Avoiding US goods and services – from tech to whisky to air travel – has forced many to find a new way of living
I am boycotting america until the last trump voter is dead. Since I am already quite old it will be a lifetime ban on america for me.
Damn right. And forever.
A few days ago I heard an old lady saying this on the bus:
Simply not buying is not enough… If I see a product in the store made by a terrorist state (e.g. Israel or USA), I damage it completely so that nobody buys it. No need to steal it. At some point the store understands that doing business with the terrorist state of Israel and USA is not profitable.
Old ladies can be OG.
Amazing. Fantastic. If we had more of her the world would be a better place.
Oh, I like her
Some women age beyond wine to pure absinthe
I was already de-USAifying starting around 1999 because I could hear the jackboots hitting pavement around the corner even back then.
2020 was when I started accelerating the process.
2026 was when I completed it (minus my Android phone, which is Chinese and thus de-Googled anyway).
I now look for country of origin on anything I buy and if it’s USA, it’s back on the shelf.
It is in possible to though. Don’t use any computers? That is impossible even if a non American company all parts are american. Credit cards american companies. Your right I could see this kind of coming. What I mean is I don’t get why we let one country become so dominate and dependent on them.
Don’t use any computers? That is impossible even if a non American company all parts are american.
[citation needed]
Most of the silicon in a typical PC or phone is not fabbed in the USA. Leading-edge CPUs, GPUs, and SoCs are overwhelmingly manufactured by TSMC in Taiwan (AMD, Apple Silicon, NVIDIA, and increasingly Intel’s own tiles). Leading-edge DRAM comes from South Korea and Taiwan. NAND flash comes from South Korea, Japan, and Singapore. The actual PCB boards, capacitors, and assembly are mostly China and Taiwan. Intel does have some US fab capacity, but even their recent desktop chips (Arrow Lake) used TSMC silicon. There simply isn’t much of a modern consumer computing device that was physically manufactured inside the USA.
Credit cards american companies.
Haven’t had a credit card since 2001. I don’t live in a technological backwater like the USA.
It’s very easy to live USA-free. You just have to stop drinking the American Kool-Aid and realize that the USA is the consumer of tech innovation, not the maker.
Well, yeah. If you just exclude companies that are too hard to avoid, like Intel, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, and Google (with your Android), suddenly it is really easy. Just because something isn’t fabbed in the US, that doesn’t mean it’s a non-US Product. Some Tech Company in the US still profits through your purchase. That’s what the previous commentor hinted at with “Don’t use any computers?”
NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm all fab in Taiwan, not in the USA. Intel has some US fab facilities, but increasingly also fabs in Taiwan. Those same fabs make other chips now. Chips from companies NOT owned by the US.
My Android is ages old and Google never got any money for it anyway since my particular phone vendor isn’t in its developer circle that gets the latest and greatest from their surveillance machinery. Instead they took the bare-bones public-facing Android and wrote their own system on top of it. It’s AINO.
Now to be fair my computer has an Intel processor, but since I got it in about 2015 or 2016, it’s not exactly like Intel’s getting any money from me on that either now, is it? My next computer will be running HarmonyOS with, likely, one of the larger Kirin chips from Huawei at the core. As will my next phone. So the next time I actually put money out for hardware, I will be completely de-Americanized: Chinese phone running a Chinese operating system, Chinese computer running a Chinese operating system (or Linux (or both)). Not a single fucking cent will flow the USA’s way.
I know it hurts the poor little fee fees of Yankee Doodles, but the USA is not indispensable any longer and hasn’t been for well over a decade, maybe even two. And as your Orange Orangutan pisses off more and more of the world, it will become an ever increasing social, political, and economic backwater of people jacking off to their own perceived greatness while the rest of the world moves on.
You seem to be confusing “made in” with “owned by”.
Che Banana @beehaw.org
Sure but those companies you mentioned are American companies it doesn’t matter where they are made. All those companies you mentioned which are all American still profit Or the boycott is wrong and who cars since most of it is made in China and by your logic that is OK.
Sure, man.
If Huawei were to release a Laptop without Bluetooth, without Wifi, without HDMI, without H.264 or H.265, and without any other US patented Tech and without any paid US Software anywhere inside their supply chain, not a single cent would flow to the US.
But that’s not the case yet, so we still have to keep on dreaming.Spotted the MAGA plant. “It’s all hopeless! You might as well not do it!”
