Hehe yeah, “Sure, you could buy perfect diamonds grown in lab conditions that are way prettier than anything we could offer for way cheaper, or you could buy our authentically dirty or broken diamonds to -prove- you paid way more money to anyone that looks close enough to notice. Won’t they be jealous of how rich you were”.
Yeah it’s the same as the people who are being oppressed by the corporatocracy voting for an oppressor because they just want to feel powerful by stepping on someone else. The “Slugs for Salt” group doesn’t care if they are salted as long as the snails beneath them get salted and they get to feel like it’s them doing the salting.
I think one of the most common talking points against lab grown is that they are too perfect. “It’s the imperfections that are beautiful” or something like that.
That sentiment they manufactured is exactly what I was, apparently inexpertly, lampooning.
In a certain way I even agree with the sentiment. Of the crystals I have grown myself, the perfect ones are kinda nice, but do look fake/more like plastic. Those that are nearly perfect but have visible impurities (not to much, not to little) are far more visually pleasing to me.
The big BUT is that this in no way is a reason to support blood diamonds. If aesthetic is more worthy to you than human rights, than you are a villain, it’s that simple.
That is just more propaganda. In the netflix program about it they show that they can’t tell the difference.
The whole natural diamond thing is they want to control the volume of diamonds on the market. If you can make them, then there will be such a high production the prices will plummet. The only reason the price is high, is that they keep production low.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good
A Veblen good is a type of luxury good, named after American economist Thorstein Veblen, for which the demand increases as the price increases, in apparent contradiction of the law of demand, resulting in an upward-sloping demand curve. The higher prices of Veblen goods may make them desirable as a status symbol in the practices of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure. A product may be a Veblen good because it is a positional good, something few others can own.
