Conservative calls for boycotts are a little frustrating. Partly because boycotts rarely do much good. And largely because conservative calls for boycotts usually involve companies I’ve never patrionized, goods I’ve never bought, services that have never served me at all.
Recent example: last month’s call to boycott Disney Plus and The Mandalorian over the politically-motivated and largely counterfactual firing of Gina Carano. But I’ve never subscribed to Disney, I’ve never watched Mandalorian (the last, “first” Lucas episodes of Star Wars put me off the entire franchise – I’ve literally watched not one second of Star Wars since…er, the one where Anakin became Darth, whatever that was called), and I can’t be bothered.
With that in mind?
I’ve never really been a big fan of online shopping.
No, it’s not because I’m a technology-averse middle-aged guy. I work in tech. I not only use technology, I design it (and, avocationally, spend a lot of time critiquing bad design). It’s hard to stay near the absolute bleeding edge…
…but then, shopping on line is not the bleeding edge of technology. It’s pretty much a commonplace these days.
I’ve just never liked buying things sight-unseen.
Oh, I’ve adapted a bit – I’ll buy USB cables and printer ink off of Amazon, once in a while – convenience is truly seductive.
But perhaps not seductive enough, anymore.
No pullquote. The whole thing is worth a read.
Saw an interesting suggestion regarding reprobate businesses.
Instead of boycotting them, pirate their products and make them available for free.
Record Netflix and Amazon Prime original content, remove the degenerate commercials and burn CD’s for all your friends.
Do the same for any and all other streaming services. Record music, books, movies, everything that is distributed electronically. In this way, even people who are too weak to avoid doing business with scumbags can be brought into the fight.
I think it’s a Galaxy brain idea but one would have to figure out the distribution logistics to avoid civil law suits and or criminal charges, ala Napster.
I’m 100% on board with you, Mitch, in being a hands on kinda person. Consequently, I have resisted Amazon for years. One example of getting that paid back, is my relationship with an MGM Liquor store. I am a huge fan of almost all Minnesota brewed beer, but also had a penchant for Sam Adams Summer Ale, until Boston Brewing went all PC. The long time manager of my MGM and his family, are originally from Belarus and are really nice people besides. Until I told them they could stop, he would always notify when the last shipment of Summer Ale for the season, arrived, then make sure he saved a case of it for me.
Dr PS- you could also set up a plex or kodi media server and share access to that. It’s pretty simple, and removes having to get blank DVDs.
I like it smh, except having a server leaves a trail to follow. Maybe have friends donate blank DVD’s
A lot of the older programs on Disney+ now include this warning:
Content Advisory
This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now.
My emphasis. There are obvious ontological problems with saying that some stereotypes were wrong in the past. The present can’t change the past, which is why they say that the stereotypes were wrong in the past. But if you can say in absolute terms that some idea was morally wrong in the past, how can we act ethically if we believe that tomorrow or next year our action may be viewed as immoral and this hypothetical future judgment is as valid for us as it is for the future people who make that judgment?
No boycott can hurt Amazon enough to make it change. It’s market cap is 1.6 TRILLION dollars.
That’s about 20x the market cap of General Motors.
MO, from tiny mountain streams comes mighty rivers. Doing something is always better than doing nothing.
BTW, let us not forget that GM required taxpayer bailouts twice to remain in business.
The present can’t change the past
MO, really? I guess you have not read the libturd manual, a small book with a numerical title.
Personally, I found this post inspiring, MO. I’ve been with Amazon since they *only* a book store. Like physical, hold-in-your-hand books. If anyone is an Amazon addict, it’s me. And I’d be happy to help this cause.
My wife and I agreed at lunch to work on whatever it takes to leave Amazon by the time my Prime membership comes up. It’s a great challenge.
We figured out our options. Buying from the vendor w/o Amazon as a middleman is actually cheaper for us for those products I checked. Also, I just went out and bought a Roku with no voice activation to replace the Firestick that has it. At a Walmart outside the metro where masks were optional. Eff Amazon.
