My point with the previous comment is that the scale and range of protest and boycott here has to be quite comprehensive.
And it includes with drawing from digital products that the masses dont even know are a product....because THEY are the product being sold.
That boycott has also necessarily got to include getting off Facebook, Instagram, Snpachat, Whats App, etc. Stop using Uber, Lyft etc. This is the lifeblood of the vampires.
So its a detox we are talking about. A change of mindset and a withdrawl from participating in digital platform that people view as "essential" even though they are not essnetial and they are in fact part of the manipulation machine.
Thanks, CA. To think: 70 years ago, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was considered unthinkable too. It took 381 days of sacrifice. We’re only talking one day here! Much respect for this post.
Thanks, Angel. We need to all start thinking along the same lines as the Bus Boycott... We might need to keep this up until we see results. But we can do it!
THANK YOU for the reminder Cindy for all who didn’t know.
I’ve been trying to spread the word on some of my favorite podcasts ( Sabby, Kim Iverson, Judge Nap, Jimmy Dore and others who have relatively large audiences.)
I hope fucking Amerikkkans PAY ATTENTION but I fear many will say Fuck it, this doesn’t apply to me. We’ll see.
We need to shut down Corporate Amerikka in a big way. Inflict pain!
Thanks for sharing the news of the Economic Blackout with others. I've seen a few other posts online promoting it, so I hope that means we'll get a good number of folks on board. (If not this first time, then maybe for the second one?) I see the blackout as a method of organizing people who have never done anything like this before but want to express their anger and frustration to the billionaires running this mess of a country. Hopefully the blackout will get them thinking about how to protest in other creative ways, and possibly we'll drive the oligarchs insane. ;-)
There you go--a perfect example at how well an economic boycott can work. Nobody wants to be seen driving a "nazi car" and so they're going elsewhere to buy. (The Chinese company BYD has a great little electric car called a "Seagull" that I'd like to buy if I could ever afford a car again...) I've heard that there's a field of unsold Teslas that's so big now that you can see it from space! Let's see if we can tank Tesla sales further.
What a great testimony, Zanzibar. The feeling of freedom one gains by boycotting corporations that don't make the world a better place is a plus, too. We don't have to be slaves to consumerism!
Thank you! My daughter told me about the February 28 shopping ban a few days ago but this is the first post I've read about it. I've already been gearing up for the week long ban. It takes serious planning. Hopefully many of the insights I gain over the week will become longterm habits.
Fantastic, Claire! You're doing the right thing by planning ahead of time how you will shop for needed items, where and when you'll shop, etc. By doing so, you'll be on the way of developing new shopping habits that reward both yourself and small businesses. Win-win!
I have just one quibble: since we understand that the abusive, gargantuan business interests of the oligarchs are what give them their power, we should not boycott them for a day to "send a message"--they don't give a frack what we think. We should instead boycott the way I do it--when I see that a company does something particularly evil, I stop buying from them--PERMANENTLY. I don't go back as soon as they (pretend to) change their practices in the way we demand. The tech boys' social media platforms are destructive in many ways--close your accounts, stop using them, stop shopping in fast-food chains (cook your food, it's cheaper and healthier), don't shop at Walmart--ever, if you can help it. My small town got a superWalmart a couple decades ago with almost no local pushback, and most people shop there. But there is still one cutrate grocery store I mostly shop at (there are a few items it doesn't carry), there are two hardware stores (one of which is the only one of its kind, has been going for generations, has a wooden floor, the kind of place where the clerk ringing up your purchase asks if your mother is feeling any better. There is one local place to buy car parts that has a wooden floor and a sort of bar with stools where customers can chat with each other or the staff while they're figuring out what you need. There are online booksellers that don't drink blood. There is a tiny farmers market here--it's a bit more trouble to shop there and you can only get some items--but it's also more satisfying and you get good local produce.
In other words, a one-day strike seems to me useful only in introducing people to the idea of moving their purchasing to ethical, local sources--it will not have the oligarchs shitting themselves, not if they assume everybody will be back the next day. And what do we want to push them to do? They are not going to become ethical--they're all sociopaths. What we want is to disempower them, by removing the source of their power, which is money, the source of which is us.
I agree this should become a permanent boycott of all these corporations that folks should follow, but we're going to have to teach a lot of them how much economic power they actually have first. This blackout is a good introductory way to introduce them to the concept.
I love the attitude, Mary. Please continue to stick it to the rich and letting them know they are worthless w/o us.
