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Or use Amazon (I’m guilty), or shop at Walmart (sometimes guilty, but not often), or shop at Target, use Tiktok, use Facebook (reunion coordination only - but still guilty, I guess), use PayPal (very guilty), use LinkdIn, use Google (guilty).
It’s really difficult to live a modern life, without being guilty of using anything exploitative of something. Of course, all the things (and many more) mentioned above are made to make people reliant on them by design.
Amazon operated in the red for over 7 years, before turning any profit, often selling and shipping items for a lower cost than they purchased the items for. But after that 7 years, they’d driven much of their competition out of business. Now there are fewer choices with regard to finding some items, because Amazon drove everyone out of business. The cheaper prices on Amazon? Nothing like what they used to be - they don’t have to compete.
How many small towns have Walmart as virtually the only place to shop and/or the only employer?
It’s very important in our modern, separated society, for people to return to basics…get to know your neighbors, stick together, become friends, and help one another out. Reddit used to really drive me nuts, in the work-related subreddits, where everyone used to say, “Your co-workers are not your friends.” I wondered if many people ever looked past that, to ask if that’s how HR wants things. How do you ever achieve solidarity in the workplace, when you walk in with that attitude? I’ve certainly had my share of hated co-workers, but much more often, I have been friends with many of them. Co-workers are a great resource to vent, problem solve, find out what’s going on behind the scenes, and if there are problems - a great co-worker can be honest and let me know if I might be the problem, or not.
But, separated and isolated within our own little tribes/families, too busy working too many hours, for too little money, trying to keep up with too many financial obligations, is exactly how they get us exactly where they want us.
Well stated- to your first point, I’d urge folks to take small steps to start replacing those services at least partially with alternatives when they’re available. For example, you may not be able to switch grocery stores entirely but many places have farmer’s markets or services where you can buy from farms wholesale. No matter your food situation, most people can manage to switch operating systems or search engines. Most of us can stand to reduce social media time. Like in your Amazon example, there’s value in aiming to change habits slowly over time instead of all at once.
Reddit used to really drive me nuts, in the work-related subreddits, where everyone used to say, “Your co-workers are not your friends.”
Reddit is full of the asocial “leave me alone” types (or at least used to be) that make every excuse to not to socialize with others. Taking their advice to heart is an easy way to become a miserable person. There’s lots of nuance between “set up barriers in front of everyone” and “share every detail” and they seem to lack that.
Things i have stopped using- X, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Lays, McDonalds, Burger King, Netflix, Walmart. Things where i have minimized consumption - Amazon, Best Buy, Steam, YouTube. Things where I am tied in and can’t make a difference- Android, Windows, AWS, Gmail, Intel/AMD, MS Office (official productivity tools). Actually i don’t mind going minimalistic to F over US companies.
switch to linux
I haven’t gone that far, but I refuse to use Facebook, or Amazon.
Facebook, because it’s a shithole of ignorance, stupidity, and cruelty, and it brainwashes older people.
Amazon, because they hurt local Mom and Pop businesses, and I don’t like the way they treat the warehouse workers.
i use gmail but i use thunderbird to check it . working on a new address. if your using Windows consider running something like OOshutup10+ to stop M$ spying. we use LibreOffice at work except the one office lady can’t use anything but excel . Linux on my home pc’s , wish we could at work… Good job on the stopping , i’m currently doing the same. F the US.
I agree with all the Linux comments but another thing you could do is use FOSS self-hostable front-ends to those proprietary services like invidious and newpipe (android) for youtube, redlib for reddit, nitter for twitter etc. You don’t have to host them yourself, there’s already plenty of people hosting their own instances.
Aside from removing ads which you can already do with an adblocker (which takes 1 revenue stream away from them) it lets you browse privately without any data collection which would be sold to advertisers (taking away their 2nd revenue stream) plus it frees you from the clutches of the algorithm, it helped stopping my ADHD from leaving me 2 binge yt vids for hours on end.
About the Android, he can replace it with GrapheneOS if he got almost any Pixel device
But then you’re buying the phone from google, which is not great if you’re trying to boycott google.
Just build your own open source versions of all that and you’ll be fine
Well, a few hours ago, I got permanently banned from Reddit, again, but this time with no explanation messages, or any recourse.
I suspect it was from my contant mocking of Musk and Trump, and the GOP in general.
Fuck them.
