Bezos deletes 'LGBTQ+ rights' and 'equity for Black people' from Amazon policies
I have one outstanding order that is already out for delivery. Once I get that, I'm closing my amazon account. I'm done. Buy nothing. Vote with your wallet. Edit: account is closed. get bent Bozos.
https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/jeff-bezos-deletes-lgbtq-rights-34533955Open linkView original on lemmy.world1037
Comments276
Mask off season.
more like mask flip season. they will implement it back with the same speed they unimplemented next time democrats take charge. I think one should collect all these news and keep them for four years so one can compare the news four years later side by side with these. that is if Trump doesn't go full monarchy on USA's ass
Love that optimism!
No. It took literal decades to get those initiatives in place. They were implemented veeerry slowly and only because laws were passed.
Makes them easier to identify and target.
I tried to save yall by voting for Kamala
I think the vast majority of Americans on Lemmy did the same.
We did but somehow they still want us to thank them for that being the start and end of their actions.
I hope they don't hold their breath on getting a thank you from everyone
I've never asked for thanks nor have I seen even a single Lemming ask for thanks for their vote.
I have. Go into a comment section on political shitposts
I'm not going to go out of my way for this conversation. Send me a link, otherwise I'll keep an eye out during my usual browsing.
Also, I think the fact that the comments you claim that you saw are in the political shitposting community should be a sign for you.
I wasn't really going to go find sources on that either and I realize the origin tells a lot, but every group in here is basically shitposting for something. It's not an unheard of subsect.
But, I was just continuing the conversation with where I have seen people acting like they have done the Biblical miracles for voting and that they therefore can't be asked to do more. I tend to notice it cause my obvious aversion to it.
same here homie, same here.
I did my best by not being born in America
Deleting LGBTQ policies is nothing compared to the slow drum of global warming that might wipe us out as a species.
I tried to save y'all by advocating for third parties, who would actually bring in the same level of EO you're seeing from Trump but instead to focus on education, military cuts, and moving towards green and nuclear
Voting third party in a two party horse race is a fool’s errand. Especially if you voted for known Putin stooge Jill Stein, who was only running to steal away votes from Kamala Harris. She knew she didn’t stand a chance at winning.
Voting "third" party only fails because the great mass of fucking morons who insist on voting for the genocidal, global empire terrorist pieces of shit currently in charge. You can try as hard as you want to deflect that blame, but it will never wash off.
I like your sentiment, but a two party system inherently uses third party votes as spoilers. It is common for the dominate party to support a third party to peel away votes from their major opposition.
https://youtu.be/s7tWHJfhiyo?si=6y_K1yvlvDPNxm70
One solution to this is ranked voting. Of course many of our politicians recognize this and have already passed laws at the state level to bar ranked voting under the pretense that it is too confusing for voters.
Nailed it - I'll consider a 3rd party vote on equal-footing once we have ranked/ranked choice voting in place. Right now, I think there's a higher probability for one of the two parties to consider this so in other words... it's going to be a while...
Whatever party is in power has a lot to lose from ranked voting and nothing to gain. This will make this reform very hard to pass. I live in Alaska and we have ranked voting that narrowly avoided a repeal this last year after passing the previous year.
There is no legal enshrinement of a "two party system". Whoever the public votes for wins. The public's self-defeating mentality is the problem.
Not explicitly. Just effectively. Between first past the post, which naturally evolves into a two party system. And the electoral college which enshrines it. At the national level actual, independent 3rd parties are an impossibility. And they know it.
Theoretically matter could spontaneously coalesce into a Boltzmann brain before a 3rd party could win a national election.
this isn't true.
FPTP doesn't naturally evolve into a two-party system. Cultural predispositions cause that. The electoral college does not enshrine it, it - sometimes - hands the elector votes to the majority winner of the state, and some states even have legal pledges to follow other systems. There is no impossibility. I will repeat myself for the fiftieth time in this thread, THE PUBLIC'S SELF-DEFEATING MENTALITY IS THE PROBLEM. The public TELLS ITSELF a third party is an impossibility, the public DOESN'T VOTE FOR A THIRD PARTY. You will resign yourselves to slavery until you figure this out.
What’s the point of voting for a 3rd party when they have no members in Congress or the courts? They’d have to coalition with Republicans or Democrats anyways.
Exactly, it's not like the president has all power (at least not yet, we'll see where it is in a couple years). Without supporting members of the other branches, a third party president is nearly useless. That said, I'd take a useless but well meaning president over Trump.
^ This speaks to a lack of civics education. Without an overwhelming majority, Congress can't pass harmful legislation with an executive veto, and the executive can still halt its implementation.
Gridlock is better than streamlined totalitarianism. Vote for them in both. And courts weren't really partisan before ~2010.
With a "First Past The Post, Winner Takes All"-system like you have in the US, there's virtually no chance of a third party winning an election, as the majority of the country haven't even heard of your candidate, and thus won't vote for it.
And then still, once you get your third party elected president, then what? They'll have to make huge compromises on their campaign promises in order to get anything done in Congress.
The public choosing to vote for a different party wins in a FPTP system regardless. The obstacle is the public.
Well, those morons genuinely support those things. A quarter of voters is not winning an FTTP election
Voting third party this election directly lead to a Trump win. “You can try as hard as you want to deflect that blame, but it will never wash off.”
if everyone who voted for a so-called third party had voted for the democrat, trump still would have won.
Only in terms of "but this would have happened if you voted for something else", the logic of which equally applies to the sum of Harris voters voting for somebody who, simultaneously, (a) had substantially less votes in the final outcome, but also (b) was so extremely evil that they're complicit in a genocide. Or is that too hard for you to wrap your head around.