In defense of the 2/8 Strike, it is harder to convince the masses to go as far as you and many others have gone. The one day approaches allows us to capture many more of us than suggesting them to completely cut the cord and make the permanent move to small businesses in one step. IMHO the 2/28 Strike as the first step of many more to come in the weeks and months to come. If you want to hear more about those movements search "Shutdown315" and join the online community. We are doing some similar work that you're already doing. Come join us. We'd love to have more supporters like you!
I'll have to checkout Shutdown 315. Thanks for the tip! I really admire Mary's attitude, and I've also permanently avoided shopping at most of these mega-corps for many years now. (Just don't get me ranting about evil Jeff Bezos and Amazon... They've put several of my small publishers out of business with his insane practices of underselling.) I think if we introduce the idea of boycotting to the general public in small steps, we'll have them all boycotting regularly beside us before too long.
Great piece C A. Thanks for encapsulating some bona-fide reasons to support this movement. My only suggestion is to not alienate the current Trump supporters. We will need them for this movement to succeed in the long term, but it might take some time for them to realize that he's like any politician, Red or Blue, that is beholden to the Oligarchy.
Thanks for your kind words, Ben. Yeah, we need EVERYONE to boycott together, not just a couple of groups here or there. You're right that this could be an activity that brings lots of very different groups together in one worthy cause--freeing ourselves from the oligarchy. Let's do it!
Does anyone have data about the Blackout?
Good question. I've not come across anything yet, but I'll let everyone know when I do.
My point with the previous comment is that the scale and range of protest and boycott here has to be quite comprehensive.
And it includes with drawing from digital products that the masses dont even know are a product....because THEY are the product being sold.
That boycott has also necessarily got to include getting off Facebook, Instagram, Snpachat, Whats App, etc. Stop using Uber, Lyft etc. This is the lifeblood of the vampires.
So its a detox we are talking about. A change of mindset and a withdrawl from participating in digital platform that people view as "essential" even though they are not essnetial and they are in fact part of the manipulation machine.
Its a huge job.
Economic boycott is a basic building block, but its not going to be enough. It's useful to begin to understand how comprehensive the problem is:
https://mronline.org/2025/02/28/trumps-nationalist-conservative-white-christian-agenda/
https://www.thenerdreich.com/memo-capture-of-u-s-critical-infrastructure-by-neoreactionaries/
Meanwhile the OECD is now about to host a global seminar on how to manipulate the public while cutting services to them aka "austerity" and "reforms":
https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/events/2025/03/getting-the-public-on-side-how-to-make-reforms-acceptable-by-design/Publication-Launch-Getting-the-Public-on-Side-26-March-2025-Agenda.pdf/_jcr_content/renditions/original./Publication-Launch-Getting-the-Public-on-Side-26-March-2025-Agenda.pdf
Thanks, CA. To think: 70 years ago, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was considered unthinkable too. It took 381 days of sacrifice. We’re only talking one day here! Much respect for this post.
Thanks, Angel. We need to all start thinking along the same lines as the Bus Boycott... We might need to keep this up until we see results. But we can do it!
THANK YOU for the reminder Cindy for all who didn’t know.
I’ve been trying to spread the word on some of my favorite podcasts ( Sabby, Kim Iverson, Judge Nap, Jimmy Dore and others who have relatively large audiences.)
I hope fucking Amerikkkans PAY ATTENTION but I fear many will say Fuck it, this doesn’t apply to me. We’ll see.
We need to shut down Corporate Amerikka in a big way. Inflict pain!
Thanks for sharing the news of the Economic Blackout with others. I've seen a few other posts online promoting it, so I hope that means we'll get a good number of folks on board. (If not this first time, then maybe for the second one?) I see the blackout as a method of organizing people who have never done anything like this before but want to express their anger and frustration to the billionaires running this mess of a country. Hopefully the blackout will get them thinking about how to protest in other creative ways, and possibly we'll drive the oligarchs insane. ;-)
Money talks!
Small money fights big money!
Let’s make ours shout down the billionaires!
Tesla sales down 45% in Europe since Elon Musk came out of the closet as a nazi.
https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/tesla-sales-fall-45-in-europe-amid-political-blowback-to-elon-musk
https://www.fastcompany.com/91284684/tesla-sales-plunge-europe-ev-market-grows-fails-offset-petrol-decline
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-25/tesla-sales-fall-45-in-europe-as-rivals-ev-registrations-soar
Meanwhile the market for sales of electric cars in Europe is growing at 37%.