Arguably there is now more censorship on Reddit than on twitter.
yup I got shadow banned from that hell hole after saying something mean about the orange in chief it’s so pathetic, it wasn’t even super bad I commented ‘welcome to Trump’s america’ under a post about inflation skyrocketing I was on the site for 12 years no problem
it’s crazy to me I didn’t know they were so beholden to the right. it used to be the fascists got mad reddit was banning them. to.be banned over simply light jokes is so dystopian
not to mention… their ban detection system is fucking 1984 shit
After a decade there I also got permabanned. And then I got permabanned 3 more times with alt accounts for saying some pretty innocuous shit, but almost always political.
I finally got the message. Fuck you Reddit.
I got perma-banned for saying that the US Military won’t give a shit about what is happening because they only care if it involves bombing muslims. The “reason” they gave was that I was promoting hate-speech somehow.
The chronically online incels look for things to mass report. It’s part of their ongoing campaign to shove the Overton Window far right.
Reddits content moderation are cubicle farm employees that barely look at content; nevermind actual context or intent. They’re clearing tickets to make quota. Right wingers exploit this to control discourse.
You can try doing it yourself. Look for frivolous things to report as offensive. You can get quite a bit of things removed.
I did report some stuff in the past when I had an account, but usually it was either because it actually violated rules of a sub (Such as “Memes only” and someone posts a random screenshot with a rage bait title) or because it was actually straight up awful shit, I did get a few accounts banned as a result but they were posting actually vile stuff.
I was only on for 6 but it still sucks.
What would be funny if this meme came from twitter. Which was posted on Reddit.
What’s Twitter?
A rich kid’s personal Attention Gathering App.
When Twitter-man did the salute, I deleted my old account (hadn’t used it in years anyway) When Facebook-man said “no more fact checking,” I deleted my old facebook (only kept it to keep in contact with, like, 2 people) When Tumblr-man banned the porn, I deleted my tumblr (you can guess why I had it) When Reddit-man said he wants to paywall the biggest subs, I deleted my reddit (also got banned but I prefer to say I did it for a better reason)
I’ve seen news that tumblr has changed/is changing, and they’re even implementing some form of activitypub (Fediverse) integration. I don’t have stakes here, just curious: does that change your position any, as an ex-user now on fedi?
I doubt it, unless I find specific content that only exists on that platform if those changes do occur. I have some very specific, LEGAL, interests that are fairly niche and hard to come by, and I have little interest in social media, so I often only create accounts on something if I actively like the content, either nsfw or sfw. Here, for example, I am here for sfw content.
I bow down to your intelligence.
I tried ot login last week, was able to with the same email and password but it acted like I was a new user. So it created an entirely new account.
On a session I was still logged in I changed my email and password and I ended getting banned on that account.
Really weird and I gues it’s time to delete my main Reddit account
They’re banning or shadowbanning people almost arbitrarily, they don’t want more human users than bots, they can control the narratives and conversations and public sentiment with a turn of a dial if they get enough bots who seem like convincing human users to all chime in about something.
You can really see the disonnence on a major post criticizing Elon Musk or on the topic of vandalizing Teslas. The posts are all highly voted, but the top comments are all crying and whining that Musk “doesn’t deserve the hate” or how “vandals should be put in jail, we obey the law in this country!” and a lot of other very obvious oligarch fellation machines.
It works very well too. People always look to each other for cues, and if the people they look to aren’t even alive, we have a generation being led by undead abominations, being influenced to discard their critical thought, their morals and ethics, their values.
they can control the narratives and conversations and public sentiment
That sounds almost conspiratorial. How many people know of Reddit, use it, then automatically follow the narrative? Like out of the total population?
LOL it’s been a decade since Jessica Ashoosh.
Just bcs you’re ignorant about these things and throw conspiracy accusations around doesn’t mean it’s not reality.
Look someting up.Something happened a decade ago to a single person. Therefore it follows it affects millions now in ways that persuade me my world view is correct.
I see.
You clearly have no idea who or what that is about, I’m going to let it rest since you look really stupid as it is.
Reddit gets half a billion browsers a month. They announced last year that they would be partnering with Google to train and host a new generation of AI, and we also know now that people like Elon Musk have no qualms about enforcing their agendas on the site.
The number one way to filter the plausibility of conspiracy theories is to ask one simple question: How does this impact the rich?
