THE GREAT BOYCOTT - a megathread on companies to boycott and their alternatives.

submitted by Aureus - announcement from self.Activism

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]yellow_algebra_31 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I never used many of these companies, and I've stopped using others since. These will be the hardest for me:

  • I can move my bank account to a local bank. That's probably the highest impact thing I can do.
  • Mastercard: fuck. How tf am I supposed to engage in commerce? Visa and mastercard? Do I just send checks by mail now?
  • I could move my email account to Protonmail (or a better alternative that doesn't give in to DDOSers). Google docs I'll need an alternative to. I guess I can just keep that stuff locally, I don't really use it for anything that really needs sharing. Maybe I already use alternative browsers but I'm not sure what's best. searx? duckduckgo? startpage? qwant? I'll need to download my email data. Youtube will be hard but I guess I gotta do it.
  • Twitter will be hard, I follow people there. Maybe I can learn how to make a tweet mirroring bot to the fediverse. No, that's probably not realistic. Fuck. Those tweets get me through the day and provide my news. This one I will need help with, comments appreciated.
  • Guess I gotta stop visiting reddit subs for good.
  • There are a lot of payment processor and fund transfer stuff on that list. We need some legit options to switch to.
  • Mozilla, yikes. Guess it's time to ditch firefox? Suggestions?
  • Microsoft?! Time to do that switch to Linux I've been putting off.
  • No more gardening supplies from Lowe's... or Home Depot...
  • No logitech purchases, I potentially needed some new hardware...
  • Intel?! and AMD? How tf am I supposed to do computing? I think we need a list of computer hardware and software suppliers that are legit.
  • FexEx?! Ebay?! Alternatives please?
  • Can commit to not using Discord again.
  • CVS, yikes.
  • Creative Commons?!
  • Burt's Bees? :'( I liked their stuff, but fortunately I already found another lip balm maker. This is something your local small business artisinal beauty products maker can do, btw.
  • I think I gotta get a new cell provider.
  • Amazon :(

We need a full legit whole supply line, guys. This is absurd. Don't ever fucking sell out ever under any fucking circumstance every fucking again, you guys here me? No letting somebody "buy" your company. This is one of the oldest tricks in the book and they've been doing it since the invention of agriculture.

This is a longer list than I thought it would be. I think I'll start with the banks, that seems like the highest-impact. Started doing this several years back but never made the transfer, ashamed now that I didn't. Time to go look up all that old info the Occupy people put together about banking.

Any helpful info about alternatives greatly appreciated.

[–]FlippyKing 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Wow, that is a staggering list. I guess it is just obvious that the tech companies are owned and run by VERY-like-minded people, o say the least.

Local products, and as you say local smaller banks and credit unions, are important. Even if their "politics" don't line up, what is more important is that local communities build themselves up as best they can so these behemoths have less power over us. So many communities have been neglected and their economies so devastated, that they can't repair their own water infrastructure.

I guess it helps to know the monetary system is just completely fake anyway. Anything we can do to get out of using the fake money and dealing in real things is better. Ultimately, the money is a way to manipulate how we get what we need. We need shelter, food, clean water, clothing, and community. If money were real, the people who just manipulate it would never make more than a farmer.

I think real solutions, as in the kind that might free us from being dependent and influenced by these douchey corporations, will ultimately come via local organizing: community by community, addressing specific needs where they are, and untangling ourselves from the things that sap our power away from us and towards them. Yes, that's all just a bunch of empty rhetoric.

[–]Aureus[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Local products, and as you say local smaller banks and credit unions, are important. Even if their "politics" don't line up, what is more important is that local communities build themselves up as best they can so these behemoths have less power over us.

Totally agree.

Ultimately, the money is a way to manipulate how we get what we need. We need shelter, food, clean water, clothing, and community.

I'm thinking barter, gift economies, trading in precious metals, and crypto could become more prominent in the future. It's also important to think of the basics and start from there.

I think real solutions, as in the kind that might free us from being dependent and influenced by these douchey corporations, will ultimately come via local organizing: community by community, addressing specific needs where they are, and untangling ourselves from the things that sap our power away from us and towards them.

You are right on. Local organizing is the way, and unfortunately it's been sorely neglected.

[–]FlippyKing 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

We took local for granted for too long, just as we took a lot of things for granted. Another option is postal banking. People used to be able to cash checks and have accounts at the post office. It was an alternative to banks and served a lot of people. It ended un Reagan.

One solution is like no solution, having a lot of options in everything is probably important. It will make us more resilient-- which is like a key word here. There is, or was, a small "resilient communities" movement that looked at natural disasters and organized or encouraged communities to be prepared and ready for when they had to rely on themselves. It's not a big stretch to just say "we should rely on ourselves as much as possible"