There you go--a perfect example at how well an economic boycott can work. Nobody wants to be seen driving a "nazi car" and so they're going elsewhere to buy. (The Chinese company BYD has a great little electric car called a "Seagull" that I'd like to buy if I could ever afford a car again...) I've heard that there's a field of unsold Teslas that's so big now that you can see it from space! Let's see if we can tank Tesla sales further.
I practise that 25 dans a month for many years now. And I've never been so happy, feeling free.
What a great testimony, Zanzibar. The feeling of freedom one gains by boycotting corporations that don't make the world a better place is a plus, too. We don't have to be slaves to consumerism!
Great idea , a non violent resistance , that unites people and hurts those in power.
It is a great idea to bring people together. And I'd argue we're not "hurting" those in power as much as we're teaching them the errors of their ways.
Thank you! My daughter told me about the February 28 shopping ban a few days ago but this is the first post I've read about it. I've already been gearing up for the week long ban. It takes serious planning. Hopefully many of the insights I gain over the week will become longterm habits.
Fantastic, Claire! You're doing the right thing by planning ahead of time how you will shop for needed items, where and when you'll shop, etc. By doing so, you'll be on the way of developing new shopping habits that reward both yourself and small businesses. Win-win!
I have just one quibble: since we understand that the abusive, gargantuan business interests of the oligarchs are what give them their power, we should not boycott them for a day to "send a message"--they don't give a frack what we think. We should instead boycott the way I do it--when I see that a company does something particularly evil, I stop buying from them--PERMANENTLY. I don't go back as soon as they (pretend to) change their practices in the way we demand. The tech boys' social media platforms are destructive in many ways--close your accounts, stop using them, stop shopping in fast-food chains (cook your food, it's cheaper and healthier), don't shop at Walmart--ever, if you can help it. My small town got a superWalmart a couple decades ago with almost no local pushback, and most people shop there. But there is still one cutrate grocery store I mostly shop at (there are a few items it doesn't carry), there are two hardware stores (one of which is the only one of its kind, has been going for generations, has a wooden floor, the kind of place where the clerk ringing up your purchase asks if your mother is feeling any better. There is one local place to buy car parts that has a wooden floor and a sort of bar with stools where customers can chat with each other or the staff while they're figuring out what you need. There are online booksellers that don't drink blood. There is a tiny farmers market here--it's a bit more trouble to shop there and you can only get some items--but it's also more satisfying and you get good local produce.
In other words, a one-day strike seems to me useful only in introducing people to the idea of moving their purchasing to ethical, local sources--it will not have the oligarchs shitting themselves, not if they assume everybody will be back the next day. And what do we want to push them to do? They are not going to become ethical--they're all sociopaths. What we want is to disempower them, by removing the source of their power, which is money, the source of which is us.
I agree this should become a permanent boycott of all these corporations that folks should follow, but we're going to have to teach a lot of them how much economic power they actually have first. This blackout is a good introductory way to introduce them to the concept.
I love the attitude, Mary. Please continue to stick it to the rich and letting them know they are worthless w/o us.
In defense of the 2/8 Strike, it is harder to convince the masses to go as far as you and many others have gone. The one day approaches allows us to capture many more of us than suggesting them to completely cut the cord and make the permanent move to small businesses in one step. IMHO the 2/28 Strike as the first step of many more to come in the weeks and months to come. If you want to hear more about those movements search "Shutdown315" and join the online community. We are doing some similar work that you're already doing. Come join us. We'd love to have more supporters like you!
I'll have to checkout Shutdown 315. Thanks for the tip! I really admire Mary's attitude, and I've also permanently avoided shopping at most of these mega-corps for many years now. (Just don't get me ranting about evil Jeff Bezos and Amazon... They've put several of my small publishers out of business with his insane practices of underselling.) I think if we introduce the idea of boycotting to the general public in small steps, we'll have them all boycotting regularly beside us before too long.
Great piece C A. Thanks for encapsulating some bona-fide reasons to support this movement. My only suggestion is to not alienate the current Trump supporters. We will need them for this movement to succeed in the long term, but it might take some time for them to realize that he's like any politician, Red or Blue, that is beholden to the Oligarchy.
Thanks again and keep up the great work!
Thanks for your kind words, Ben. Yeah, we need EVERYONE to boycott together, not just a couple of groups here or there. You're right that this could be an activity that brings lots of very different groups together in one worthy cause--freeing ourselves from the oligarchy. Let's do it!