If all of us take little steps to deprive billionaires of some of their power, maybe we can eventually make them care about us little people. Here are some simple things that could make them sting a little bit.
- Obviously, get off Twitter. There’s no excuse anymore — tweeting enables fascists.
- Unsubscribe from any big, national newspapers. They’re all bought and paid for. Subscribe to a local paper. Alternatively, read The Guardian, it’s not American and it’s totally free.
- No more books from Amazon. This one is going to be tough: we don’t have a real bookstore in town (the University Bookstore is a joke, selling only the necessary textbooks, and most of the floor is dedicated to t-shirts and souvenirs). The nearest bookstores are 45 minutes away, but I guess they’ll get more of my business. Here’s a good list of alternatives to Amazon. Added complication: Amazon has been buying up competing vendors aggressively.
- Even better, use your local library.
- Don’t buy anything else from Amazon. That’s difficult here in small town America, too — we rely so much on ordering things from Amazon because we can’t get them here. Huh…I wonder why local availability has been drying up?
- Just generally buy local. It deprives the massive rich stores (which are usually owned by assholes) of money, and is better for the environment, too.
- And finally, never ever vote for a Republican, no matter how nice they may be and how much they promise you.
Teeny tiny steps. It’s not much, but it’s a way for me to cope.
Another suggestion: Friends of the Library. Wherever there’s a public library, you can check and see if there’s a Friends of the Library organization. They often raise money to donate to their public library for programs, book purchases, etc. Some (OK, I know about 5 FOL that do this, so small sample size) collect donated books and sell them to raise money for the library. Some of these have their own space, some do periodic sales, and some even have web sites where you can buy books. I will especially recommend the Friends of the Berkeley (Calif) Public Library. Good people and gently used books. If there’s one near you, it’s a good volunteer opportunity as well.
Getting off Amazon is gonna be hard! But thanks for the suggestions.
For old books Project Gutenberg. For less old books, archive.org once we’re allowed to log in again.
“Subscribe to a local paper. Alternatively, read The Guardian, it’s not American and it’s totally free.”
FWIW, I follow assorted lefty British writers on Mastodon and Bluesky, and most of them accuse the Guardian of having a strong bias against transsexuals.
I mean, okay? I already do these things, except not buy from Amazon. And not because I’m a Good Guy in rebellion, but because I have no interest in the ramblings of nazis or the biases of American media. I have a large backlog of books (dead-tree versions), most from Amazon. Not sure how to unhook from that trough — but, as of today anyway, I don’t really care.
“Subscribe to a local paper.” You should check to make sure your local newspaper is truly local. There are a couple of publishers who have been buying up small town locals. Our local, the Marin Independent Journal (“the IJ” as folks say) is owned by California Newspapers Partnership which owns about two dozen daily newspapers and some weeklies. California Newspapers Partnership is itself owned by MediaNews Group (majority owner) and Stephens Media. MediaNews Group is in turn a brandname for MNG Enterprises Inc, which also does business as Digital First Media. MNG owns over 100 newspapers and 200 other publications. MNG is a propriety of Alden Global Capital. Alden Global is a division of Smith Management LLC. Alden purchased Tribune Publishing…as in Chicago Tribune and others…in 2021 and is now the second-largest newspaper publisher in the US.
You see where this is going.
Stephen Media LLC is a smaller but similar chain of owners. You might call another “paper trail.”
I’m tired of this inconsequential bullshit, they need to face actual consequences. They need to be afraid for their fucking lives. They go out and advocate for the mass deaths of me and my loved ones and you cowards can’t even articulate a fraction of the same vitriol in response to these unapologetic, racist, transphobic, rapist assholes. I want them to fucking DIE
Nearly all my loved ones are in immense pain and suicidal right now and staring our genocide in the face and I see this fucking consumer activism bullshit and it’s fucking enraging
one person taking out a single one of these assholes would do far more to affect their power than tens of thousands of people canceling their fucking amazon prime membership. i’m so fucking sick of nothing but law-abiding pacifist non-solutions. hope you feel fucking good about yourself for canceling your washington post subscription while trans people are cracked down on and forced to be sexually tortured in jail. Is there ANYTHING these ghouls can do before you start waking up and advocating direct action against them??? fuck this world is beyond horrible
None of this will have an effect on billionaires in the slightest. If anything, billionaires who pretend to give a shit would encourage this since it puts the responsibility on individuals. People do stuff like this to feel good, to help them think of themselves as “good people” even though they aren’t really doing anything at all. If you actually care and want to accomplish something good, you need to get directly involved in political organizations fighting against it.
Hex @ #s 6-8 – Aside from the legal and ethical problems with your proposals, have you not seen how eagerly the right wing flaunts its martyrs?
If people followed your advice, progressive USAnians would end up in the same positions as Muslims in India Which maybe we will anyhow, but let’s not accelerate it.
No More Shall I Be Loyal to my Sorrowful Country
I’ve unsubscribed to 4 or 5 things from WaPoop so far, but I keep getting more emails from them. They’re all “separate” subscriptions.
Recently moved back to the US with my (legal) immigrant spouse. And now we have to make an exit strategy for when the dreadful orange chud launches his mass deportation plan, as the US historically has had no problem deporting and expelling immigrants. Even US citizens born here by immigrant parents were forced out (see Hoover’s Mexican Repatriation from the 1930s for example).