Go back to tasting shoe leather. Fuck off out of here.
Nah, man. I hate the American Dominance as much as the next guy. I’m just telling you to be realistic. There is no independence from US Tech yet. We will reach that some day and I will be glad but right now it is not feasible.
You got to get your mindset in check. If you call anyone a MAGA plant that corrects you, there’s something wrong with how you see the world.
I also never said that we should not do anything about it, that’s just something you put into my mouth. I want people to get off American Tech, why do you think I’m here on Lemmy? But saying that not a single cent will go to the US is just factually wrong.
For the most part I am boycotting american products. I was re-caulking my windows and could not find a non-american caulking tube, so I caved.
Home Builder brand at Home Hardware is made in Canada.
Don’t you have Sika or Knauf in your local hardware store? Especially Sika is a renown company with very high quality products. They’re based in Switzerland and sell worldwide.
Sika makes big fucking money off of US data centers and the AI boom.
They make big fucking money everywhere. I don’t quite understand. Where there’s construction going on, Sika is there. Would be pretty dumb not to do so, don’t you think?
I’m pointing it out, as I know Sika has a US presence that is essentially dedicated to data centers.
It is OK for companies to chase the opportunities they want to, that’s capitalism. But some people choose to boycott goods based on where the company chooses to make their money.
In the US, lots of people are choosing to boycott businesses that make money off of Flock -including the installers. Boycotts like this can be effective for raising pricing for Flock, because the businesses left have to raise prices to install Flock, to cover the downsides. Thus making Flock less competitive and making it easier to stop Flock.
In a thread about boycotting over moral issues, there is relevance to painting the full picture. Whether anyone chooses to boycott Sika over their willingness to accept money from the pedophile elite to help build AI surveillance police states, that’s up to the individual reader.
Thanks for the background info! I just know of Sika because we use that on our machines as a sealant (sika flex).
I appreciate the insights!
100%
If there is any alternative (Canadian first, but any non-USA), even if it costs a bit more or is less convenient, I get that. If there isn’t an alternative, then I think if it’s a need or a want. If it’s a want, back on the shelf it goes. If it’s a need with no alternative, I grugenly buy it. That eliminates 99.9% of purchases from USA companies or products that have a USA connection in some way.
I understand that I’m lucky enough to be able to spend a slight premium or take some extra time to find an alternative. I also lump Israel and Russian products/companies in with the above logic, but they’re much easier to avoid.
YMMV.
I think consumables alone makes a huge dent. Like you buy calking like once a decade?
And like who knows how long it sat on that shelf. Retailer might be selling off old inventory before switching to a domestic supplier.
I’m sure you asked an employee but IMO that will go a long way to helping retailers transition their inventories as well.
All in all I think you’re doing a great job!
Exactly. Doesn’t have to be perfect and possible won’t be for a long time. We do what we can!
American tech companies are producing and distributing CSAM via AI and their social networks. The US government has incorporated those CSAM producing organisations into its structure, bankrolling them with tax dollars. Therefore buying US goods is funding and promoting child abuse. And tacitly endorses it.
Wait til you hear about their president…
Most of my European acquaintances have also greatly reduced buying US products or using US platforms (like Amazon) and tech. The EU as a whole is working hard on alternatives (eg for credit cards, PayPal, office software etc).
If the EU comes up with its own payment mechanisms I hope they make them available for Canadians to use. It pains me that every credit card purchase makes money for a US company.
Wero is a start.
Expect glacially slow adoption.Like how the fuck did we get here? Even before Trump I never understood how so many countries where OK being so reliant on America. I did not see how that is not a national threat and now here we are.
Im not speaking on your behalf but I find for a lot of people a big part of it is the culture of using a credit card. 98% of things you can buy with credit card, you can buy with interact, and it punishes the vendors less.
My bank has fees for using interact, so I just use cash. Cash still works.
We moved to a Credit Union. No account fees, no interaction fees
I’m at VanCity and they have fees. I looked hard and the only accounts I have without fees are not Canadian banks (mostly European or Japanese) - and while I use those as often as I can, I still need a Canadian institution for some things (like paying tax)
There are canadian credit unions in BC without fees. Not smart for be to say online where i bank, due to how people can glean info. But check around you will find it
This is true!
This right here. When I lived in Ottawa I had a credit card i maybe used five times a year. Everything else was Interac.
