Boycotting the US is silly. Boycott shitty corporations and you are already boycotting the US anyway, in effect. Nothing changes here. : BoycottUnitedStates

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

We should definitely set the ideological purity bar for this boycott so high that ordinary people can’t possibly meet it and they just don’t bother.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

We don't need to go into all of these details. Cutting off the obvious few (like ditching whatsapp for signal) will get you 90% of the way there. But it's a lot of effort to get to 91%.

Screw that, your energy is better spent elsewhere. Do 90%.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Agreed, this is very political and obsessive. Its not what the boycotting is about.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It’s a progression for sure. But there is no reason to draw an arbitrary line and give up. If you always look for ways to advance your ethical lifestyle, you will continually be able to feel a sense of greater progress from the former you.

I even nix whole cities. Oh, this city is uncyclable? Fuck that city; I won’t live there -- I’m done with cars and the whole fucking car industry.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's not arbitary. It's the line between reasonable and obsessive/wasteful

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It’s the line between ~~reasonable~~ convenient and ~~obsessive/wasteful~~ ethical

^ fixed it for you. Everyone has a level of tolerance for inconvenience which can fall anywhere between 0% and 100%, to use your bizarre scale of percentages where a migration from whatsapp to signal is “90%” progress in solving the world’s problems. I cannot imagine how uninformed someone must be about all the surveillance advertising to think that 90% can be attributed to whatsapp, which uses the same tech that Signal uses. Yes, FB hired Open Whisper Systems to implement their tech in whatsapp. You’re talking about a change that is symbolic at best. It’s not even a fart in an ocean of significance.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

.It takes 90% of the effort to get from 90% to 91%. You make a whole lot bigger impact spending that energy getting someone else to 90% too.

Stop pretending the world is black and white.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Learn how to save text files, convert HTML to plain text, and use grep; maybe some emacs org mode. It’s not that hard if you have some tech competence. The figures you give are for tech illiterates.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

ctrl+F?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

ctrl+F?

It’s becoming clear why the effort is so high for you. Loading every document into buffers where you can use control-f in each buffer to inspect each hit one at a time is of course labor intensive. Study grep and filesystems. You can get more info with less time and effort that way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ahh, that's the confusion. You think I bothered looking through this mess you made at all

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You’re still confused. My post is not what you would search.

Do your own research. Make your own records. Search your own records based on your own criteria. Doing your own thinking is your job. Being at the extreme end of lazy has warped your perception of effort which leaves you w/absurd ideas around this bizarre 90% figure. Get off your ass and learn to use grep on filesystems. If you get that far then your bitching won’t kick in until 99%.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

You took what I said too literal I think. This problem is the same as navigstion.

Try finding a "perfect" route to drive trough all of europe
Try finding a "good enough" route to drive across the whole of europe

Then compare the amount of work and results. Sometimes, good enough is good enough. And more would not be worth the insane amount of effort

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

If you oppose technofeudalism and surveillance advertising, then you already boycott these tech giants:

Cloudflare
Google
Microsoft
Amazon
Apple
Facebook

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

So... Basically, what you are saying is just don't buy anything, ever?

Because it's damn near impossible to avoid Nestle, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Mondelez and Kelloggs.

Great idea! /s

The only way to abstain from ALL of these is if you buy all the ingredients from the store and make it all yourself, especially if you want chocolate and such!

But for 99% of people, this is not a financially viable option.

Just don't boycott US companies at this point, they are all entrenched in world markets.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Nestle is Swiss tho'

Orkla (Norway) has several chocolate brands across Scandinavia, same with Fazer (Finland)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sorry, forgot that for a moment. I don't know why and for what reason I thought they were American. Good to know, at least, even if I accidentally buy something owned by them, I know I'm supporting European businesses, rather than American businesses.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No worries. There are plenty of other reasons to avoid Nestlé :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Well, yeah, that is true. But I just know that Nestle is not American and that gives me some peace because money won't be going to American pockets. :)

As for the reasons, I totally agree that Nestle products are really bad in their policies and such.

