To think about boycotting American products and services

[Taytoface]

I feel so helpless in the current madness. It seems like the only act of objection possible is not buying american. Boycotting Israeli products, and South African back in the day, was relatively straightforward, but I have no clue how to de americanise my life. Anyone come across any helpful resources?

Well I’m kind of disappointed by Mumsnet. I no longer use Amazon so I guess this it! It has been fun though

I don’t use Amazon either but I don’t think as individuals we can avoid AWS or other US-owned cloud infrastructure (short of boycotting the entire internet). I just try to do what I can rather than aim for perfection.

You can easily avoid AWS via mumsnet though as the point is that it is not a necessary site. It’s an excuse to say otherwise. It’s virtue signalling.

It’s really not virtue signalling. It’s accepting that there are limits to what we can do as individuals.

It’s better for lots of people to do what they can, rather than one person be perfect.

You’re just being ridiculous. There is more good to be done through encouraging others to take up the cause via mumsnet.

Anyway, If a million of us stop using mumsnet they still pay Amazon web services to host the site for the remaining users. If a million of us stop spending £1000 a year on Amazon and instead go directly to the sellers or use alternative British or eu suppliers then that makes a difference to the Amazon bottom line. Amazon then puts pressure on the US government to stop destabilising the world.

plus it’s very difficult to virtue signal via mumsnet since nobody knows who anyone else is!

Just more virtue signalling.

You want to preach at others whilst not doing even easy things yourself.

It's a common theme on threads like this that so many people seem to think that unless you can do something perfectly, you shouldn't do it at all.
I am doing my bit by not travelling to the US and have been replacing American products with British products where I can for a while now. I'm still on Mumsnet, I still have an iphone (though I do buy second hand) and I probably do lots of other things to support the US.

But if everyone who disagrees with the US government did something, it would make a difference.

I don't really care if anyone thinks I am virtue signalling. I actually think boycotting US products is a virtuous thing to do!

I love a good virtue signal, especially if it pisses off people who don’t want to do anything. Go eat your strudel and join Herr Detweiler on the veranda, saying it’s nothing to do with you. In the meantime I will do what I can to make a difference.

“To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.” Martin Luther King

Even if you only manage to boycott half that stuff it still reduces money to America and hence helps make the point.

And to those who scoff at it as just virtue signalling....you don't have to TELL anyone, just quietly stop buying their stuff.

Do it. I am.

I now have a very nice non-Apple phone!

Advanced search tells me that WhatTheHellIsHappeningInThisPlace has only posted on this one thread, nothing else on MN.

What a surprise

at least it shows they’re rattled..

They’ve posted about Amazon / AWS if people wanted to boycott it’s an easy thing to do.

Nail on the head. No one is perfect and no one can boycott everything American, but we can all do our small part by boycotting the things we can, and if millions of people make small steps, then there will be an impact felt upon the American economy.

A good start is finding UK/European alternatives to all the US big brands in supermarkets, such as Pepsi, Walkers crisps, Cadbury chocolate, etc. Very easy to find NON-US versions. Another is to stop using Morrisons supermarkets and use Tesco/Sainsbury instead. Stop using McDonalds and use local cafes/burger bars.

It was a big thing in the 70s and 80s. In my circles anyway.

Would you find it easy?
I'd find it really hard.

I don’t expect perfection. If someone’s banking or work involves Amazon, I’d see that as more difficult to change, but it’s really easy to not use mumsnet, yet people still are. It’s virtue signalling.

Someone I know has decided anyone visiting America is terrible and that they themselves won’t be visiting America. The thing is they have never visited America and had no plans to because amongst other things, they can’t afford it. There are things they could do but they don’t want to hear about those things. It’s pathetic.

I name changed yesterday to comment on a thread about music. Happy to provide my last usernames to anyone interested by PM or you can check with mumsnet that I’m a very ‘normal’ poster. I’m not sure that poster was getting at. 🤔

Boycotting mumsnet would be hard? Really?

Maybe if enough people did it, mumsnet would choose another company to host them

I would find it quite hard as there aren't many good shops where I live. I mainly use it for gym wear and craft supplies plus books for my Kindle. There is also a big Amazon warehouse not far from me which employs a lot of local people. Edit: I thought this was about Amazon generally not Mumsnet in particular.

I could give up Netflix and don't have Disney channel anyway. I don't have an iphone.

Nope, I posted on a chart thread yesterday after name changing. Happy to provide my previous usernames by PM and for you to check with mumsnet that I’ve been on here for ages etc.

I could quite easily boycott mumsnet but it would be incredibly hard to boycott all websites that rely on AWS or other US-owned cloud servers. So for now, I’ll stick to what I can do.

As a side point, it’s not a bad thing to raise awareness of how dependent we are on the cloud infrastructure provided by the US.

Would you like to provide a link to that post? I can't see it.

As a matter of interest, why are you so apathetic about what is going on in the world? Don't you care?

Rewriting history is a thing. No one I knew would buy SA. No one.

And The Guardian says that 27% of Britons supported it. We certainly didn't have anything SA in the house (except the racist cousins) for a decade at least.

Maybe if enough people did it, mumsnet would choose another company to host them

Good point.

People who say they are willing to boycott things will keep using mumsnet though.

If you’re buying from websites that host on Amazon Web Services, there’s little point in doing this. Most of their product sales are loss making and subsidised by AWS, the profitable part of their business. If you were buying things that were making a loss from Amazon, you might actually be helping them by not buying products from them…

Although I suppose not visiting their site will impact their ad revenue and the commissions they receive from marketplace sellers that you’re not buying from.