The title may sound weird. I initially wrote it as “fuck over the billionaires”. But it is not only billionaires, but also multi-millionaires and people who think themselves hierarchically superior.
So:
- Are you doing something to fuck over “the powerful”? If so, what?
I put solar panels and battery storage on my house because my local utility is a publicly traded group of thieves. As much of the system as possible has been bought used except for the batteries.
In that, I buy used as much as possible. Fuck buying new, let someone else buy that 1100 dollar phone I’ll buy it on ebay 2 years later for half that.
I deleted my Amazon and am currently de-googling the best I can.
I haven’t bought anything from Amazon, Costco, Wal-Mart, big box stores for at least 5 years now. I will also never be getting anything from places like Temu.
As well, I try to make almost all my food, shopping, etc choices to benefit something small, or someone local, that needs my money more than things that further drive the Machine in the end.
Costco is one of the rare good guys though.
Its modeled after a cooperative.
Avoiding contributing to the economy as much as possible.
Doing business under the table, never eating at restaurants, never spending money on digital entertainment I could be getting for free.
I’m honestly a lot happier than when I was consuming.
I use Linux on my laptop and a GrapheneOS on my phone. I use almost all FOSS software, so they’re not getting most of my data and selling it like they used to. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not hurting any of the bigtech.
Never in my life have I given 2 week’s notice. If they can fire me without warning I can quit whenever the fuck I feel like it.
You give two weeks so you leave on good terms, not because you have to. Have you never needed a referral for a job?
Im not him, but i just use a friendly coworker, if that person is also the manager then thats just great. Ive usually worked for mega corps and large factories though. I never see the owners, just fellow wageslaves a rung or two higher on the ladder.
Even your fellow coworkers can be screwed over if you don’t give two weeks notice
Tell the coworker so they can book holiday. Tell no one else.
Sounds like a fed question
The only commercial social media I use anymore (or at least post on) is Bluesky, and I’m getting weary of that, too. I’ve switched completely to open source operating systems and workflows in the past year or so. During that time I’ve also become vegan and am trying not to go to any sort of shop at night. That last one has nothing to do with the state of things at this very moment, but I don’t want to give companies more reason to force people onto late shifts when working in retail/customer service already sucks and even full time won’t get you close to a living. The last thing anyone needs is their sleep thrown off, as I know from struggling with it myself. I may not be able to stop buying things, but fuck working when you should be sleeping. Unless you’re literally an essential worker, in which case those shit shifts should be cycled between people, not consistent.
…I didn’t mean for that to become a rant lmao
I’m doing what I can, as small an impact as it has. I’ve become much more aware of what I buy, use, and consume. I’ve begun to repair things instead of just buying new replacements, I don’t buy American whenever possible, and I don’t use any AI at all. I’ve completely cut out Google, Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Reddit, any streaming service and any social media except the Fediverse, and of course nothing from Musk.
However, the biggest impact I’ve been able to make has been getting a couple people to re-think what they consume from fascist-enabling big tech companies. Small wins.
Since July I’ve been boycotting US companies. I’ve gone as far as setting up my own self-hosted home server for document / bookmark / media storage, which is actually fantastic and I wish I’d done this sooner. All streaming services have been cancelled. I only buy from European brands, and only directly from their own website (no Amazon, etc). This was the first year in a long time where I’ve declined a phone upgrade with my network - I’ll just keep my current phone as long as possible. All my smart home tech is being gradually phased away from Google / Nest and towards Matter / Home Assistant. Windows has been wiped from my PC and I’ve moved to Linux. I cancelled my Adobe subscription in favour of FOSS alternatives. My family and close friends have all switched to Signal (though we did this years ago).
While I still use social media (I make digital art), the only thing I ever post on Facebook/Insta/Threads is my artwork. I don’t post anything personal anymore, because that’s my data.
Despite all these “sacrifices”, I don’t really feel like I’ve lost anything. In fact, things are arguably better now I’m unshackled from US tech giants. I’m saving a ton of money too from all the cancelled subscriptions.
Been boycotting Wetherspoons (a popular chain of pubs in the UK, owned by a Brexit supporting prick) for over a decade now.
Noo, Wetherspoons is Pro-Brexit? That sucks, had no idea. TBF, I’m German and haven’t been in 10 years either, but my Bro studied in London for 2 years back then and I visited him 2-3 times. The Wetherspoon down the road had by far the best prices and great meal deals. Sucks that its owned by a piece of shit
Yeah it’s annoying because the pubs are generally decent for the price and have a varied menu (good for a wide variety of tastes), but Tim Martin actively campaigned for Brexit and even started putting pro Brexit propaganda in the pubs both before and after the referendum.
Working on Lemmy, instead of selling my soul to a company.
Thanks for creating all this for us!
I’m trying to build a small business that replaces SSO mass surveillance (think Sign In With Google, LinkedIn, etc) with a privacy respecting alternative where the technology makes it impossible for me, the service operator, to know what the users are signing into.
I cycle and don’t own a car. I will not be registered or licensed to move around under my own power. Do as much bike maintenance myself as I can.
I even brew my own mead
I want to get back into mead making. Crazy how fake most honey is, how do you manage? Do you just have to know a beekeeper?
Still ferments, I just use the cheapest stuff from Aldi because otherwise a gallon would cost me an absolute fortune to make. It would be nice to get into beekeeping to have my own source of honey but my garden is pretty small. Plus it looks like its quite a bit of money to spend on something when I don’t really have any idea what I am doing.
It does get expensive fast. My first attempt at mead was a 5 gallon batch (sack mead, targeting like 18%) with all orange blossom honey. I don’t even remember what it cost, but I totally failed.
Luckily I was able to salvage it by dumping it onto another ferment in progress, turning it into a cyser made with cosmic crisp apple juice. It was just rocket fuel in the end, though.
Can always distill rocket fuel though … So I hear.
I did that batch in a 54 litre demijohn. There was so much! You can be sure I tried ice distilling some of it, but it was such a lot of work. Tasty though.
I like my glass demijohns but the volume of some of the plastic ones is kinda tempting sometimes. There was a guy on reddit that used a 100L water butt for fermenting in
I had to give away my prized glass when I moved from the states to the UK, I miss them. Definitely going to get more when I can finally put down roots. Plastic is certainly doable, it just isn’t as pleasing.
Mostly just leaning hard into ad blocking extensions and apps.
Not workin and not having kids to force them into wage servitude, now into the climate hellhole we’re creating.
we must be twins.
