if you were a woman you were figuratively and literally fucked, if you got sick any "incurable disease" you were not fucked, you were dead, if you couldn't work anymore your offspring had to tend to you and if those didn't exist or weren't willing to you were fucked, and so on.

It's nice to romanticise "simpler" days after watching "Gone With Wind", but life back then was hard af. It was backbreaking. People died at much higher rates than now with little to show for it. People still live absolutely miserable lives, but the rate thereof is much lower in the countries exploiting others.

But then things got more complicated, and capitalism encourages cutting ethical corners in favour of profit

Capitalism doesn't encourage anything. It's one of the natural products of human greed. Any other system created by humans is flawed and infected the human disease, doomed to create suffering and torment. The only question is how much. Whether capitalism generates more than other systems is debatable, but to claim that there is "ethical consumption" in any other living system is wishful thinking. It doesn't exist.