You’re a fool then. Voting for a third party has the exact same effect as not voting, and in this election, that effect was also supporting Trump. Get your head out of the fantasyland.
People like you are part of the problem.
"I tried to save you from the empire by voting for the empire"
Honestly, fuck Americans and their insane discourse. Absolutely psychotic, delusional, brainwashed bullshit. You have NO fucking clue what is happening on this planet. This society is a plague on the world, just unleashing an endless series of massacres, and none of you even understand why.
The fact that you would vote for someone complicit in genocide, without even figuring out WHY, and actually think you did something GOOD. My fucking god. And nobody reply to me with this "Trump would have been 5% worse" bullshit, because I'm done hearing it. You are not the heroes of the story. You've been indoctrinated to support "global military empire lite" with your fear of "global military empire original". You sacrifice the lives of the victims of the empire for your illusion of democracy and quality of living, that never existed in the first place. Stop fucking patting yourselves on the back.
Brooooo, it's not like any of us were thrilled with Kamala either. But in comparison to Trump I was excited for her.
Trust me, we all get that both options weren't optimal, but we don't get an optimal option. We get 2 options, and one is usually better than the other. If we keep picking the better one, over time things improve.
People like you tend to protest by not voting at all, or voting third party (which is essentially the same under our current structure). If we had compulsory voting, I highly doubt Trump would have won.
The problem is it’s not a choice between good and better, it’s a choice between bad and worse. We’re hitting the point where the lesser of two evils choices are hitting critical mass.
Aside from not taking a firm stance on Israel, I didn't have any huge problems with Kamala. I figured she was just holding back on criticism since AIPAC has the power to essentially end careers. That's probably too optimistic.
"Figured", "probably" - these are not the levels of certainty you should have on your conclusions regarding a genocide.
Considering I was absolutely certain trump would make it worse, I was okay with mild uncertainty.
Let me rephrase it. You are not meeting the standards of research required to effectively participate in a democracy.
Just bad is still lesser evil. Exactly how the fuck are we supposed to do better than that in an FTTP system? And to be quite frank, Im trying to avoid genocide at home
No single drop of water blames itself for the flood. There are 240 million eligible voters, who all have the choice, collectively and individually, to vote for ANYONE. Somehow you are all completely incapable of blaming the entire group for its continual decisions to vote for war criminals and genociders. Rather, you completely invert the blame onto those who DON'T vote for those people. Literally, you ignore the blame for the only people actually responsible, and instead blame the only people NOT responsible. Given the massive efforts to brainwash the public regarding this political system, it's nearly impossible to not see this as a product of brainwashing as well, because this self-defeating pattern completely neuters any attempt for real political change.
By the way, the Senate just voted 99-0 to confirm Marco Rubio. Including Bernie Sanders, Van Hollen, Booker, Warren, every Democrat. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00008.htm Explain that to me once you get done explaining how the Democrats are really the underdog opposition.
Also, no, they fucking don't. The system presenting you with these manufactured options continually clamps down its chokehold on the world as you continue on in your delusion of political choice. It absolutely boggles my fucking mind how after a year and a half of open genocide you think there's some kind of autonomy between the Democrats and Republicans.
Do you not understand how FTTP works? Theres too many liberals who genuinely want empire lite, trying to make an actual progressive happen outside the party would just split the left-of-trump vote
There is no solution for a population voting incorrectly than for them to correct their behavior. You have no point.
Well there's a few, but encouraging them would get me banned. Unfortunately, most peoppe are NPCs, robots made of gore who act entirely in accordance with natural instinct and emotion, you have to politic around that or nothing will get done
So, the choices were donvict or Biden/Kamala. That's it. You don't have to like it (and I certainly don't), but that's just reality.
Remember what happened with Bernie Sanders 8 years ago?
He lost the primary fair and square. And because unlike many of his voters he could acknowledge this. He worked with the party to make those primary elections even more democratic in the future. Bernie actually got shit done. Unlike the people performing outrage he doesn't feel on his behalf. Actively working against Sanders accomplishing anything through the Democratic party. Because they didn't like the parties primary election rules which were changed because of Sanders.
To borrow a phrase from Gandhi. I like your Bernie. I do not like your Bernie bros. Your Bernie bros are so unlike your Bernie.
I'm talking about throwing everything against him when he was the best for the job, unlike Hillary.
Your depiction of "the choices" is factually incorrect. The population had the ability to run with any candidate whatsoever. You "chose" (or rather, were handed) two war criminal psychopaths to vote for.
You are in a prison of your own creation.
The not-republicans are a coalition of actual progressives and diet imperialism. Working outside the parry just splits the vote
That's a good joke.
Someone doesn't like genocide, geesh.
How about "I'm the only one of you actually judging this godforesaken system objectively, by its merits, which are nonexistent".
Ew, this comment is gross.
I know, right? You should delete it.
OK, just fucking stop, this is "I know you are but what am I" level.
LOL, we live in a society that celebrates never maturing and the goal of every post since these types were on reddit, is to say something witty that continues to confirm to the zeitgeist and not push against anything.
I don't expect any better from them even though I would certainly like to.
I can't.
It requires the person who thinks they were saving everyone else (assuming y'all wasn't referring to queers and blacks specifically) by voting and that they can hold it over others to delete it or a mod to.
I hope you find the help you so obviously need.
Right, so no response so this is my point. It's just a conformist shout to show to everyone else that you have heard someone else say it to someone before.
It's not clever it doesn't hurt, I understand the response I will get when I say something controversial. Wishing others get help makes it seem like only people you like are rationally minded and people that may not be mentally well are rude which is diminishing to them.
