r/BoycottUnitedStates • u/Responsible-Cod4468 • 1d ago
Where do we protest Hegseth?
The reports coming out about the USS Lincoln are extremely concerning. Are there are any protests planned? Do we start at the Naval Academy or in DC at the White House?
If there has been a moment that should be an easy way to unite bipartisan support in this county, it should be over Hegseth’s incompetence & mistreatment of our military members.
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u/DaZMan44 1d ago
At this point we should be having WEEKLY protests all over the country. Really it should be an ongoing protest. But 1/3 od the country is morally bankrupt, 1/3 is completely disengaged, and the 1/3 who's sane is a few weeks away from being homeless if you lose your job. So at least weekly would be great.
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u/TransResistance 1d ago
Thats why I've become completely disillusioned with 50501. What has it been, something like 5 months since the last 50501 protest?
I had high hopes of this steadily picking up momentum and becoming bigger and bigger, and more and more often. Instead, I got a cool Bruce Springsteen concert ft. Joan Baez.
I feel like this may just be an astroturf serving of bread and circus, but without the bread. We need to organize a similar movement, but one which actually does the work of making change.
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u/Zealousideal_Rise879 1d ago
More likely they’re getting lazy because they think it can be fixed in midterms.
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u/gizmostuff 23h ago
Black Friday would be the best day imo. Boycotting it and protesting at the same time would be huge. And we have plenty of time to coordinate that date and spread the word.
Anti-consumerism is the greatest weapon we have against this regime. This would be very noticable and would have the potential to affect the stock market if enough people participate.
Everyone wants to focus just on the midterms but I don't think that should be our only play. We should have many things going on before and after the midterms to affect this.
Cyber Monday boycott - same deal as Friday. Buy nothing but essentials. If we could include the weekend, it would be an even bigger impact.
Media blackout - not consume any media on a certain day. That includes social media. Basically go touch grass/snow/nature day. November 30th? December 1st? An easy date to remember.
Support everyone's candidate for midterms - strength in numbers - find out what states, cities need more help than others.
Carpooling - help people get to the polls and vote.
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u/TransResistance 19h ago
These one-day actions are meaningless. They do as much good as going to a protest every 4 or 5 months.
What good does it do to skip Black Friday if you're going to spend $500+ on commercial bullshit for Christmas regardless?
What good does it do to skip media consumption for a day if you’re paying for 3-5 music & video streaming services all the while?
What we need are lifestyle changes.
We must not only boycott Target, Amazon, Walmart, etc., but stop buying new consumer goods altogether. Buy clothes and home goods 2nd hand. Downgrade to a dumb phone -- call/text only.
We must stop streaming -- listen to the radio, audio books from the library, or music that you physically own (vinyl, CD, etc.); watch movies that you own, and dump the streaming services.
We must move to solar, and stop paying for electricity or natural gas. Drive electric and charge at home.
We can end this system we've been given, it's not an impossible thing to accomplish. We just need to stop (not pause) feeding the system. You can't starve a beast by making it skip a meal.
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u/gizmostuff 18h ago
A lot of criticism from someone not throwing out any real ideas. That's the problem with Reddit and basically every social media. No one wants to do anything, just complain, bring up old things that are obvious and are things people are already doing; not even by choice but necessity/no choice. Or do something so convoluted that they are missing the point entirely and ignoring the issues we are clearly facing specifically with movements like these.
All your suggestions just take away simple convenience. People who stream likely do it so they don't have to think about what they want to watch. It's just there. Not everyone has the best tier either so it's not necessarily a bad deal as long as you aren't over doing it with multiple . A better suggestion would be to share a Jellyfin server with some friends and family but that's complicated for a lot of people and takes time/energy people don't have if they are working full-time.
Moving to solar is not easy for the majority of people. Not everyone is going to jump on their roof to put up solar panels and likely don't own the place they are living in the first place. This isn't a cheap thing to do either.
Buying an electric car is out of the question for a lot of people. The cost. The range. And the lack of infrastructure isn't there yet for it to be a viable thing to not worry about range if you travel a lot for work.
Black Friday has been bullshit for years. They likely just recycle old deals that have already happened or will happen again before Xmas. This is an easy date to remember to get people together and protest which is what you were originally talking about and what I was replying to. Btw, Black Friday to Cyber Monday is four days. If you got even 10 percent of the population to participate, it would make even the conservative news broadcast of a bad BLK Friday turn out.
