this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 237 points 3 days ago (4 children)

A whole 7 days??? Gosh gee willakers!!! You think people can uphold a boycott a whole 7 days???

Look. Boycotts are effective, but you gotta be stubborn. It's gotta be "boycott from now on" with no end date.

Otherwise, it'll just look like normal fluctuations in their business.

"Oh, this week was slightly down....ah, but then it stopped. We're good!"

But if you boycott forever, then their numbers continuously go down. And if you get other people boycotting, those numbers go down faster.

THAT'S how you make an impact.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 2 days ago (2 children)

How do you get people who can't see themselves boycotting indefinitely? You get them used to it by getting them on board to boycott for a fixed length of time. Ideally, as they warm up to the idea, you get them to boycott for longer.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (3 children)

True, but 7 days isn’t enough time for that. I’ve gone weeks between purchasing the kinds of things Amazon delivers, so it’d just be normal. 2+ months is probably better. Especially if those months are Nov & Dec.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Some people can't even handle a 1-day boycott. I think you're overestimating the average person's tolerance for discomfort.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't even understand what people buy so often. I can easily go a month without buying a new physical item that's not like, food

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

I really don’t get it either, how much shit do people need!?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

I have spent the 38 years I have accumulated without needing to buy a single thing from that particular company. WTF?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah but it lets people feel like they've boycotted. Which isn't coddling/faux activism so much as it is starter-activism. We don't want activism to seem hard... even though we know that effective activism pretty much requires meaningful changes to behaviour which often brings discomfort. People are really out of practice and our goal is getting people into the habit

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Too late. If not buying unnecessary shit they don't need from a particular retailer that could be replaced by any other during a previously delimited week seems revolutionary to them... I'm sorry but... They are a huge part of the problem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I have ordered from them line 5 or 6 times, subscribed for a year because I wanted to watch a series by terry Pratchett, and never again interacted with it in the past 8 years or so. You are not boycotting food or water or oxygen.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 43 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

In 1995 we boycotted Shell for environmental reasons and it worked: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Spar

Towing of the platform to its final position began on 11 June. By this time, the call for a boycott of Shell products was being heeded across much of continental northern Europe, damaging Shell's profitability as well as brand image. [...]

On 20 June, Shell had decided that their position was no longer tenable, and withdrew their plan to sink the Brent Spar [...]

So it needed more than a week of concerted boycott action to bring big business into trouble, but not unlimited boycott.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That boycott had a demand attached, to prevent the sinking of the Brent Spar buoy. Effectively "unlimited" boycott until Shell gave into the demand.

This and the last no shop Friday thing seem mostly pointless. I mean fuck Amazon for sure but shouldn't there be some goal? "Boycott Amazon until X, Y, and Z" not "No buy from Amazon for a week but then we'll be back so no worries!"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The implicit demand is to stop supporting fascists.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Implicit demands are for mob bosses and boat owners. If you're threatening a corporation you need to be clear and direct.

Less

We are boycotting Amazon products until they stop be bad

More

We are boycotting Amazon products until they make another season of The Expanse

Or whatever. Clear, concrete, demands.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

We are boycotting Amazon products until they make another season of The Expanse

With the time skip, that's going to be a long boycott.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 days ago

Okay, so start boycotting Amazon now and don't stop.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

This is how strikes are organized generally. You do limited time events too minimize the hurt on both sides, and bring them both to the table.