For the vast majority of normal kook conspiracies, they fall apart almost immediately when you apply that filter. They have way too much to lose to risk gambles on covering up moon landings and flying saucers or perpetrating huge hoaxes that need a vast contingent of people involved to maintain. Meanwhile, social engineering… that’s easy as shit, you can do it alone if you have the resources. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It starts simple with “Hmn I want to make people realize that investing in my company is a smart move” but quickly degrades to “We can’t let people think this genocide is bad, it will wreck our bottom line.”
Wouldn’t for it to be conspiratorial mean there has to be a secret organization behind the scenes? I thought Reddit and X admit to doing this.
I can talk all I want. It’s easy for me because I never had a Twitter Account.
Hope everyone who wants to leave has the strength to break the habit of using the app <3
I only had an account explicitly to follow a small set of NSFW creators who only posted to Twitter and nowhere else, so yeah, pretty easy to let go of that.
you are not supporting it. you ARE the problem. dont blame the tech or deranged illusionists like elon. it is the people. and while everyone is high horsing like mad at reddit/twitter etc. you still cant speak out that google, meta, apple and microsoft are exactly the same shit.
YOU are an insult on humanity if you use those. and everytime it takes ages for imbeciles to move. “nooo, eVeRyyBoo0dy uSes wHats App. i nEEd t0 be oN th3re.” no, you are a POS for using whatsapp, twitter, meta, reddit or an iPhone. …and the crying starts.
X, Facebook, threads, Instagram, Whatsapp, Amazon Prime, Reddit
How can you convince anyone to get off these ? Everyone I’ve showed lemmy to is terrified it’s a virus, and what chat platforms are there besides messenger that we can convince anyone to go to? Maybe I need smarter friends, lol.
To be fair, Lemmy’s UI does it no favors; I can’t entirely blame your friends for thinking it looks sketch.
I was never put off by it, but I tend to like less shiny things.
What you’re describing is intentional. Keeping people dumb about the tech they’re using while maintaining messaging like “Facebook works day and night to keep you safe” was the point all along so that people don’t understand what they’re doing. Granted that extends far beyond social media, but still
They don’t realize it’s the big shiny companies that are actually scamming them and stealing their data.
It is a very big ask… For chat i moved to Signal and convinced my closest relatives and friends to humor me and get the app, but they didn’t let go of Whatsapp. It’s lonely but i enjoy the quietness, and do not miss the endless groups!
Maybe some government officials will keep you company by inviting you into their war-plan discussions.
One of my phone browsers has warned me that one Lemmee instance is a scam, that doesn’t help if it is happening to others.
Name and shame. Which browser and which instance?
And is it just something like an SSL error (i.e. the instance screwing up), or is it specifically some kind of anti-Lemmy disinformation?
DuckDuckGo, and .ml.
Well, keeping people out of .ml is basically public service
That was the goal of big corporations and more simplification over time and less customization, went from webdev not seeming viable since every mf could make their own website and would to everyone being incompetent to the point they cant use websites and can only use the few popular apps.
I managed to make my mum use signal, which means literally anyone can use it.
Amazon Prime is the only one that’s been hard for me to kick…
No ethical consumption under capitalism.
EDIT: I should specify I’m not saying that you shouldn’t try to boycott where you can, just that sometimes doing business with these evil corporations is unavoidable unless you want to live off the grid.
to you, the 9 other likers and the one disliker:
I’d argue “under unregulated capitalism” and would love to hear how Im wrong here: When you buy an apple from a farmer in EU thats local to your small town, I’d say thats pretty ethical? Isnt it??!
Yeah, “capitalism” here means specifically “late-stage capitalism.”
Now also actually discuss. Would love to know “how” I’m wrong
You’re not, I’m agreeing with you.
Yes but no. I see the issue in terms of late stage capitalism too - but I think in a sibling comment this discussion already happened.
Buying an apple from a local farmer is not capitalism
Your example is fine. It’s not an option for most people to be able to source everything they need where the supply chain doesn’t rely on exploitation of labor and resource extraction somewhere along the process. Whether it’s in the materials used by the producer, the logistics in goods transport(oil & gas, shipping, warehousing, etc), or manufacturing of goods (labor, production house, etc…), the chain relies on exploitation somewhere along the way.
Buying the apple from your local farmer still relies on the oil industry to run farm equipment or transit of the product. By and large this is minimize when buying local from independent producers. Those, however, are often more expensive.