Really just, insult for the moment at least right? Don't be lazy is at the core of my point and this is exactly that.
What are you even talking about?
Conformity through repeating phrases you think make you sound better is a waste of everyone's time even to the person they think they are "helping" by saying get help.
I said something controversial and there was controversy? I expect that. My point is to try to convey my opinion anyways cause I don't care about being silent for decorum.
If you don't understand my actual words then that's just unfortunately a common flaw of communicating.
If it's obvious then what is the help I need?
Whatever help is necessary to stop you from replying twice 2 hours apart to a comment on the internet. Log off.
I was replying to another comment on this chain at the time and it was a point I wanted to make. It's a forum where all we have are the messages we write to convey our point. So, no I'm alright. I do log off and do other things that's also my point.
People take the Internet too seriously.
We won't survive this.
But if we did, it would be my greatest wish that everyone understands this was all brought to you by tolerance of Greed and capitalism.
Greedy people are a blight on humanity and mentally ill in a serial killer, society must be protected from them way.
But unfortunately, since most here still see themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires that don't want to be part of society but live above it, they'll blame everything but. In that respect, maybe my first point is a silver lining.
Greedy people didn't survive the French Revolution. Just saying.
That's funny. Ever heard of Napoleon?
He did die in isolation in a prison on an island. Kinda doubt that counts as "winning" the greed lottery.
He did exploit the situation. But some shit needed to get done to get where it went.
Maybe someday I'll be a millionaire. Hopefully it won't be at the same time a loaf of bread is $100 and a million dollars is poverty.
That's a weird graph. Why does each label have 2 bars?
because saying 0-10% 11%-20% 21%-30% 31%-40% 41%-50% 51%-60% 61%-70% 71%-80% 81%-90% 91%-100% would create a label so fucking long.
It's implied that each grouping is the top 10% and bottom 10% of each 20% range, to me anyway.
Especially with the tallest having an extra label stating "top 10%"
Probably lazy graphing. I think they're trying to illustrate the difference between top 10 and 20 percent, then threw the others in as collective 20 percent bands. Pie chart might have been better.
to be more similar to the 10% 20% categories I would guess. the bottom 50% could probably be lumped together and it wouldn't change much of anything.
I wonder where the line of being able to afford food and housing would be in each graph and what is the percent of people bellow that. I think that's the important factor signifying how desperate people really are.
Personally I think graph is pretty egregious as long as we have a homeless or poverty problem to discuss, regardless of where the line of desperation is. We know people are under it, and not just a few. Not to mention the high percentage of middle class that are a paycheck or two from being unhoused.
Don't get me wrong - I know there are many desperate people now. I'd just like to see the comparison to pre-revolution France to see just how similar the situation really is based on hard data.
Ah I get your point. That would be interesting!
I'm not saying you shouldn't vote with your wallet, but it is basically in vain. Amazon is all but a tax subsidy at this point.
I've held off for a while because I'm somewhat rural and I do order a bunch of stuff, but I can't keep paying this asshole.
Just sucks I'm going to be spending a lot more now that I'll have to pay for shipping costs :(
Are your shipping costs higher because you’re rural?
I ask because a lot of people assume going off Amazon will be pricier, but I’ve often found that Amazon prices are inflated mask the price of shipping.
It's a good question to be honest. I pay the $15/month and can get anything delivered. I usually order roughly twice a month, stuff like cat litter and other supplies i'd have to travel an hour to get to or can't get so I factor my own time and whatnot into that cost savings.
I honestly am just assuming it would cost more than $15 since I'll be ordering from different places instead of just one now, but I haven't compared direct prices of product. You could be right.
Yeah, give eBay a shot. A lot of sellers are mom and pop shops and even offer free shipping.
Amazon somehow managed to needle their way into people's minds as the only option, but there are others out there.
The only true monopoly they have is in same day/next day shipping which I'm guessing you don't qualify for anyway.
Be cautious with fleaBay. Power sellers can remove negative feedback, so feedback ratings can be skewed!
Dude, have you been on Amazon in like the past 5 years?
I don't see the relevance of this question. I've given up on amazon as their entire system is garbage, but alternatives like eBay have issues too. One of them being my caution above.
I used to look for 97-100% feedback sellers. Now I look for 99-100% and I also paw through the feedback to give myself the best shot at finding a good seller. And as you've mentioned, if you can find the mom/pop shop with solid feedback you should be okay.
I commend your efforts... But like, now you're paying exon more for being part of a less streamlined delivery logistics pipeline.
It's just like... Unless we're talking food, or basically becoming Amish, voting with your dollar makes almost 0 dent in evil. Capitalism is Bloodsport.
And even with food... Like, other than buying eggs from your neighbor who keeps chickens and buying produce at a farmers market, we're pretty much had by the balls as far as being forced to pay some evil piece of shit to exist.
Yeah it's definitely a "which planet destroying fascist enabling asshole" do I want to pay...
Great choices we have. :/
If voting with our dollar makes no dent, BDS campaigns wouldn't be effective. It's easy to feel that way from an individual level, but when it's a coordinated effort it certainly has an effect and the more people who join in the larger the effect is felt by the capital owners
I'm rural as well, and boy it's hard. My internet options are 1) too slow to function 2) nazi satellites 3) data cap GSM. I've given up on option 2 in favour of 3. I've cut all streaming, and Amazon, but the only affordable groceries near me at Walmart. There aren't many options. YAY capitalism
You can buy much of the same, exact stuff on Temu for way less. You can buy dog food on Chewy for the same price and get free shipping. If you look around, you can usually beat Amazon's prices and get free shipping. Check out Etsy, Ebay and Mercari, Usually they beat Amazon's prices. I canceled at least a dozen amazon subscribe and save orders. My daughter picks up stuff for us at Costco since we live hours away from a store. Shop bent & dent stores, discount stores and thrift stores for the next four years.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Temu are pretty scummy in their own right, especially if you use their mobile app. I'd argue that aliexpress is slightly less shitty then both, but not great either.
