Economic Blackout: Will a 24-hour boycott make a difference?
Economic Blackout: Will a 24-hour boycott make a difference?
An “economic blackout” promoted on social media is underway but with no clear indication of how many people took part or whether retail companies and restaurants will notice any effect from the grassroots protest.
From what I understand, this is a tiered boycott. Yes it starts today with a one day boycott, but there are more and longer and targeted boycotts planned. The other day I saw a flier but forgot to save it or I'd share. Hoping it pops back up again.
I think that's important because for a general strike and boycott to work, you need to train the people, and this is how you train the people. Most everyone can stop shopping for a day, next week they can stop shopping for two days, then not at amazon for a week, then not at Walmart for a week. Then not at any big store for a week, then a month, etc
It dosent end with a one day boycott, it begins with a one day boycott!
Today is also a great day to learn about the small mom and pop operations in your town or city, and divert a few dollars of your spending to them. Today's a great day to take leave from your work, take a bus or bike into work, carpool with someone else, or otherwise not use gas. It's a great day to go out into nature or hang out with friends, not to consume, but to just live. You can't zero out your upkeep today, but maybe you can reduce it by spending smartly. To me that's what today's blackout is meant to do: not hurt Amazon and Walmart and Tesla, but learn the smart ways of doing things. IMO, at least.
This is part of what the defeatists are missing. Real movements take time.
Wanna know the easiest way to know if something will be effective? Look through all the astro-turfed corporate sponsored media and bot posts telling us it won't be effective and that we shouldn't do anything.
They want us to fall to inaction. They want us to look weak. This is the first step in a long road of trying to pull Americans out of their consumerist dystopia.
not buying stuff is literally inaction
Its better than doing nothing.
This is us showing them we can organize.
We still need to build numbers, organize communities, setup support systems.
Later will come the permanent boycott.
Targeting billionaires with a 24-hour pause? Like throwing pebbles at a fortress.
😾😾
It's a tiered strategy and works with the idea that a lot of people haven't ever tried boycotts. Once they see they're part of something the movement grows stronger. Empower people don't comply in advance.
Building momentum with pebbles? You’ll need an avalanche to even scratch the fortress walls.
Regardless, 4 beanz for clarity, optimism, and logical reasoning, though it could have been more concise or directly addressed the critique about targeting billionaires.
😺😺😺😺
It'll be good practice for the main event.
I had to buy plane tickets this morning, and it could not wait until tomorrow. I felt horrible.
Wait, that was today?! Why the fuck is the date not posted everywhere? I've been seeing things about it happening, but didn't know it was today until I'm going home from work. Why isn't my Lemmy feed filled with simple images containing the date and a few words to describe it??? Y'all cared more about the reddit blackout than stoping fascism
It's just the first in a longer term strategy. Keep tabs on next steps.
No.
no
To the people hoping a huge dip in their numbers on this one day will scare them: These megacorporations have set themselves up for consumers to be dependent on them. Even if we have a great turnout for this one-day boycott, it's still a boycott that asks negligible sacrifice from consumers. The corporations won't be worried that a big one-day boycott means consumers are poised to actually do real damage to them.
They'll just go buy what they want tomorrow. By the time the company is reporting quarterly earnings it'll have averaged back into place. Doesn't scare investors at all. Literally zero pressure applied.
And like, do you think anyone of consequence is looking at intra-day sales? By the time anyone actually gets hard data, it will be over.
Honestly I can't think of a better analogy than my toddler having a tantrum in his room holding his breath when I'm not even in the room. He'll have made up for it with some deep breaths after and I won't even know it happened until it's over.
yeah usually the point of a boycott is to put financial pressure on a corporation or institution until specific demands are met
No indeed
Not even a little bit.
Especially when it's not even like 10% of people participating.
AND many people already don't do anything after work on a Friday. They just go home and relax.
Needs to be longer than 24 hours and it needs to gain mainstream support. Until then it'll be comically easy for the billionaires at the top to ignore everything.
Nope. Vast majority either aren't aware or don't care, and the ones choosing to participate just timeshift their purchases by 1 day. Thursday or Saturday.
You being negative instead of constructive shows how defeated you are. Rise up with us and do your part when/where you can. No one is going to give people who have to get medication or buy formula today a hard time. It's not about the small impact this might make today it's about people coming together to make change long term. Hope this helps!
It's not a matter of positive or negative, it's a matter of reality. Single day boycotts don't work. Proven over and over again.
The boycotts that DO work are consistent and persistent. See the Bud Light boycott.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/29/business/bud-light-boycott-ab-inbev-sales/index.html