I used to buy S. Pallegrino water but I momentarily stopped because I was under the impression that Nestle is American.

(Because this post is posted in a BoycottUS community and because I have a growing distaste for the US as a whole)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

So… Basically, what you are saying is just don’t buy anything, ever?

The less disciplined folks who still at least have enough constitution to boycott will patronize the lesser of evils. If you have a bit more self control, of course you can nix a whole category of whatever product.

Because it’s damn near impossible to avoid Nestle, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Mondelez and Kelloggs.

I have to say if you struggle to avoid those brands you have an underdeveloped discipline and self control. Or if your problem is merely tracking all the brands, it’s a memory or attention deficeit. There are knock-off brands for most of it -- which are always substantially cheaper. If you cannot find a knock-off Twix or whatever you think you can’t live without, shoplift it. I’m happy to buy Nestlé and Mondelez products from shoplifters.

The only way to abstain from ALL of these is if you buy all the ingredients from the store and make it all yourself, especially if you want chocolate and such!

It’s easier to find knock-offs or shoplifters in some cases. But indeed making it yourself is a decent approach. Instead of buying General Mills pancake mix, buy flour, baking soda, VegEgg (or eggs), and baking powder instead. It’s not going to kill you to give up a minuscule bit of convenience and add 2 or 3 more ingredients. If you make your own salsa and ketchup, you’ll find that what you make is better tailored to your taste than the junk that they try to make for the avg pallet.

But for 99% of people, this is not a financially viable option.

99% of the time it’s the other way around. Buying knock-offs, shoplifting, or buying from shoplifters is far cheaper than a lifestyle of brand loyalty. These brands advertise the most and the products have the highest prices.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"If you cannot find a knock-off Twix or whatever you think you can’t live without, shoplift it."

So your suggestion is "If you can't buy it, just steal it bro"

Nice thinking lol.

As for the brands, you have absolutely NO IDEA just how deeply rooted all of these brands are. Especially Coca-Cola and the bunch. Up until today, I learned that Coca-Cola owns a very BIG, bottled water brand where I live. And it is not even listed on your infographic.

"Memory deficit" sorry, mate, but this is just not really a memory issue, there is simply too much brands for one person to keep up. I will be opening up my phone 20 times a day just so I can make sure that I don't buy from any of those, and yet still accidentally buy from them. I could be at the grocery store tomorrow, buying milk that looks like a local brand but secretly it's owned by one of the ones listed. Because the European Country I'M from is almost entirely unimportant and therefore the brands in it go unnoticed, so there's no telling of who's the real owner of the brands in my local grocery store.

I believe in the boycott and I am sure it is going to work. I have almost given up all of my US company consumption. A few exceptions still exist, obviously, but they are impossible to avoid nowadays.

Boycotting US companies is more than enough for me, and my main goal as of right now. Protesting about terrible companies, while certainly a good thing, and I wish I had the willpower to quit them fully, is not my concern at the moment.

I stopped drinking Sprite, Fanta, Coca-Cola, Mezzo Mix and the water brand Coca-Cola bought, as well as Fuzetea. And if I have a chocolate craving, I just buy from Lidl's homebrand chocolate or Kinder Chocolate if I really want it.

I've stopped relying on U.S big tech as much, mainly: Google, Microsoft, Apple, Scamazon and Facebook. I don't use (F)Elon Musk's (e)X and for my music? I listen to it through Spotify for commercial ones and SoundCloud for underground people or straight up buy it from Bandcamp.

I don't eat cereal or any of the "brand names" anymore. I'm just saying, that fusing two boycotts into one is very difficult unless you are absolutely dedicated, and the average person just does not care enough about either boycott.

Just ask my mom or all of my friends. They'll tell you that they think it's stupid OR that they can't live without XYZ product, which is American.

Sorry for the long rant

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

So your suggestion is “If you can’t buy it, just steal it bro”

Of course. You’re not grasping the point of boycotts and how they work. It doesn’t matter what you consume. It matters what you buy; and who you feed profit to (including data). Stealing Twix is even more effective than avoiding it because not only do you deny them your business, you also cost them.