This is our new reality……ugh….. oh, and fuck trump.
robro @ # 5: … make sure your local newspaper is truly local.
Indeed. The “local” paper here is owned Gannett (best known as publisher of USA Today), itself under a chain of corporations controlled by a (relatively new) Japanese operation called SoftBank. (With others probably pulling the strings there, but apparently the public paper trail goes no further.)
@10
My community is facing a fully legal genocide right now so I couldn’t give less of a shit about “legal, ethical solutions”. Fuck legality completely when the law oppresses us, and who the fuck is in charge of what is “ethical”, and even more pressing, why the fuck should should anyone care about intangible ethics points or whatever instead of actually felt consequences?
And if nothing is going to work, and I suspect nothing will, the next best thing is to advocate that people don’t bring further life into this world to suffer under fascist oppression or perpetuate it. I cannot imagine gambling with someone else’s life if there’s even a fraction of a chance they’ll experience the suffering I’ve gone through in this world due to my disabilities and gender, let alone far worse suffering that others have experienced. Anyone that can be convinced not to have children or assisted with getting an abortion, that’s entire lifetimes than can be spared suffering
I love, love, love this website:
https://www.paperbackswap.com/help/how_to_swap_books.php
So low-frills, grass-roots, the way the web should be.
You only pay to ship your books you send out when someone wants one that you list.
The money stays in the trading circle, when you receive a book, you pay nothing.
Keeps people reading and reduces waste!
@Hex, # 8: Shh. You’re making the same mistake MAGA makes-saying the quiet part out loud.
Mistake? They fucking filled up a stadium and yelled it with their full throats and fucking WON
I’m seriously thinking of deleting my Facebook account. Besides not wanting to support that little shit Zuckerberg, I don’t want my long list of anti-right wing comments to be used against me.
These assholes cheered when speakers advocated we be exterminated. They openly fantasized about jailing and killing their political opponents. And the fucking Democrat response was to say “you don’t want to have us in your administration but we’d offer you seats in ours! Dick Cheney endorses us!”
Just fucking face it, far, far too many of the population is too fucking nice to fascists. Harris just called Trump to concede and congratulate him, a multiple felon, rapist, genocidal, racist asshole. She’s not much less of a piece of shit
Be prepared for claims of “cancelling”.
With respect to newspapers that is. “Cancel” in that sense is a likely route to complain.
I would love to have some ideas of things we can do that won’t make matters worse. Physically assaulting Republicans is going to produce a backlash against exactly those communities that are most vulnerable. They’d love to have an excuse to march in with the jackboots.
Akira MacKenzie @19
Deleting Facebook sounds like a great idea. And our esteemed host recommended getting away from Twitter. That too.
Not trying to be too snarky, but it might be cool if PZ could somehow remove those buttons for Facebook and Twitter(X) at the bottom of his OPs. Are these things removable or are they tag alongs that go with the WordPress(?) blogging platform? There’s also tumblr, if anyone even uses that platform anymore.
I don’t have Prime, but I will use Amazon on infrequent occasions for some arcane book not available digitally. Bezos ain’t exactly buying a new yacht with my paltry purchases.
I’m pretty much tied into the amazon/google/youtube system. My credit card gets me amazon points that I use to buy presents for family. I also have lots of ebooks and audiobooks I still need to read. I’m at the age where I don’t really want more physical things and ebooks are an alternative since they take up less space. No amazon prime or unlimited. Even if there are alternative ebooks, kindle has an app that tracks how many consecutive days you’ve read and I’m above 1700 days and I don’t want to break that streak. IMHO boycotts are like prayers, they make you feel better while pretty much doing nothing. Bozo won’t miss the few pennies he gets from me and even if he does feel the pinch, he won’t change his ways just punish someone else. Going after the millionaires won’t help. I’m not sure what will.
physically assaulting anyone will bring the police. And yeah, they will kick your ass. they were trained to do that. Win without physical assault,.an ancient artform, worthy of study.
Before the election I had been watching some Massimo Pigliucci instructional videos on stoicism. I’ve also been looking into stuff like dialectical behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy. The founder of ACT tells of his early est experiences which seems a little sus, but ok. I was also delving into Socratic method. Somethings now to maintain my sanity. I’m trying to fight my pull toward jaded cynicism and nihilism post-election. Maybe I should revisit Camus.
I haven’t started assimilating or accommodating the new reality of Trump 2.0 yet, but maybe I have some cognitive tools to keep myself at least treading water psychologically. Ugh! Not much into mindfulness and yoga. Some of that stuff sadly dovetails into MAHA…our new nightmarish hellscape given RFK Jr.
Self applied therapy or beer? A toss up.
BTW my foray into Socratic method is facilitated largely by Youtube. That platform is benefiting “do much evil” Google. I can’t see myself boycotting that platform. I’m not paying for the ad- free version. Pick your oligarchic poison.
I am avoiding WaPo and NYT for the most part. Pretty easily given their paywalls. Politico has been forcing subscriptions. Archive.ph has been suggested as an end-around against paywalls. When I tried it Safari notified me it was blocking profiling trackers from mail.ru and yandex.ru. I bailed on that tool.