I’ve never been one to advocate this boycotting route because it’s far too difficult (there are so many things in the supply chain where you will never find something that is completely free of the bad actors involvement).
However with this trade war (where these corporations will pass that on to the consumer in the form of higher prices), curbing non-essential spending (aka discretionary expenses) should become high priority (American’s will be feeling the brunt of this for everything). Other countries need to stop buying products that come from America and stop patronizing companies like Amazon, Target, Walmart, Trader Joes, etc. That also includes their subsidiaries/associated business units (like for Amazon, that would include Whole Foods and Twitch or Walmart with Sam’s Club). American fast food chains that operate globally? Stop. Prioritize the local options first and starve these oligarch led companies.
Same with the tech companies. Use an ad blocker mercilessly for Google (YouTube, Gmail, etc), Instagram, Facebook, and Twitch (most of my subs are expiring and once the balance in my wallet is 0, that is it). Block/mute every account that posts an advertisement on Twitter. Upload a shit ton of videos onto it and just bang the bandwidth out of the site by playing every different video. Move away from AWS, re-evaluate subscriptions for Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office 365 (try to find an offline license and stick to that until it no longer works). Don’t bother upgrading that device from Apple until it actually dies.
You get the drift. Make them pay. If everyone globally sacrificed and turned off the money spigot to these companies, it will impact that bottomline (the only thing that matters to corporate executives). The gaming industry (as a discretionary expense) should be slapped hard (the executives there are the absolute worst with how they treat the rank and file). Support small indie developers.
If prices spike the way many are expecting them to, the above may end up playing out anyway except for those who have the money to weather those inflationary price increases. That is until they begin devaluing fiat currencies of the major countries. The double whammy effect of this is that it is also expected that a lot of wealth will vanish if/when the market crashes — we will see starting on Monday, February 3rd how the markets will react to this trade war but the futures already tumbled Sunday evening. So yes, expect the sentiment to be presented as bearish/negative.
Basically way too many companies are complicit in buying off politicians (via lobbying) and selling out this country over decades (and most recently, bowing down to this fascist regime that is going to rearrange the global order). They need to be punished (and that can only happen if people stop buying things they do not need). True, there are many American’s who have no idea what is really going and will be shell shocked when the shit hits the fan (where the rights we once had disappears, the social safety nets many rely on suddenly start going away, they run into bureaucratic roadblocks by government agencies that no longer exist to serve the public, etc).
As for those advocating to leave the country while you can (which is an option that many cannot afford to do), there is no real safe haven elsewhere because of how far reaching the impact of the dismantling of the US is (maybe short term will be fine, but not long term). I’m one of those who has the resources to do that, but I don’t see “running away” as the solution because of the global threat that would end up affecting the world (where there is no real safe harbor).
If the regime does not get any pushback from the last line of defense of the US government (the military branch of service), guess how the US military (one of the worlds most powerful) will be weaponized not just against US citizens, but against the rest of the world? We haven’t seen the regime attack NATO yet like #Felon47’s first time around when he was #45. This time around, it is expected #Felon47 will make good on withdrawing from NATO (which is why I would not be surprised if this “prepare for war” was coded speak for NATO to also prepare for that inevitability where the US is no longer a NATO ally).
P.S. Out of curiosity, I took a gander at the left leaning side of social media. People aren’t happy with the Democratic party (lack of action to even loudly voice opposition in a unified fashion exept for a few like AOC who has been making noise on her own) which is damaging because even I as a non-partisan, feel that party lacks any strong leadership that is able to meet this moment.
The other more startling part is how many are so very angry, that they sound like their hateful right-wing counterparts. Yep, the decades of Kremlin/KGB psychological warfare has been successful with making American’s across the spectrum, angry, divided, unemphathetic, and prone to politically motivated violence. In summary, this isn’t going to end well (especially when people who have followed the law and remained reasonably rational, are pushed to the brink by lawless thugs who are destroying a country for their own selfish motives). History is really looking to repeat itself…