As for the brands, you have absolutely NO IDEA just how deeply rooted all of these brands are.

Make all the excuses you want for lack of discipline. For me it’s worthless. You’re just inspiring other pushovers who don’t have enough self-control to give up their Apple Jacks.

buying milk that looks like a local brand but secretly it’s owned by one of the ones listed.

Claiming that it’s okay to do nothing because you don’t have full transparency on all products.. not sure who that excuse fools. You have the infographic that gives enough coverage to be able to make the most ethical decisions most of the time.

And if I have a chocolate craving, I just buy from Lidl’s homebrand chocolate or Kinder Chocolate if I really want it.

So you are okay with Lidl’s ties to Israel? That when customers boycotted Israeli produce (often grown on Palestine land), Lidl falsified the source as a different origin.. you okay w/that?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Boycott capitalism would be even more straightforward.

Not completely feasible for most people at the moment though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I am absolutely loving NOT buying anything.

I only buy necessities (food, medication, sundries)

I’ve been repairing and repurposing clothes. Buying used items. Driving an awesome old car.

Every chance that I get to NOT buy something is cause for celebration.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Agreed (I don't do all of that but generally choose not to buy of that's an option).

Part of the problem is that some of the shittiest companies on that list are the dominant or only provider for some types of food, medication, and sundries.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

It's the same thing... Life in the USA is so comercialized, every possible interaction with the land or its people means paying money to American corporations

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

You forgot the "now can you pretty please stop the boycot" at the end of your talk

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

for fun - - what's the worst thing each of these have done

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I’m not going to dig up my notes or look stuff up but off the top of my head:

FedEx ships shark fins, slave dolphins, and hunting trophies.
Motorola supplies the IDF (Israeli military)
Chevron got caught in project cloakroom, where they spent $100k to arrange secret meetings between large corps and law makers
Sony got caught putting GPL code in their DRM code
Boeing obviously prioritized money above lives when it decided to conceal known safety defects to avoid training pilots, which led to many deaths.
Nestlé (Swiss company) sold dodgy baby formula in a scandal that caused infant deaths
Pepsi is the worlds biggest consumer of palm oil (deforestation)
Coca cola sponsors rodeos in Texas, thus cruelty to animals. It is also a big palm oil consumer

Tech companies and banks have such a long list of wrong doing I can’t be bothered to list it here and now. Hard to say with each company what is the worst act. Though I will say that Microsoft sold s/w licenses to African schools that it knew did not even have computers, then gave a kickback to the school admins who arranged the deals.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

But whatever you do, please don't boycott Deez nuts.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

You could do 100% perfect us-avoidance.

Or spend 10% of that effort to get to 90%. Then convince a friend to so the same, that makes a much bigger impact.

Dragging yourself out to 100% is just a recipe for failure in the long run

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

The archive.org link to hundreds of GMA members is dead. Bizarre, considering archive.org should not be losing stuff. Looks like redirection shenanigans. Anyway, attaching an image here:

[+] [email protected] -7 points 1 week ago (3 children)

It’s already nearly unsurmountable to boycott just the shitty detrimental corporations. I mean, how many people can boycott Microsoft? That means not emailing your government because chances are they use MS Outlook mail servers. As someone who boycotts all these companies and many more (Procter and Gamble, Unilever, etc), it’s a lifestyle change. Half the items in a European grocery store are from the US.

The only relatively non-evil corp from the US I can think of is Starbucks. I wouldn’t fixate on that. Focus on the shitty corps and it’s already more than most people can handle.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why tf do you think Starbucks is a "non-evil" corporation?

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Because it’s relative when boycotting. Why did you omit relative from your quote? Their competitor is Nestlé. Nestlé uses child slave labor, fights GMO-labeling, argues that water access is not a human right, among copious other shit, while the biggest dirt on Starbucks is tax avoidance in the Netherlands and serving milk from GMO-fed cows. Starbucks is one of the most ethical corporations of its size in the US.

