💾 Archived View for tilde.cafe › ~stack › gemlog › 2023-07-27.activism.gmi captured on 2023-09-08 at 16:13:34. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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I encounter many people who _think_ they are doing the right thing, because it makes them feel good. They tell acquaintances to boycott Kevin Spacey after "cancelling" him because someone said something on Twitter. They yell at the old Asian guy for packing their fancy take-out in styrofoam (after paying with Venmo or Apple Pay). They buy a Tesla because it's "green". They get angry about the Supreme Court for undermining gay rights, even the 'right' to support a fascist business!
That is not activism. That is just solipsism with a lot of lip flapping.
But here are a few things you can do. It's simple:
Maybe it's convenient to venmo money to a friend or pay with paypal, but you are directly supporting a fascist billionaire. Surely you don't want to do that.
Housing costs are through the roof because of AirBNB. You don't have to extract every bit of value out of your apartment, like some horrible capitalist you like to criticize. And you don't have to make them richer by staying at such places. There are alternatives.
"Ride sharing". That misapproprioated term means sharing rides with friends and neighbors, not extracting money with demand-priced algrothims to maximize profit.
Don't drive. Buying an electric car and making Elon Stench another billion is not green. That "man" is responsible for more pollution and suffering by miners than anyone else I can think of. Put your money where your very large mouth is and get a used bike, the kind without a motor. Or walk. Move somewhere where you can live without a car, or as my LGBT friends like to say, "Just shut the fuck up, it's not for you to talk about this".
Avoid ultra-capitalist startups that raise millions to extract every bit of profit from anything standing. You can live without some app that rents out your driveway while you are at work.
Avoid middlemen that wedge themselves between you and the party you are transacting with. Pay cash whenever possible - or they will phase it out and you'll be sorry. Avoid capitalist megabusinesses such as Amazon that will make sure there is not a small business left when they are done.
All of these things will make your life more difficult, and are not as glamorous as marching in a parade, showing off your new car or ganging up on some old fart for using a wrong pronoun. But that is how you make a difference - with your actions, not with your mouth.