Eh, there's always ebay, I just wish they'd do the fulfillment centre thing so packages aren't coming from 10 different locations.
Wait, rainbow capitalism wasn't sincere?
I left the Amazon ecosystem a couple of years ago because fuck Bezos and it wasn't a big deal, really. Accumulating stuff is a mindset I could reason myself out of. I call it the power of No, thank you. I buy mostly second hand now and it's so calming. Saves me money as well.
That fuck bezos link is gold, thanks for sharing.
Don't worry guys, all these corporations will bring back those pretty rainbow logos for Pride Month™ and all will be forgotten.
except this will be the start of the year they stop doing that, because now it becomes the "popular" side to not support it.
Oh, you know trump will issue an EP revoking Pride Month, and all the businesses will forget about it. It makes me sick.
Oh yeah, by all means, stop using all Amazon related services, then realize that about 50% of web services for banking, agriculture, logistics, infrastructure, telecommunications, research and development, industry, transportation, healthcare and energy are hosted on AWS
"Oh but my service is hosted on GCP"
Yeah and what do you think is the fallback in case of DRP?
I mean we can all do our small part. 🤷♂️ Something is better than nothing.
No, they’re totally right and should continue to spend every dollar they earn on Amazon while bemoaning the death of small businesses.
I... don't understand this. It's like it's only 50% sarcasm somehow.
Yes AWS is the standard for most of the internet, but do you think Amazon won't notice if a whole bunch of users en masse decide to stop buying things from their warehouses?
I think their store is but a fraction of what they make in AWS, but you have a point.
Oh the users win DEFINITELY notice when the second order effects of pulling out of current infraestructure without a plan just for dubious ideological reasons start to manifest
What?
Did you ever live in a world before Amazon? People still shipped goods and went shopping
My dude, that is literally the least profitable part of their business and not the one I'm talking about.
They have much more built out offerings, but smaller hosting providers and on-premise are always an option regardless. Obviously not including "Azure".
If your load is stable and predictable then onprem is also cheaper.
Good then that loads never change, growth never happens, users never drop off your platform, demand is always the same and everything related to users is never dynamic, but static as fuck
Yes. That is exactly what some B2B customers want. You can still grow month to month, and adapt your onprem infrastructure accordingly.
Obviously this approach is extremely dependent on the underlying use case and business model. Unlikely to be suitable for B2C.
Prime? Cancelled.
Kindle unlimited? Cancelled.
Audible? Cancelled.
Twitch? Cancelled.
Not one cent from my wallet will ever be in Bezos’ hands again, from here on out.
I'm over a year ahead of you. Dumped prime when they announced ad tier is default for streaming.
The downside is waiting 2-3 extra days for them to ship something you order, if you do order through amazon. They make sure to not release any order whatsoever without prime for days to entice you to bribe them for standard service.
It may be harder for some, but don't order anything from Amazon either. Shop locally, if that's still at all possible.
Unfortunately, you are still making money for companies that then pay AWS with the money you give them. Not saying you shouldn't do what you're doing, but it's basically impossible to escape Amazon entirely and use the internet now.
Every little bit helps though.
Yeah. I remember when the net was still pretty open with lots of small players still - and lots of giants trying to achieve dominance. Something like Netflix seems pretty cool until you don't want to give Bezos money and find out that Netflix runs on AWS. Not sure about other streaming services.
I honestly don't know what sites and services would work if AWS and a few other things (Akamai, Cloudflare) were cut out of the picture.
Gotta cancel all of your account if youre at all serious. They keep your financial info if you dont
And not just cancel accounts, but also stop going to their website. They get ad revenue from each visit and if you buy anything from them, you're still giving them money.
And stop using websites or apps that are hosted on AWS clouds, that's very important!
Just give them an old card
And block them when their email system spams you to fix it
Good on you. Voting with your wallet is exactly what you should do in a free society.
"Democracy dies in darkness" said the guy turning off the fucking lights
For those that are unaware, it's the slogan of The Washington Post, which Bezos owns.
8 years ago I thought that was defiance.
Now I know it was a promise they intended to fulfill.
Okie-dokie.
I guess I can delete "slow down if I see Jeff Bezos crossing the street" from my policies.
Sounds like another great reason for Amazon workers to organize a labor union.
The masks are coming off.
I'm proud to say that I've never once bought anything from Amazon. Long before Bezos started to reveal the depths of his psychopathy, the company just grossed me out. There's something about businesses that are that large and that dominant that just makes my flesh crawl (the same reason I never shop at Walmart or eat at McDonald's or get coffee at Starbucks or...)
But at this point, it goes way beyond that - Bezos, alongside Musk and Zuckerberg and Ramaswamy and Thiel and so on - is a direct threat to humanity. He and the other would-be oligarchs, under the umbrella of Trump's ego, are deliberately setting out to destroy the ideals of liberty, democracy and justice in order to build an autocracy in which they will be the masters they believe themselves rightfully to be, and the rest of us will be relegated to being serfs, slaves or corpses.
Sadly, if you're on the Internet then you are providing revenue to Bezos.
AWS's power makes him a defacto Techno-Feudal Lord.
are Oracle and Microsoft in the same category?
Yes. Although the ownership of Microsoft shares is more diffuse.
