This post is somewhat inspired by a recent post in this same community called “Is anyone else having trouble giving up Reddit due to content?”
I imagine “Reddit” will be a common answer. (And it’s one of my answers.)
Another of my answers is “Hasbro.” First Wizards of the Coast (a Hasbro subsidiary) tried to revoke an irrevokable license and screw over basically all 3rd-party publishers of D&D content, then they sent literal mercinaries to threaten one of their customers over an order mixup that wasn’t even the customer’s fault. D&D: Honor Among Thieves and the latest Transformers look really good, but those are within the scope of my boycott, so I won’t be seeing those any time soon.
Third, Microsoft. (Apple too, but then I’ve never bought any Apple devices in my life, so it hardly qualifies as a boycott.) Just because of their penchant for using devices I own against me in every way they can imagine. And for really predatory business practices.
One boycott that I’ve ended was a boycott of Nintendo. I was pissed that they started marketing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (though it didn’t have a name at the time) before the WiiU came out, prompting me to be an early adopter of the WiiU, and then when they actually released BotW, they dual-released it on WiiU and Switch. I slightly eased my boycott when the unpatchable Fusee Gilee vulnerability for the first batch of Switches was discovered. I wanted to get one of the ones I could hack and run homebrew on before they came out with a model that lacked the vulnerability.
At this point, what am I not boycotting? lol
I guess this is the abridged no-go list:
- Nestle (duh)
- BP (still haven’t forgiven them for lubricating the Gulf of Mexico and being like “oops, sorry”)
- Verizon (injecting tracking IDs into customer web traffic to sell to advertisers while also charging me $60/mo for 2 GB of data – I’m a product or a customer. I will not be both.)
- RWNJ-owned businesses (Chick-fil-A, In-n-Out, Hobby Lobby, Applebees, etc)
- AT&T (After so many years, I forget exactly why, but they’re just evil)
- The entire states of Florida and Texas
- The lottery (I’d have the same payout and more fun just setting the money on fire)
- Microsoft (It’s MY computer, not yours)
- Apple (Overpriced hardware, control-freak walled garden, everything needs a damn $29 dongle, etc)
- Reddit, Facebook, Twitter (also blocked in firewall)
- Amazon (except the 2-3 times a year they give me a free month of Prime and I buy all my stuff, take the free 1-2 day shipping and cancel before they bill me)
Late additions:
- Exxon (knew about climate change for over 40 years; spent millions promoting misinformation/denialism)
- Bank of America (used to work there - will never bank there. Oh, you’re poor? There’s a fee for that - several, actually)
BP (still haven’t forgiven them for lubricating the Gulf of Mexico and being like “oops, sorry”)
Same. Started avoiding them after the disaster and never had the need to go back. I drive electric car now.
My list is pretty similar to yours, with major exceptions that I include all the giant multinational oil companies (i.e., BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell - I get gas from Arco). I also substitute Google in place of Apple. I avoid Amazon like the plague, unless there is absolutely nowhere else I can buy something. I also have all the US mega banks on my list. Kroger’s grocery stores. Probably a few more things I can’t think of right now.
really? I like BoA - the tellers are friendly and I’ve never really had any issues with extra fees. been with them for over 20 years now
Chick-Fil-A for their support for organizations that are anti-LGBT. Apparently these donations have stopped but I’m stubborn.
I haven’t paid attention for a couple years, but the last time they “stopped” they just started donating to a charity they made to cover up that they are still donating to the same places. But they didn’t do it directly so it doesn’t count.
And the owners themselves are still donating to anti LGBT shit regardless, at least one of them has been funding an organization that has been assisting with putting out all these recent anti LGBT+ bills.
CFL, Hobby Lobby, anyone who donates to anti LGBTQ I’m actively avoiding. It’s mid 2020s everyone, let it go already
I honestly don’t get their popularity. Not because of politics but I can honestly get a better chicken sandwich 5 min drive away.
The company never apologized for any of it, so why should any of us forgive them? Dan Cathy made a big speech defending the contributions of company profits to anti-lgbtq groups, including groups supporting conversion therapy, and proclaimed that gay people are an affront to God.
I don’t just not eat here, I actively judge the people that do. I’m not sorry. It’s not hard to avoid eating greasy chicken from a restaurant that has become a cultural monument to desperaging people for the way they were born.
nestle. man fuck nestle
Meat, as it’s carbon footprint is just too high.
And is a major cause of deforestation, biodiversity decline, antibiotic resistance, water pollution and water overuse, … And of course animal cruelty and abuse.
Kurzgesagt has a fantastic video on the matter, and the video has great peer-reviewed sources right in the description for whoever would need them.
https://youtu.be/F1Hq8eVOMHs?si=GLo73jt6gaA433Ii
I’ve heavily reduced my meat consumption after seing this video. I basically never eat meat in the meals I make only for myself. It’s not like I never eat meat, but since getting a bit more informed, I try to respect the occasional meat instead of expecting it several times a day.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/F1Hq8eVOMHs?si=GLo73jt6gaA433Ii
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Amazon. Fuck Amazon.
I’m boycotting everything from Nestlé, which can get difficult since that evil octopus of a company has so many goddamn tentacles!
As for boycotts I’ve ended, I used to boycott the Lotus brand of toilet paper and paper towels because they were made by a Koch Industries subsidiary but then they sold the brand off to a socially and environmentally conscious Swedish company so I started buying them again.
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, TikTok. Most people I work with think I’m totally out of touch with reality because I don’t use any of the big social media platforms and then they watch the same 12 ads and 3 videos on 5 different apps.
It’s funny, I never thought of myself as boycotting these… But I guess I am. I hate all of these, and I think they are bad for both individuals, and society.
deleted by creator
E-Mail/sms/irc covers 99% of my text needs.