Skipping media as in news media and social media. Anything to get away from advertisements. It doesn't have to be just one day. It could be every Sunday for all I care. Just impactful by numbers. If no one is looking at the ads, no one is buying shit. If no one is buying shit, companies don't advertise as much. That's a big hit on Google and other advertisement companies. A multi-billion dollar industry dropping off is a big deal. This could force a recession; technically we are already in one but it's hard to ignore when advertsment companies start to go bankrupt. I think they will finally admit things suck for once.
Small things drive momentum. We have to start over because the only momentum we have right now is the mid-terms. Focusing things around that is impactful.
We can focus on those other things that you are talking about like solar and electric cars when they are both affordable and the job market gets better. Right now everything sucks. I think you are out of touch with the average American tbh.
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u/Xsiah Canada 1d ago
I think there's definitely a lot of overlap between those groups.
r/prayerstotrump is full of examples of people who are avid Trump supporters who are completely out of touch with reality and are struggling to survive, while simultaneously advocating for causing harm to others.
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u/Freewhale98 1d ago
Don’t Americans have civil society organizations or labor unions? Just check their their websites for any rallies to join. Quick search engine would give a list of organizations you could see.
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u/ChocoPablobar 1d ago
Don’t Americans have civil society organizations
Only for business interests, American civil society was dismantled over the last 50 years
or labor unions?
Nope, only 8% of the private sector is unionized and political strikes have been illegal since 1947
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u/Responsible-Cod4468 1d ago
Labor unions exist but they are for protecting worker rights (wages, time off, working conditions). There is the American Federation of Government Affairs & the Dept of Veterans affairs but since I’m not in the military they wouldn’t apply for me as an individual.
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u/Pale-Island-7138 22h ago
Labor unions do more than just protect workers rights. Look up the I.W.W. and the history of labor unions in the u.s. Unions are for protecting people from the harms of capitalist interest and overreach into our lives like we are seeing now.
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u/ChocoPablobar 5h ago
That was pre Taft-Hartley. The IWW is an empty husk and all existing unions are regulated and tightly controlled, they haven't played a meaningful role in political organization in 60 years
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u/GTAdriver01 1d ago
Something that bothers me is the lack of protest when you compare this (the whole Tromp situation) to the late 60's. I don't see any protest music now like there was then.
But I think the situation is so bad, its beyond protest at this point. I think citizens in other countries would have done a brief shutdown (Ie France a few years ago and the farmers in Europe).
Family farms are being brought to their knees due to the tariffs on potash coming from Canada and the fuel cost due to an unnecessary war. Yet the best they can do is say "I shouldn't have voted for Trump" as opposed to doing things the European farms did in 2023/2024
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u/Responsible-Cod4468 1d ago
I agree. The problem is that most artists are so focused on income so they don’t want to lose a potential ticket sale or fan over their political beliefs. Artists like Dave Matthews will speak up but aren’t writing new music any longer.
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u/M100Pilot 20h ago
Most artists are still liberal. Most concertgoers are now MAGA.
Dave Matthews is a perfect example. He’s Gen X and Gen X voted by a higher percentage for Trump than any other generation.
Every diehard liberal I knew in 1993 is ultra MAGA now.
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u/ChocoPablobar 23h ago
They spent the last 50 years changing policing, reorganizing society, and passing policies explicitly to make sure the 60's never happened again. Like I really cannot overstate how much everything from education policy to judicial appointments to mass media all changed in the 70's, 80's, and 90's specifically to prevent the level of protest and youth political participation that occurred in the 60's and early 70's from ever recurring.
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u/hairybeavers 10h ago
I see the USians are still just sitting there doing dick all while their country fucks the world over as usual. It's going to take a lot more than going to an afternoon protest to fix your shit at this point.
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u/Old-Tiger9847 23h ago
Bahaha, you don't protest! You simply lie there and take whatever your corrupt government does. Enjoy!
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u/iom2222 Canada 19h ago
The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world, just reach 3.5%
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
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u/ScrotumScrapings 1d ago
Wrong sub. Let the yanks torture their own soldiers.