Technically Nestlé is Swiss but nonetheless they are one of the worst, up there with Bayer-Monsanto and DuPont.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And exploiting workers, interfering in unionization, selling trash products, and much much more. Starbucks is definitely not better than all the others. In fact, all of big corp is evil.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

exploiting workers

Bit vague. I’ve heard nothing significant along those lines.

interfering in unionization

Maybe some one-offs, but if that’s something you care much about, focus on ALEC members. Starbucks never was an ALEC member but most large corps in the US were at one point. ALEC is a centralised heavy hitter in union busting. It is the anti-union machinery in the US that any corporation against unions joins. It’s the main reason FedEx and UPS joined ALEC.

selling trash products

It’s overpriced for what you get, which is why I don’t buy from Starbucks. Not as a boycott but that’s just the market working like normal. If you get bad value for the money, you walk. If we were talking about goods that you don’t consume in 10 minutes, sure I boycott shit like designed obsolescence.

and much much more

Why not list it? It’s better to list it because you have a better chance of getting support for the boycott.

I searched my files and found some more dirt on Starbucks I didn't know about:

Israel -- if you boycott Israel, then you boycott Starbucks
GMA (GMO labeling opponent)
Facebook -- was the 12th biggest Facebook advertiser in 2012 or 2013
child slave labor (chocolate)
CEI (climate denial propaganda)
data breaches (97,000 records exfiltrated)
deforestation / palm oil

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think its a bit silly to think of a boycott in terms of things other people use. So don't run exchange for you private mail server and sure you can petition your government not to use microsoft but you are not falling to boycott microsoft because document you made in libre office and attached to an email you sent on your linux mahine was recieved by an exchange server.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

you are not falling to boycott microsoft because document you made in libre office and attached to an email you sent on your linux mahine was recieved by an exchange server.

Of course it’s a failure to boycott. Every time you send email to a Microsoft recipient, you feed profitable data to the MS ad surveillance machine. You also open the door to give the recipient an email address so when they reply you effectively facilitate more food to MS to the extent that you have no control over. And worse, you also signal to the recipient that their email setup works.. that it serves them and rewards their choice.

If you boycott MS effectively, then you use snail mail (absent other channels). You feed nothing to MS and block your recipient from using you to feed MS more. You also give badly needed help to the postal service. Look what happened to Denmark. They lost the option to boycott MS. Those people will soon be entirely disempowered, forced to support whatever tech giant naive recipients choose.

Microsoft loves it that you think you can simply avoid running some of their binary code and work under the illusion that you are not supporting MS.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

As a person in the tech space, let me give you my opinion on all of this.

"Of course it’s a failure to boycott. Every time you send email to a Microsoft recipient, you feed profitable data to the MS ad surveillance machine."

It's not, because YOU are the one boycotting and not the other user. If you can convince everyone to ditch GMail, Microsoft Outlook, AOL, Yahoo or others, then yeah, you guys are boycotting well. But if the end user of something YOU sent doesn't boycott, they have no reason to change their client and it is not a failed boycott. Because even if one user boycotts, it is still better if no one boycotted.

The end user would be inconveniencing themselves by communicating with you, because you decided to use something else and force them to use that same thing with you. Imagine this, you use Email Client 1 but the user you sent the email to, uses Corporate Mail 1. Are you going to tell the user that in order to communicate with you they should completely ditch Corporate Mail 1 and use Email Client 1? Don't you think that is being an inconvenience?

This almost makes me think of some Vegan, animal rights activists, which will tell you how terrible you are for eating meat.

Also, unfortunately, Microsoft and Apple are the industry standards for when it comes to Personal Computing and Workstations.

"If you boycott MS effectively, then you use snail mail (absent other channels). You feed nothing to MS and block your recipient from using you to feed MS more."

Imagine using snail mail in the digital age to send important documents that need to be signed by tomorrow. Do you realize just how much time and money would take to send a letter from, say, Poland to France?

Not a chance, especially not for critical things.

Using something like Proton would definitely help make things more secure AND less money for the U.S, but how many people do you know that use Proton Mail? 2? 5? 10?

Fact of the matter is, some companies are unavoidable, especially in the workplace.

