Do Nothing Again
I saw a review of Jenny Odell's Do Nothing on vice.com. Odell thinks people spend way too much time and attention on generating capital, whether it is doing work stuff, or obsessively scrolling through social media sites. Even the things people do for leisure involve giving eyeballs to ads. Odell would rather people spend time doing things that have nothing to do with generating capital, e.g. bird watching, working on social justice causes.
Vice calls this an anti-capitalist argument. But, capitalism doesn't force anyone to spend all their time making money, so I am not so sure this is anti-capitalist. In a capitalist society, you have the option of exchanging more of your time for cash if that's what you'd like to do. For many it turns out to be what they'd like to do, because greed is an instinct - we are all greedy. We work hard when we can and accumulate money so we can take it easy without hurting for cash when we can't work so hard. (Greed is an animal instinct for survival. Even animals eat more when more is available and store it as fat on their bodies. That will come in handy during leaner times.)
But we are also more than just our instincts. We have a well-developed "higher brain", which frees us from having to obey our instincts all the time. Odell herself exercised her free will and freed herself from what she sees as the demands of a capitalist society even while living in one, didn't she? Odell doesn't seem to realize this, but a capitalist society gives people more options than the alternative. In socialism, you can't earn more even if you are willing to put in more time and effort. You can't really accumulate money. You are forever dependent on the state for survival. So, despite Odell's opposition to capitalism, the amount of time spent bird watching is a lot higher in a capitalistic society. The choice, though, lies in people's hands. The state won't make the choice for them (and thus free them from themselves, which is perhaps more to liberals' liking).
Social justice is apparently the other thing we could be doing with our time and attention in stead of generating capital. Given the bogus causes liberals keep chasing, I'd say having less time for social justice work is probably a good thing! We have the whole Black Lives Matter scam going on for several years now, basically kept afloat by liberals (individuals and corporations). Black lives certainly matter, as do other lives. Black lives are not in any more danger than any other lives, so the 'movement' is entirely uncalled for. Climate Change is another bogus cause libs support. Climate Change is expected to make things pretty terrible for people, but none of it came to pass so far, so it seems the 'settled science' got something seriously wrong. No wonder people don't buy the climate fearmongering. But instead of addressing the real problem, libs spend time on demonstrations, protests, and 'bringing awareness' by gluing themselves to floors and such. In any case, plenty of (useless) social justice work is going on right now, even on capital generating social media, so Odell need not despair.