I used to boycott ATI before AMD bought them, because the driver support on Linux was so bad. I got a laptop with a GPU they didn’t support until almost a couple years later, and then as soon as it worked, they dropped support because it was too old.
Now they have the open source driver and better GPU support than Nvidia.
To be fair, ATI windows drivers were dogshit as well.
Nothing. I’ve given up.
I am too small to make a difference, unable to convince others in my life to join, and the companies I want to boycott have grown so big that their brands are everywhere and it’s exhausting to try to keep track of them all. Plus, boycotts are pretty ineffective these days. Even in the most extreme cases, companies now know they only have to wait ~2-3 months before the masses stop caring and move on to something else.
Now I just live my life. I support causes I believe in, try to treat everyone I meet with kindness and respect, and do what I can to give myself and my family a happy, comfortable life. That’s all I can do, it may not be enough to save the world, but it’s enough to save me and those I love
Reddit - API fiasco, antagonistic, and predictable
Facebook - it’s crap
Instagram - popularity contest
WhatsApp - unnecessary
Snapchat - unnecessary
TikTok - Chinese spyware
Microsoft - bloat and privacy
Adobe - expensive and slow
Twitter/X - crap
Elon Musk news - annoying
Oil change places - rip off & untrustworthy
Tire places except for Costco - rip off
Toyota dealerships - shady and deceptive
Apple - expensive and limiting
Netflix - crap
Hulu - crap
Wendy’s - crap
KFC - crap
Bottled water - expensive and wasteful
Sodas - terrible for health
Papa Johns - treats employees like shit, crap politics, expensive
Panda Express - generic, local places are better
Pollo Tropical - generic, local places are better
Checking & savings banks - credit unions are much better for their customers
American cars - crap
BMW - for dickheads and too expensive
HOAs - waste of money, too controlling
Autism Speaks - more harmful than good
Susan G Komen - selfish litigators
Better Help - pays their clinicians shit, so you’re getting bottom of the barrel therapy
The gas station down on the corner. When I first moved here, I went there all the time because it was convenient. Gas, bread, soda, you name it, I would swing through there and pick it up. I stopped every single work morning and got coffee on the way to work. I started bringing my own insulated cup, so they charged me less. Then it was bought by a new owner, and he wanted to charge me more. Okay, it was still cheaper than if I used their cup and more convenient than making it at home - they provide the coffee, sweetener, creamer, and there’s no clean up on my part. One day I went in with a new cup that was the same capacity as the old cup. A different shape, but it held the same number of ounces. The owner said, “that cup’s bigger, I charge you more.” I tried to argue, but he didn’t budge, and he charged me the same amount as a large coffee in their cup. Now, I’m not stupid, I’ve worked in retail before, I know the largest cost to a cup of coffee is the cup, but I paid it, walked out the door, and never set foot in there again. That’s been eleven years ago, and I don’t plan to go back. I hope the few cents he greedily wanted over coffee was worth all the other lost sales.
This is the level of pettiness I aspire to
I love that you’ve kept it up for so long!
My mother could carry a grudge like no one I’ve ever known, so I get it honest.
I don’t buy Nestle products.
I recently chose to release my boycott on home Depot. I found that the one of the founders of home Depot was supporting Trump and since I’m anti-trump it doesn’t make sense for me to support his supporters you know?
The friend of my enemy is my enemy after all.
But then I looked into it and found that home Depot had actually disavowed association with the guy and intentionally and willfully does not support any presidential candidate.
I’m still boycotting Walmart and Amazon and Chick-fil-A and hobby lobby though. Walmart and Amazon are some of the largest companies in the world and they can afford to pay their employees living wages and they choose not to in the name of greed.
Chick-fil-A and hobby lobby are companies that sell things that people might occasionally like but at the same time they use their profits to support anti-gay and anti-trans and anti-bodily autonomy movements, and even though I’m not affected by any of those three movements, I’m not going to let my money go into the pockets of people who are spending that money on hate.
Good to know about Home Depot. I shall strike it from my own no-go list.
Huh, I’ve been boycotting Home Depot, that’s good to know
Might want to add Target to that list if you’re in the US, they’re Walmart levels of shitty.
Facebook. Never had an account. In the early days I was afraid id lose job opportunities because something I’d post or others post with me in it, like smoking a bong or maybe just drunken 2am rant.
Now I don’t like it cuz it converts sweet old people into Nazis. Among everything else.
If I can help it, I try to support local businesses over Walmart, Target, Amazon, or any other near monopolistic retail chain.
Chick-fil-A, and Hobby Lobby. Owners have been vehemently antiqueer and antichoice, and have funded such organizations and politicians through their business.
Activision/Blizzard and Ubisoft. Both have been accused of large scale sexual misconduct, and neither company has completely dealt with the issue.
Twitter and Reddit. It’s not just that I hate the direction both sites are heading, but I want to fully back and support the open source alternatives that have grown during the migrations of both sites. Besides, Musk has made it to where I can’t even lurk on Twitter if I wanted to.
JonTron. He’s living proof that as long as you’re funny, people will forgive and forget anything. (Look up his history with racism and antivax for those in the latter camp, cause I’m tired of answering the “what he do” question)
The Harry Potter franchise. This one hurt the most because I had just starting to get into the Harry Potter series as the pandemic hit, and I was halfway through Prisoner of Azkaban when Rowling started her campaign against trans people. I Also used respect Rowling a lot because she’s a master at world building, and I had gotten into reading Harry Potter cause I wanted to take inspiration from it for my own work.
Ruroni Kenshin, and Nobuhiro Watsuki’s other works. I can get why people would forgive JonTron and Rowling to an extent, but defending Nobuhiro’s pedophilia is a bridge way tf too far for me.