Don't inconvenience your colleagues by forcing them to use a different client than what they are used to already. Or, if you want to introduce a new provider, introduce it slowly. Give people the time they need to let it settle in better.

I will also say something that was said here earlier, this way of thinking is incredibly "purist" and too much "perfectionism"

Don't let "perfect" get in the way of "Good"

People are already struggling to boycott US companies, let alone this purist version you have here.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Also, forgot to add...

If you want to avoid Microsoft and Google, good luck with that because a vast majority of search engines use either Microsoft's Bing API or Google's API.

And in order to make a search engine that is not tied with Google or Microsoft, it has to be self-hosted, self-coded and completely self-reliant.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

If you want to avoid Microsoft and Google, good luck with that because a vast majority of search engines use either Microsoft’s Bing API or Google’s API.

That’s an easy one. For the past several years, this was the absolute best:

ombrelo.im5wixghmfmt7gf7wb4xrgdm6byx2gj26zn47da6nwo7xvybgxnqryid.onion

That service scraped from Google and Bing thus did not finance them. It also filtered out Cloudflare resuits. It’s gone now, but there are countless other instances which do not use the MS or Google API (which feeds them). Most searx instances scrape the results, which ultimately costs MS and Google.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It’s not, because YOU are the one boycotting and not the other user.

No you are not. As long as you feed Microsoft, you are not boycotting. It’s the opposite of boycotting.

But if the end user of something YOU sent doesn’t boycott, they have no reason to change their client and it is not a failed boycott.

It’s a fail because whatever you transmit to an MS user feeds MS with marketing data.

Because even if one user boycotts, it is still better if no one boycotted.

A conversation between two people with MS as an evesdropper is not a boycott. It’s two people feeding MS and helping MS profit.

Imagine this, you use Email Client 1 but the user you sent the email to, uses Corporate Mail 1. Are you going to tell the user that in order to communicate with you they should completely ditch Corporate Mail 1 and use Email Client 1? Don’t you think that is being an inconvenience?

And? Of course it’s an inconvenience. Boycotts are inherently inconvenient. If you prioritize convenience, that’s not activism and you’re not boycotting. You’re just doing what the normal market is designed for -- exploiting your addiction to convenience. I suggest reading Tyranny of Convenience by Tim Wu.

Also, unfortunately, Microsoft and Apple are the industry standards for when it comes to Personal Computing and Workstations.

Yikes. You have been brainwashed. They push proprietary conventions. Calling their tech “standards” is the kind of boot licking they love you to do.

Imagine using snail mail in the digital age to send important documents that need to be signed by tomorrow. Do you realize just how much time and money would take to send a letter from, say, Poland to France?

Again, you need to drop this bizarre idea that a boycott is convenient. Protests that fail to disrupt fail to be effective. If I get a complaint about an analog letter, I could not be happier. That’s the perfect opportunity to describe the problem to whoever complains.

Not a chance, especially not for critical things.

Why did you wait until the last minute? That’s your fuckup.

Using something like Proton would definitely help make things more secure AND less money for the U.S,

Not in the slightest. MS still sees the full payload of PM msgs. Unless you use a shared key with the MS recipient, in which case MS gets the metadata. With most transactions you’ll have a hard time getting the other side to deal with a password. Try getting a bank to note down a password for such emails and see if they go along with it.

Don’t inconvenience your colleagues by forcing them to use a different client than what they are used to already.

You do you. Don’t tell people what to do.

In a workplace specifically, you likely have a mandate to use the tools of the org. That’s not really an interesting scenario because politics in the workplace is not generally tolerated by bosses.

Don’t let “perfect” get in the way of “Good”

You don’t have “good”. If you are feeding MS, that’s not good. It’s not boycotting. You have perfect getting in the way of “bad”, and rightfully so.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"Don't tell people what to do"

is also actively telling people what to do.

Hypocricy at its finest!

I don't think you are upholding your own standards. If you were, you would have just isolated yourself completely from everywhere.

But I don't have time to argue with someone who has the same thinking as a stereotypical Vegan lol.