Roku is a great resource. Hope they don’t go woke.
When Amazon splashed Black Lives Matters across their landing page, I cancelled my account.
Their subsequent censoring of conservatives voices has only made me feel better about my choice.
Shop local.
DrPS, fun facts:
FMR is the largest stock holder of Roku at 8%.
FMR’s top 5 holdings are AMZN, MSFT, AAPL, FB, NVDA, and represent 18.13% of FMR’s stock portfolio.
I say odds of Roku going woke are pretty darn good!
That’s discouraging jpa. I think our future lies in pirated DVD’s.
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I’m good with pirating, but I’m solving a more immediate problem in that my new Roku box can’t listen to my conversations. My TVs are all NotSmart and don’t have network access.
I am also confused as to the significance of Roku being 9.62% owned by FMR. It’s Fidelity. They own lots of stocks because they offer mutual funds and EFTs. So does Vanguard which owns 8.11% And Blackrock and ARK and so on and so forth… Roku falls into the category of a growth stock so 2.57% of that 9.62% is owned by Fidelity Growth Company Fund. Help me understand why this is the path to wokeness.
JPA, while it is true in an important sense that, as Orwell wrote, “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
But Orwell’s statement is about power, not reality. No matter how much you “control the past” you cannot destroy it. The present does not really control the past, it can only change our thoughts about it. You can’t use your control of the past to stop the universe from being created.
Anyway, I believe that Nineteen Eighty-Four is about Orwell trying to justify his atheism. If there is no God, there is no Truth, and there are no statements about Truth. There are only statements about power, and something human in Orwell revolted against this. He could never really resolve the problem, but then, he died (relatively) young.
No matter how much you “control the past” you cannot destroy it.
Really? Just wait, Soviet style brainwashing is on the threshold. The signs are everywhere. He who has power over the press controls truth™, present, future, and by definition, the past. Yes, no one can change the physical nature of what happened in the past, but those in power can make you think white was black and make you question whether it really happen. And if YOU, along with everyone, think™ it did not happen, did it?
Take a look at Dear Comrades movie which was recently released. It is based on a true story of a massacre in Novocherkassk in 1962. But as far as my parents are concerned, it never happened.
jdm, the company that concentrates on holding stock in woke companies has a better chance of being woke themselves then one that does not. In a perfect world you would think that wokeness does not play a part in stock selection, but we do not live in a perfect world. But you are absolutely right, I do not know much about FMR and their ownership and they could only be in it for the money and Roku is safe. But I am not willing to bet on it.
It’s a coincidence (of sorts) that high(-tech) growth companies are also those that are the most woke. If you want me to explain, I will/can, but I won’t waste my time otherwise.
It’s not that companies don’t fear boycotts. Their actions and cancellations show that they definitely want to appease somebody. They’ve made their preferences clear.
I blame it on women in the corporate structure.
Or woke trophy wives.
I blame it on women in the corporate structure.
Love women (#SuperStraight, tbh) but they’ve wreaked havoc in the voting booth as well, imo.
The natural state of the productive economy isn’t dynamism and lots of little businesses. Economy of scale means that, over time, an economy tends to produce oligopolies.when you have industries that are dominated by IP, the effect is magnified.
It is important to remember that awarding a copyright is awarding a monopoly.
IP is not like other kinds of property because their is no natural right to it, the way that there is to the physical product of your labor. Copyright law evolved during the enlightenment, primarily in the English speaking countries. The debates that the intellectuals of the day had about copyright are interesting. It was never intended to produce multi-generational wealth for the copyright holder. In the US, originally copyright was for a period of 14 years, with a single 14 year extension that had to be applied for by the original copyright holder (not his heirs or estate).
Imagine the hundreds of billions of dollars added to the assets of, say, Disney corp when the DMCA extended copyright for works of hire from 75 years to 120 years. And made the new copyright duration retroactive.
Pretty happy with my Roku. Just saying.
So let me get this straight, MO. The copyright is a product of white supremacy so it has to be abolished, right?