Makes me wonder how many Lemmy instances are running off AWS servers.
It's very hard to tell, unless the owners disclose this information. A lot of instances run behind Cloudflare or other proxies to hide the real infrastructure.
I don't blame them. Leaving your server completely exposed is risky. But Cloudflare is another shady company, so I prefer to take that risk for my servers.
Way ahead of you: I've never used Amazon.
Actually an achievement
@[email protected] You can’t use WalMart either. And didn’t Target remove things after literal in-store attacks by chuds?
What’s your game plan? It can’t be the mall…
And if avoiding using Amazon products is your goal, then large swaths of the internet are off the table too.
I’m not trying to be a jerk. Just illustrating how the oligarchs got us over a barrel when it comes to voting with our patronage.
I haven't bought anything from Walmart, Amazon, or Target in over a decade, probably close to two. Sure it costs a little more, but I try to source as much as I can from Costco which helps balance but otherwise I do almost all my shopping from local groceries (surefine, tops) and local hardware stores (franchises I know but generally locally owned)
Maybe there's more to the Target stuff, but it's a little tough for me to heavily criticize them for pulling merch that was getting employees threatened and hurt. I still wish they'd have stuck to their guns and found a way to protect their workers. I think personally what's worse was the Bud Light debacle. They caved because of profits, not dangers, and passed off both sides.
Holy shit that’s the most corpo speak “we don’t believe in affirmative action” policy I’ve ever heard
What a sack of shit
I usually attempt to buy from other sources, but they are fully ingrained in the online market to the point that other vendors usually drop ship from them, sometimes even if there's no price difference because they get commercial discounts that consumers don't.
I haven't bought on Amazon in 6 years. When marketplace vendors from other sites ship Amazon packages to me, I usually report them. I've had two of the marketplaces reply that they had no policy against this, and I let them know that I will choose to shop elsewhere from now on.
It really hasn't been very much trouble to avoid buying from Amazon. There's no shortage of online shops, and Amazon's prices aren't always lower like they used to be.
It's been two years for me and I don't miss them. I have had good success going direct to the manufacturer. And if the manufacturer doesn't sell direct, they list alternatives to Amazon.
And honestly, I go without things too. Amazon having everything available makes it too easy to buy random crap. I don't need to have every bit and bob which makes my impulse buying generally a thing of the past.
Worth checking to see if the thing you are getting refunded for is sold directly from Amazon or if it's from a "store". Often times the "store" could just be some bloke trying to make some money using Amazon. If you get refunded for one of those, they take it from that store, not their own coffers.
These idiots have made a mistake, the pendulum always swings back and most Americans didn't vote for Trump.
I hope they don't expect to be welcomed back with open arms once it does.
We're you asleep a couple months ago... They were welcomed back with open arms...
I know...
Well I guess it's a good thing I have begun my 4 years of austerity. I am not spending one dime more than I need to for necessities. I cancelled Amazon Prime a year ago and will be making every effort to buy whatever necessities I usually would get from there elsewhere.
I'm actually doing the same. I'm going to really consider, to the best of my ability, and with the best information available, the political background of the things I spend my money on. If I -need- a semi-frivolous thing, I'll buy from a blue state or used on eBay. No hiring of the trades for me; if I can't do it myself, I probably don't need it that bad (I live in a red state). No Amazon, Facebook, and especially no Tesla (not that I was ever interested in the first place). I will try to support artists and other people who have a politically agreeable mission, however.
What's the worst that can happen? I end up with a giant pile of money I would have blown? I'm fine with that.
I'm glad people like you exist. I've cut down spending through COVID and have been mostly in bunker mode living well below my means and paying off my mortgage. I don't owe anything to anyone outside of land tax and some utilities. I'm late to the game removing Amazon from the picture, but my last order has already been made. What sucks is I thought after a few years of hunkering down things would finally get better and I'd be in a great position to move forward. I hope more and more people join this effort. I see this as being AS important as the 2nd amendment. The right to bare arms is useless if you have to fight an entity with most of the money, major parts of the supply chain, and all the intel.
I wonder what makes the author of the article think that Bezos did this. The CEO of Amazon has been Andy Jassy since 2021.
Bezos is still Executive Chair on the board of directors, who Jassy reports to. Nothing controversial would be done without Bezos knowing.
In case anyone needs some toilet break literature:
https://www.keene.edu/academics/cchgs/resources/presentation-materials/characteristics-and-appeal-of-fascism/download/
Taking the first steps to leave Amazon entirely right now. I am never ordering anything from them again.
Good job. I haven't in years, and can say small though my part is, it's worth the minor inconvenience
Make sure to stop using apps and websites hosted in their AWS cloud too. That'd be a lethal blow
It's always worth cutting ties with Amazon.
Just about everything is available from somewhere else, and probably cheaper with their enormous fees they charge the sellers.
If it isn't available elsewhere, it's probably an Aliexpress fire hazard anyway.
maybe it helps your conscience but it's not going to affect any of these massive corporations. it won't make a dent in their revenue and they will go on oblivious to your 'protest'. if you want to make a difference, the only way is [redacted]. when are ya'll gonna figure this out?
Well I notice the £95 a year not spent on Amazon Prime.
Why are you copy/pasting this... joke?... all over this thread?
because you children don't understand how the world works.
we’re all lucky to have you here to educate us lol
Remember when Bezos pretended to be in opposition to Trump? That was nice while it lasted.
Just last night I was going through all my subscribe and save items and finding alternatives. I stored them in a spreadsheet (LibreOffice). My last order is already in motion and once delivered that's it. Amazon is gone.
