I truly wish every day that people would disconnect from vacuous consumerism or at the very least return to the age of sailing the high seas to view something.
I know escapism is important and I'm not a hypocrite. I know I play games and read books; every now and then I even watch a movie. I haven't watched a new TV show in years but I have finished a couple I began from before. The last movie I paid to see was Thor: Ragnarok — whenever that was. With games, I'm very particular about my purchases and don't feel compelled to purchase something immediately, let alone participate in the corrupt as hell "pre-order" system. Anyway, I digress. The thing is, that a capitalist society only functions well if people vote with their wallet. It sounds stupid but it truly does have an impact. Too many people complain, then purchase something and are willing to say "I just ignore those parts" — as if that will somehow make it change. I'll even admit that when I was younger I did the same thing. I would justify the purchase by saying to myself: "It's just one sale. Other people are boycotting it, so things will change in the future. My purchase won't affect anything." But that's when I was literally a teenager not considering that such a view was not unique to myself, countless others undoubtedly used the same reasoning as well.
Sure, some companies really are willing to hemorrhage money in order to push their agenda, however, that doesn't mean that they all are. In fact, I'd wager that most — due to being beholden to stockholders — very much wouldn't.
Instead, we've entered a time where people continue to pay to be miserable and feel that screaming on social media somehow solves the problem and doesn't instead provide free advertising for people to go check the particular product out to see what all of the fuss is about. It's a type of pernicious obsequious behavior that people can easily put an end to if they chose to, which would have an indelible impact on every facet of consumer culture — even more so with aggregate participation. That's precisely why corporations spend so much time and effort not only silencing people's criticisms but paying off "certified" critics. It's why comment sections have been eliminated on practically every site as well. They want to funnel people to places where they can control the overall narrative.
Many people only believe in certain illusions promulgated by mainstream culture. Surprisingly, there are many "independent" creators and companies who do incredibly well financially. Quite a few do even better in profits than their corporate counterparts. I think a good example would be comic books. There are several independent artists who crowdfund or simply distribute directly who make large amounts of money in comparison to Marvel or DC for instance. We just don't hear about it.
I'm hoping that moving forward, people become much more picky about what they'll purchase and go back to some old ways. But in a culture of convenience and instant gratification, it's hard to tell if it will happen.