A one day boycott is about as effective at sending some kind of message as taking off a condom after the first thrust is at preventing a pregnancy.
Americans are seemingly incapable of doing anything other than virtue signalling online.
I say this as an American.
I moved over from corporate tech work to take a pay cut to do tech work at a non profit helping the homeless, to actually, literally do praxis.
No one, none of my friends, none of my family, nobody seemed to understand why I believed that ones actions should align with ones beliefs.
Americans are largely performative, self-obsessed narcissists.
I am beyond disgusted with this country.
I spent a decade telling people what is currently occuring is not only possible, but becoming increasingly inevitable.
90% of people told me I was mentally ill.
10% said yes they agree, but what can you do?
Fine. Fuck it.
There is nothing we can do I guess, as doing something would involve actual planning, risk and sacrifice, and we’re all a bunch of either vapid preening esoteric socialites, or murderously stupid death cultists.
Beam me up Scotty, no signs of intelligent life here.
No one, none of my friends, none of my family, nobody seemed to understand why I believed that ones actions should align with ones beliefs.
When I was in high school, I wanted pursue college to do clean energy or agricultural research. Nobody who was in a position to help me fix my education track wanted to talk about anything but careers and income. I’ve just been watching everything get worse and they’ve just been enjoying their popcorn and circuses since then.
Here’s the thing: resistance movements don’t happen overnight except in the most extreme of circumstances, and since our transfer of power was (technically) peaceful, people aren’t feeling the kind of hurt that would drive them to protest just yet.
So, people who are wise enough to see what’s coming have to start small. Start with a small protest, then work your way up. Boycotts like this one are good for getting people to do something to start off. It might not do a whole lot at first, but they’ll start to add up as more and more people become aware of the movement.
Eventually, more drastic action can be taken, but getting people together and proving that they have the numbers to make a difference is vital, and unless a catastrophe happens, that process takes time.
As an old Canadian socialist with the lumps to prove it, I agree. There is so much performance, and so little action. I spend time on reddit, trying to get keyboard warriors to understand that posting an opinion will not magically cause the fascist Administration to collapse and get a lot of “The media refuses to cover us!” bullpuckey. There are thousands of newsrooms in the USA that are not owned by billionaire tech bros or MAGA devotees (see, for example https://www.trustworthymedia.org/ › list-of-independent-media ) and most social media is still wide open to pictures and facts about your actions. If you are acting, let the independent media – most but not all of whom are progressive, check first – know and post your pictures (faces blurred if need be) and stories everywhere you can reach people.
Meantime, buy Canadian, buy local, or don’t buy at all, at least it’s something!
Your link is lib media, it is exactly them who will keep them in line and sell real progressives out.
If not blatantly collaborate with the regime.
Scratch a liberal…This second hand comment is just repeating your mistaken assumption that this futile-non event is “doing something good”.
And tell little Erika to touch some grass. The battles are not fought online where she undoubtably spends too much time thinking she’s changing the world with her opinions.
And that’s where you encounter this meaningless word ‘leftist’ used by the americans. WTF does that mean, do they know?
Is it the useless “lib/democrat/progressives” (or whatever other silly term they use) spaces where they hang out and decide they’re going to change their avatar to defeat fascism?
Or does it mean real socialist spaces where Erika would get immediately called out on her BS, which made her complain they’re not thankful for her revolutionary actions.
I bet it’s that.
These are scary spaces to them and way out of their Overton window.
There they would read words like organising and praxis. Actuall effective stuff.
But that is way too ambitious for the US pacified apathic neutered mind.
That would require effort and commitment.
The problem I’ve found with the “Buy nothing days” is that it’s not really encouraging buying less. With the possible exception of a few in the moment things, it’s really just pushing purchasing to the day before or the day after. Someone seeing economic data for that specific day might notice something, but even just factor in the day before and the day after and it’s not going to make much of a difference. It didn’t cost the corpos anything, so they won’t even notice.
At this stage it’s more about proving we can organise, rather than actually denting anyone’s profits or inconveniencing ourselves. Let’s all agree not to buy anything on this one day, as a first step. Next we’ll organise not buying on two days. Then maybe a week. Then steadily ramp it up until we’re noticed and they start doing something about it.
Refusing to participate on the grounds that it isn’t the perfect solution is short-sighted.
Refusing to participate on the grounds that it isn’t the perfect solution is short-sighted.
Less an issue of “refusing to participate” and more a question of “what am I participating in?”
People who are enthusiastic about participating in a bigger organizing project still have a limited amount of resources - time, money, physical energy - to expend. Part of any organizational campaign is to connect with people and channel their efforts efficiently. Another part is highlighting your accomplishments such that participants feel rewarded and are enthusiastic about the next effort.
What did the Feb 28th “No Buy Day” accomplish? Who participated? Who benefited? What is there to brag about? Why would I want to participate again in the future? Who am I even coordinating with in the future?
I’ll raise a counterpoint. Was at a pro-choice march in my home town years back. I got to meet other activists. I got to spend time with friends. I got to see how many people in my town were enthusiastic supporters of women’s rights. All of that was productive and affirming, even (perhaps especially) in the face of Roe’s repeal and the Trump electoral win. I got to meet other people and talk to them and plan out future volunteer efforts.
I didn’t get any of that out of this movement. I didn’t see people picketing outside retail stores or championing any explicit cause. I didn’t see any efforts to confront protesters or any concessions made by business. I only knew one person, personally, who was actively participating and even she conceded she was just going with the flow and didn’t have any expectations or know anyone else who was doing this.
This isn’t an issue of perfection, its an issue of community and effort building. If there’s a large cohort of activists who got in on this and are stronger for it, great! But I didn’t see it anywhere in my neighborhood.
