Avoiding contributing to the economy as much as possible.

Doing business under the table, never eating at restaurants, never spending money on digital entertainment I could be getting for free.

I’m honestly a lot happier than when I was consuming.

Sounds like a fed question

The only commercial social media I use anymore (or at least post on) is Bluesky, and I’m getting weary of that, too. I’ve switched completely to open source operating systems and workflows in the past year or so. During that time I’ve also become vegan and am trying not to go to any sort of shop at night. That last one has nothing to do with the state of things at this very moment, but I don’t want to give companies more reason to force people onto late shifts when working in retail/customer service already sucks and even full time won’t get you close to a living. The last thing anyone needs is their sleep thrown off, as I know from struggling with it myself. I may not be able to stop buying things, but fuck working when you should be sleeping. Unless you’re literally an essential worker, in which case those shit shifts should be cycled between people, not consistent.

…I didn’t mean for that to become a rant lmao

I built an encrypted, secure, takedown safe network called Tenfingers but during the roughly 10 years of building, honing and polishing it, only 2 persons have ever tried it and one was a friend. So I guess it’s not really what people want 😅.

I learned a lot though.

Since July I’ve been boycotting US companies. I’ve gone as far as setting up my own self-hosted home server for document / bookmark / media storage, which is actually fantastic and I wish I’d done this sooner. All streaming services have been cancelled. I only buy from European brands, and only directly from their own website (no Amazon, etc). This was the first year in a long time where I’ve declined a phone upgrade with my network - I’ll just keep my current phone as long as possible. All my smart home tech is being gradually phased away from Google / Nest and towards Matter / Home Assistant. Windows has been wiped from my PC and I’ve moved to Linux. I cancelled my Adobe subscription in favour of FOSS alternatives. My family and close friends have all switched to Signal (though we did this years ago).

While I still use social media (I make digital art), the only thing I ever post on Facebook/Insta/Threads is my artwork. I don’t post anything personal anymore, because that’s my data.

Despite all these “sacrifices”, I don’t really feel like I’ve lost anything. In fact, things are arguably better now I’m unshackled from US tech giants. I’m saving a ton of money too from all the cancelled subscriptions.

Been boycotting Wetherspoons (a popular chain of pubs in the UK, owned by a Brexit supporting prick) for over a decade now.

I haven’t bought anything from Amazon, Costco, Wal-Mart, big box stores for at least 5 years now. I will also never be getting anything from places like Temu.

As well, I try to make almost all my food, shopping, etc choices to benefit something small, or someone local, that needs my money more than things that further drive the Machine in the end.

I put solar panels and battery storage on my house because my local utility is a publicly traded group of thieves. As much of the system as possible has been bought used except for the batteries.

In that, I buy used as much as possible. Fuck buying new, let someone else buy that 1100 dollar phone I’ll buy it on ebay 2 years later for half that.

I deleted my Amazon and am currently de-googling the best I can.

I’m doing what I can, as small an impact as it has. I’ve become much more aware of what I buy, use, and consume. I’ve begun to repair things instead of just buying new replacements, I don’t buy American whenever possible, and I don’t use any AI at all. I’ve completely cut out Google, Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Reddit, any streaming service and any social media except the Fediverse, and of course nothing from Musk.

However, the biggest impact I’ve been able to make has been getting a couple people to re-think what they consume from fascist-enabling big tech companies. Small wins.

I don’t shop if i can help it. I buy used whenever possible and repair things even when the cost is almost the same as replacement. when i do have to shop, i favour small local businesses. i also avoid american goods and services like the plague.

All Linux. No Amazon. Support local. Hosting my own pages, servers and not using online clouds. Changing habits on what sites to use to avoid AWS where possible

I’m trying to build a small business that replaces SSO mass surveillance (think Sign In With Google, LinkedIn, etc) with a privacy respecting alternative where the technology makes it impossible for me, the service operator, to know what the users are signing into.

Mostly just leaning hard into ad blocking extensions and apps.

aligning my focus back to art, people, listening, empathy, understanding,

(versus the separation they want us to live, and away from the phone that stole so much time from me)

adblocking, barely buying, if buying then second hand, gifting stuff in sharing is caring groups,

praying, staying kind and calm, spending time in nature, staying healthy

Well we could all gently suggest to people that are having a crisis in continued existance, first that we want them to remain with us, but if you must go, why not take some trash out with you? If only we could tune in somehow, we could all play the new mario brothers game multiplayer and drop out of politics.