The consumer is the last step of exploitation. Where the profit stems from. Again, your local farmer probably isn’t extorting you, but your local grocery store probably is.
So “how” is there no regulation solution – my initial statement in question
Sure regulate it then, effectively, and cut out any international trade which allows for the procurement of goods through a non-regulated system. Find a common agreement of what regulation is and find a way to ensure no one has an incentive to break that regulation. Find a way to ensure that a capitalist cannot accrue such wealth as to influence politics (or skirt whatever law you want against it).
The only people I’ve heard who want NO regulation are AnCaps and yeah lol no - (and also they still want property rights ig).
People just want a better system than what we have now. Which is laissez-faire capitalism. Beyond that there’s the political philosophical aspect that “capitalism” can and does effectively mean rule by the wealthiest.
Lot’s of people would be happy with a market system in a socialist society. Lots of people want Anarchism. Lots of people want Communism(the good or bad kind depending on who you ask).
Id just love to see more corporations being like Mondragon(spanish) in the top ranks (i.e. stock corpos) but I would not want governments specifically to gain ownership forcefully.
So I’d call it regulated capitalism - as you said, just not paleo libertarian laissez-faire as we clearly see how that doesnt work once all markets are established (and even the competition phase was, as we all should know, pretty questionable historically cough imperialism cough)
I buy bread from the local baker who is known as the German baker because they make kickass brotchen and these fantastic sesame and marzipan (my autocorrect said marsupial and while I do not doubt their skill I doubt their gluten) twists. They were across the parking lot from my first job and I did not know it but they had also just opened that year.
Could always pick up piracy. Hard to beat a 100% off coupon.
Simply pick up uBlock Origin and browse some community-vetted streaming sites on FMHY. (Short for Free Media Heck Yeah, a site that showcases community-vetted sites.)
That’s just streaming, no downloading. Simply find streams of whatever shows you’re invested in and binge as usual!
I’ve even gone as far as taking old laptops of mine and having them full screen these sites on startup. Then, I simply hook the laptop up to my TV via HDMI, plug in a Bluetooth keyboard, and binge away!
Heck yeah brother
Piracy makes it hard to buy bird seed you need delivered the next day for your birds though
Oh right, shit
I forgot that Amazon Prime was more than content streaming
Uhhhhh
Replace Amazon Prime with patience and foresight
Really? I go out of my way to search on duckduckgo when looking for products and filtering out Amazon.
Its been easy for me. My hatred of that man makes it worth the effort.
That is the one that’s killing me too. I just received an email that my subscription date is coming up. I want to cancel, at least my soul really wants me to cancel. But my broken body, limited $$, and limited mobility makes me feel like it would be cutting of my nose. It is really difficult to get to, never mind around, local stores.
If it helps, one of main arguments of the antitrust lawsuit against Amazon that the Biden administration opened was that Amazon routinely, actually, costs you money because they use their platform to offer more expensive options in your searches first and other means: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/09/ftc-sues-amazon-illegally-maintaining-monopoly-power (I’m not sure if that link with detail or with a much clarity as wherever I first read it but I can’t recall where I originally read it 3 or so months ago, I’m afraid).
The only major advantage that I’ll fully admit Prime has is speed of delivery; I admit I do use it when our cats run out of food and I dropped the ball on making sure we had more or I need filters for our air purifiers that just noted they need new ones.
But, even if you can find cheaper versions on Amazon, it can become easy to fall for the setup of their site if you use it by default all the time.
Out of those, the only one I use is Whatsapp… kinda hard to get away from it where I live, literally everyone I know in real life uses it
WhatsApp is kinda nice for international communication
“your’re”
Hmmm…
An impressive amount of incorrect.
That’s piratephobic!
Just covering all theire bases
Theiy’re*
I’m vomiting, stop
I prefer theyire’‘’’ but I like you too
I like your to
your right
y’roue*
A lot of the niche content I like is still on reddit, however I like the people and experience over here on Lemmy more.
Start posting your niche interest on lemmy too. Hopefully someone else will join.
Thought about it. Soon. Going to try and fetch others to help.
yeah, the porn creators are still mostly there
That lemmy front page thirsty af tho
That’s why I sort by hot by default lol
Exactly!
This has been my experience. I still lurk certain communities there but I simply never log in or comment.
I have to use libreddit and other front ends because they have started blocking my vpn last year.
I just logged in to check /r/audiobooks.
The sponsored thingies are intolerable. Fuck that.