Other changes I've made or am in the process of making:
Where I'm stuck and looking for help: What do I do for my next phone? Android and Apple are both at the table supporting this mess. Linux alternatives seem like huge downgrades at the moment... any advice?
GrapheneOS
Anything samsung galaxy phones? I got a later model and don't know if I can get anything other than the stock program.
to my knowledge there's not a lot available for samsung hardware at the moment, maybe check out sailfish?
Is there a reason to choose Graphene vs Lineage (or any others I may not know about)?
I don't have any experience with Lineage so I don't want to speak to it. May just be hardware dependent in a lot of cases. I had a pixel when I got sick of googles shit and Graphene was the only option for me, so that's what I sprung for. The experience has been very positive - installation was easy - the fresh start was welcome.
I've closed almost every account as well. I like Bluesky and PixelFed so far. As far as phones go, I'm just going to keep my same Android for now. It's old and I will not upgrade until I have to. I use fdroid for everything. I though of switching to Apple, but as you said, they are kissing the ring too. Sad times.
Why not Mastodon?
Groups I follow are on BlueSky -- happy to check out Mastodon as well though.
Wow - that looks like a very solid option!! I'm very interested... this may be my next phone! Thank you so much!
That's a good idea. Keep in mind that you can also install other OSs on a FairPhone: LineageOS, iodéOS, CalyxOS (unfortunately not GrapheneOS). A FairPhone can be a good hardware choice, and with it you still have the ability to choose an OS.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/05/murena-eos-fairphone-4
Was wondering what you were talking about and found this article that explains the advantages and disadvantages of Murena's e/os, so i thought id link it, in case anybody else is curious.
With android you can avoid the google play store so they don't get a cut of ad revenue. I don't know whether Google gets a cut of phones they didn't manufacture just because Android is on it, considering Android is open source and the manufacturers are responsible for updates.
I'm using f-droid now. A quick search shows Google makes money via play store and having some of their apps as default (to sell ads) -- so maybe that will still work for me. I'll dig in further. Thank you!
Get a 10 usd phone, like the old ones?
Are there any that will allow me to still text with my friends and family on Signal?
Just send an SMS, it's not the end of the world
Alternatively, the next usual Lemmy suggestion is too isolate yourself and lose those friends
Vast majority of my friends are communicating via Signal. So far the best option looks to be to use/install a version of android that cuts out the google stuff. F-droid for apps to avoid $ from play store while also avoiding $ from ads.
People with social media don't realize, they've already lost those friends. You're keeping up with them superficially at best. If you quit the platform, chances are you will not notice that you're no longer so superficially keeping up with them, you will not hear from them, and they will not notice either. Anyone that you actually want to keep in touch with, you can send a message through text, or call.
Anyone switching to a flip phone?
maybe it helps your conscience but it's not going to affect any of these massive corporations. it won't make a dent in their revenue and they will go on oblivious to your 'protest'. if you want to make a difference, the only way is [redacted]. when are ya'll gonna figure this out?
If enough people do this, it will certainly make a dent exactly where they don't want it to. I may be wrong, but I do believe it's possible to reach critical mass. With that said, it also helps my conscience at the same time. I won't comment on the other part other than it's already been figured out and demonstrated. Best I'm willing to do personally is voting with my wallet.
That would imply that the republicans were right the entire time with their weapons zealotry
you need to see big picture. it's not republicans that got shit done with weapons, it's how 96% of human history was decided. this time is no different.
They'll kiss whatever ring they need to kiss. The only moral these people have is "number go up". Fuck this planet.
Just goes to show how corporations actually feel about diversity and equality. They're all racist, sexist and homophobic but they all write their policy to appear like they aren't until they are allowed to show their true colours.
Companies have no feelings. They just do whatever's best for the bottom line.
The thing is they don't have colours they just go where the wind blows.
I don't think these jerks quite understand they ain't gonna shove black folks to the back of the bus again. Of course they wont start by trying that but its on their mind.
If only it were easy to opt out of things like AWS.
God I hate it so much
It is easy.
Maybe not convenient, but it is easy as fuck. Just don't use anything and build your own web infrastructure. Easy peasy
I would agree with you, but in so many boardrooms and in the head canon of so many CTOs/CIOs, this notion is passe.
Following in the footsteps of Elon.
Oh good another company to not give my money to. I will be saving a lot this year.
Member 10 years ago when tech billionaires sucked up to Democrats
Yeah... now Trump will give them everything they want as long as they kiss his ass.
Good reminder to cancel my Prime membership. My New Year’s resolution was to not purchase anything from Amazon, and so far I’m nailing it.
Closed my account last night. Made my partner close theirs and cancel prime too.
maybe it helps your conscience but it's not going to affect any of these massive corporations. it won't make a dent in their revenue and they will go on oblivious to your 'protest'. if you want to make a difference, the only way is [redacted]. when are ya'll gonna figure this out?
I generally agree, but I'm not going to knowingly give money to ghouls who are trying to make my existence worse. I'm not at all against using [redacted] but I do think the idea that boycotts are worthless isn't correct. Boycotts have been successful in the past, it just requires some solidarity and that part is what has been missing from a lot of the wider calls recently. I do think we could impact their profits. But we can do both this and sabo-[redacted]
Anyone have a good alternative to AWS S3?
Literally anyone else unless you're a giant business, S3 is super expensive.
I only have experience with on prem, but have heard good things about backblaze.
I don't put any compute on AWS. I just use it for object storage, which costs me pennies. (I still use heroku for compute and db 😔)
I'm actually looking into Digital Ocean. Based on my needs, I can move all my services over there and it will cost me $25/mo.
What type of storage are you buying that only costs you pennies?