Go ahead am live in your fantasy land where you think boycotting means that everyone you ever send an email to is failing to boycott.

A friend said it best "If you and your friend have been dumping trash on the road and you say 'I'm gonna quit that' but he say he will continue. Isn't it better that at least one of you stopped?"

Your whole idea of boycotts are twisted completely.

Also, FYI, educate yourself first. Proton is not an MS product, you donut.

Again, as a person mentioned here:

"You forgot to put 'can you pretty please stop boycotting?' at the end of your talk"

To the other commenters reading this:

Do what you can reasonably do. Going for this perfectionist bullshit is only going to make you want to quit boycotting U.S products and the cycle will start anew.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

“Don’t tell people what to do”

is also actively telling people what to do. Hypocricy at its finest!

I’m telling you HOW to boycott as clearly you don’t grasp it. To claim to boycott a company while feeding them is a lie (to the extent that it’s not ignorance- which is what I am addressing considering when the conversation started you thought you could boycott MS while feeding them).

You are on your own to work out whether or not to boycott. That comes down to where MS stands w.r.t your values. You do you.

I don’t think you are upholding your own standards. If you were, you would have just isolated yourself completely from everywhere.

That would fail to support the good businesses who compete with the baddies. You’ve misunderstood my position if you think removing support from competitors of my adversaries upholds my standards. Relatively ethical competitors of the baddies are my friendlies.

Also, FYI, educate yourself first. Proton is not an MS product, you donut.

You need to take your own advice here. Obviously you don’t know how Protonmail works. You only get out of the box crypto if the other person also uses Protonmail, you fool. When you send email to an MS user (yes, from Protonmail) without obtaining their pubkey and or shared key, MS sees the payload. In fact, MS sees just as much as if you sent the msg from gmail. You really have no clue how encryption (symmetric and asymmetric) works. It is not some kind of magic where everyone you contact from PM has encryption.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

I am taking my own advice, lol.

Just because you are stuck in your "purist" ways, doesn't mean that everyone else is going to follow in your footsteps.

I don't email anyone who uses Gmail or MS Outlook, but if I had to send a reply to and from my work email, to a company which likely uses Gmail, tf am I gonna do?

Shiver me timbers, I'll send a single email through a corpo-slop server. Oh no... Anyway.

You genuinely have some of THE WORST takes I have seen on here so far. "Starbucks isn't as evil" "Lidl sucks because they support Israel"

Again, I'm all for boycotting shitty corporations, but if you believe that sending a single email to a company WHO YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT SERVICES THEY USE is stupid.

If you have a phone, best get rid of that, because your local phone provider and U.S Satellites know where you are! They hear all your conversations and see all the SMS messages! God forbid you use your phone to sign up for anything, they can see the code you get from the service. God forbid you use a bank card, because those are owned by either Visa or MasterCard, American corporations. Best get rid of those as well, mate.

In fact, get rid of everything and go live in the woods. Perhaps you'll learn something about life or something.

I will no longer perpetuate this conversation further as it is entirely useless. I don't want anyone telling me that I "live in a lie"

We all do, you just don't understand or realize it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I've found that not many food items in my local shops are american, most of them are in fact European already. Especially if you buy the low price brands/the stores own brands. It's very simple and affordable to deal with. However, the switch to linux instead of windows, has been proven to be more difficult for me. I haven't done it yet. I have flashed the drive and tested, but not committed. This is, however, something I really want to do. Due to ethical reasons. However, I'm finding the discussion to move more business to Europe encouraging. To have european alternatives to credit cards and so forth. It is good that Europe is finally taking action. We do need to have the discussion about electricity and oil and gas though. If we choose to switch over to more EV's we will need to produce more electricity, quickly. There are fast and easy green ways to do this. And we need to push for this. Boycotting little ol' companies is a fart in the ocean of what we actually import. So I'd say, take it with a grain of salt. Do what you can. But have the real discussions. We are boycotting to send a message. But eventually we will have to think about the real issues, just like Europe should've done many years ago.

Don't get distracted.