Every time I went to buy amazon storage, I was always disappointed by the price. Glacier is the only affordable one, but Backblaze is probably better storage for personal use anyway.
AWS S3. I mostly store historic archives or small images (max 1024x1024px). It started out as pennies. Now, it costs me about $1.05 per month.
https://hosting-checker.net/websites/www.heroku.com
Surprise! Heroku is hosted on Amazon Web Services and has been for many years.
If you have some technical ability you can try self-hosting https://dokku.com/ which is open source and free to use on hardware that you pay for.
"Powered by Docker, you can install Dokku on any hardware. Use it on inexpensive cloud providers."
Pick a VPS host. https://www.eucloud.tech/eu-providers/vps-hosting
"Once it's set up on a host, you can push Heroku-compatible applications to it via Git. They'll build using Heroku buildpacks and then run in isolated containers. The end result is your own, single-host version of Heroku."
I moved from AWS to DO. Definitely cheaper, easier for my setup. Monthly fees less and no reserved instance BS
On prem.
I recommend going with Backblaze, they're cheap and in my experience very reliable so far. If you're looking for other alternatives, you could get a storage box from Hetzner. It's not S3 compatible but instead supports Samba, FTPS, SFTP, Borg, Restic, RClone, and others. I suggest avoiding Wasabi due to their strange / shady? pricing model where you pay 3 months of storage cost for every deleted file.
https://www.eucloud.tech/eu-alternatives-to/aws-amazon-web-services Many of them have "object storage" available as an option.
Contabo maybe? I never used their S3, but they do offer it and at least their VPSs are really cheap
Cloudflare R2. Wasabi.
Hahahaha!
Its funny how these corpos were praised when they raised the LGBT colors, back then they were the moral compas of the western societies, now they're "fascist".
Maybe people won't forget that the companies would do anything in order to increase profits. They never cared about anyone rights, else they wouldn't use slave labor in southeast Asia, or Sub-Saharan Africa.
How do I leave AWS?
I use S3, EC2, SNS (or whatever they call it now), email, cloudfront
I want the same fast servers and CDN. I can probably pay someone else for email and sms services
Not sure if DigitalOcean stacks up in similar ways or not. Also not sure what their politics are.
I'd be curious about options as well.
I left AWS
What did you opt for? On-prem? Colocation? Some other vendor?
I moved to DigitalOcean for now, I thought about selfhosting but I'm not in a great situation for that. They are cheaper, easier, and I've been mooching off of their tutorials for a decade. I had to dump a 27GB site that I haven't touched in at least 10 years and am undecided between a phone notification app or SMS to replace SNS. DO has S3 storage and a CDN. The last bit is just one site that needs some email forwarding but it's very low priority. $7 droplet and $5 S3 and no one looks at these sites but me so the bandwidth won't cost me anything most of the time
You learn how to hack multiple other services together, and you coordinate with multiple third parties + their different applications. There are no other feature complete competitors. The S in AWS is what defined it. The AW part doesn't matter; anyone can do that with enough cash, effort, and skill. Welcome to the global monopoly, thank you for your support by using AWS.
Never heard of the Irish Star before. I went looking for a secondary source. So far CNN and MSNBC are not reporting on this. But interestingly the Washington post is.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/01/10/amazon-removes-black-trans-rights/
They have a lot of government contracts for AWS. There's a reason he's kissing Trumps ass. I'm not really sure why he and the rest of them are still involved with the companies at all and not just fucking off with their millions. I'd be somewhere else not dealing with political bullshit.
It's because they want to use the US to achieve world domination.
I wish I were kidding.
That just sounds like a bunch of unnecessary work for no real gain.
What do you want after you've aquired everything legal and illegal you have ever wanted and the hole inside you is still empty?
The rich have a mental illness that can't be reasoned with.
You can live without Twitch. Once you leave, you have so much time to do other stuff. Stuff that are so much better than watch other people play games or eat ramen in Tokyo. Go play games yourself and see the world around you with your own eyes. You can also stop ordering useless new stuff. Visit thrift stores or buy second hand online.
Wtf. Amazon owns Twitch? The whole anti-monopoly thing is just a suggestion rather than a rule ig.
Or watch via Twitch xtra.
Fuck this guy, with his own dildo rocket straight to any assteroid he wants to mine.
I guarantee that we will see calls to repeal the Civil Rights Act if this continues, and comrade it's just getting started.
Another reason to buy things directly from the manufacturer rather then from Amazon. It's generally cheaper as well.
And my account has been deleted as well. Been going to for a while but the shenanigans have simply pushed far enough
It is a shame it is always the same companies. I can only boycott them once.
maybe it helps your conscience but it's not going to affect any of these massive corporations. it won't make a dent in their revenue and they will go on oblivious to your 'protest'. if you want to make a difference, the only way is [redacted]. when are ya'll gonna figure this out?
Many of the boycotted corporations have faced massive losses. Enough for some of them to have cut ties or divest.
A boycott does not have to bankrupt a company. A few percent revenue loss is more than enough for them to reconsider. As soon as the losses outweigh the profits to be exact.
Scumbag
The cooperation of capital and government is an integral part of fascist regimes. They where never your friends and have no ideology beyond their profits by any means.
What right's do people not have in USA?
We have lost our rights, had our rights restricted, or have had our rights routinely violated on the following issues:
bodily autonomy -- abortion
unreasonable search and seizure -- the federal government (FBI, NSA) digitally track everyone. Cops can legally take your money and property without cause or due process. Cops selectively enforce laws. State attorneys general selectively enforce laws. The TSA (airport security) is arguably unconstitutional.
torture and indefinitely imprisoning people without charging them with a crime.
trans people's right to bodily autonomy, freedom of liberty, equal rights, equal access to healthcare, etc. Florida is forcibly putting trans inmates in with inmates of the opposite-gender and forcing trans people into conversion therapy. Trans people are facing widespread persecution and legislative genocide, depending on the US state. States are trying to make being trans a crime by calling them "sexually obscene". I fully expect the federal government will try to do the same, as it's part of the Project 2025 playbook.
our court system is overall corrupt and corrupt judges do not rule based on facts, science, what the law says, what is morally right, or what is best for the people.
the right to a speedy trial is being violated. The right to have a public defender adequately represent you when accused of a crime is being abused and violated.
slave labor is allowed and legal in this country. Prison inmates are allowed daily temporary release to work for private companies but then the prisons and government steal most of their earnings.
our human right to a clean environment is being violated. Our water, air, and land is being polluted with a lack of regulation and oversight.
rights of immigrants, asylum seekers, and others is routinely violated and now, once again, millions of people are being threatened with deportation.
black people have never had equal rights in this country. I can't even begin to list the extent of their oppression here. Racism is on the rise politically now too.
I could keep listing points for hours, if not days.
None of those are true or accurate. Maybe don't break the law, don't have unprotected sex, don't groom children, and no, there's no "trans genocide"
You didn't lose any rights. You just to can't force your beliefs on others, similar to religious fanatics. Keep your sexuality and religion to yourselves.
You can be trans. But you don't need to broadcast it. No one cares. No need for pride parades either. I think parents raising their kids to be more decent and accepting of their peers would be more effective than forcing people to accept it.
You already have rights. You just can't list it as an achievement or qualification on a resume , or expect to be hired just because you're trans.
Barack Obama was President. Proof that black people can excel. Oprah Winfrey is one of the richest women in the world. Proof that color is not an obstacle.
Education is, however, an obstacle. Who'd rather become a gang member because they couldn't pursue education?
I'm not attacking you, this is just my perspective. I just happen to disagree. I wouldn't think that black people would be proud of being hired solely because of their color rather than merit or for their hard work and education, as for all ethnicities
I think education is more important than "trans or lgbtq rights".
Abortion? If you have unprotected sex knowing what the true purpose of it is to reproduce, then you should have the child.
If you have multiple abortions because you keep having unprotected sex, that's irresponsible. Abortions should be limited to rape victims, underage females, incest, and if the mothers life is endangered.
95% of abortions are because of elective reasons. They chose to abort it knowing that they can't afford a baby or whatever reason.
Men also should realize that unprotected sex can lead to pregnancies, so they should take the same amount of precautions.
Prison inmates as slave labor? They shouldn't have broken any laws. They have to contribute to society or be rehabilitated somehow. Another interesting point. Should prison be a punishment or rehabilitation? I know it's a bit of both but which way should it teeter?
Hopefully you (we) become less miserable as the years go on.
Take care. Even if your list is inaccurate or exaggerated.
I encourage you to take a college course from a non-religious university that covers any of the above subjects.
Now will people leave Twitch? What about companies that contract with AWS?
That would be quite a task. It is wild how many internet services rely on AWS.
Amazon has always been worse for me in terms of delovery times and service anyway. I only order shit there that I otherwise need to get from Aliexpress or whatever
God I hate sites that instantly play video ads. Like if I want my phoneplan fast data going to that. Wanted to read. Did not.
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
lol fucker, we already knew.
Ah gotcha. I appreciate your insight - I'll definitely be looking into this further.
Might it mean two graphs together, for example, the top 20%, is just that, the top 20% of all and the second graph shows how much the top 10% of that 20% owns? So the top 10% of the top 20% owns however much the graph says, looks to be around 70%. Out of the top 20%, 10% of that has the vast majority of that wealth.
Sorry if I explained it badly, I'm tired and hungry so my brain isn't firing on all cylinders ATM.
Pay me, and then watch an ad, then you can see me insult bezos haha
Across Amazon's network, there are millions of orders a day. The sentiment of deleting your account is nice but it's a drop in the ocean. Unless there is a major societal shift, this serves no other purpose than to make yourself feel better by not supporting the business. It's admiral and way to go taking a principled position but meter your expectations. The sheer vitriol thrown at the Warehouse employees by the customer base is truly sad. As others have stated, AWS is inescapable.
minorities tend not to want their hard earned money going directly to their own oppression. we don't necessarily think it'll change anything. it's a matter of personal principle
My statements weren't meant to be adversarial and don't take this as disagreeing because I don't. I'm on board with that. If you support Amazon, you're complicit in exploiting the working class people that get exploited by the company. If you don't support Amazon, those same workers are going to get fired to make sure profits still go up. Most people know on some level that Amazon fucks over it's workers but that has not stopped a lot of people from ordering more cheap garbage they don't need.
Adversarial isn't the right word but the beginning of your comment was dismissive of an individuals actions and impact. It seems like an honest mistake but this sentence specifically is not helpful:
Yes, a major societal shift must occur but do you know how that happens? A significant number of individuals making a choice to act. By implying an individuals actions are "a drop in the ocean" you are discouraging people to act by implying it's pointless. You are hurting the cause, not helping it.
I've been using Ebay a lot and I find it to be way better. I'm buying directly from the sellers and I usually get stuff cheaper there. Especially when I buy used stuff that is in good condition. So saving the environment at the same time too.
Ok. And?
How about we just call ourselves Americans instead?
The problem is that a significant violent minority refuses to call people with more melanin in their skin than them that.
Or less melanin. Or sexual preference.
Some melting pot, eh