• yarr@feddit.nl
    3·
    1 day ago

    Hey everyone! Let’s break down why that viral campaign idea might not hit as hard as hoped. If we’re calling for a day to make companies feel the pain, here’s the thing—consumers can be pretty quick on their feet. People might just push their shopping a few days ahead instead of waiting.

    Think about it: if I was planning to buy something on February 28th, maybe I’ll just do my shopping on March 1st or even February 29th if that’s when the sale is happening. Companies are usually managing their finances monthly or quarterly, so one day’s dip in sales won’t make a huge difference. They’ve likely already accounted for those numbers in their budget.

    Plus, with all the online shopping and delivery options out there, people can buy what they need anytime, making it easy to avoid any specific “buying panic” on that targeted day. Companies might even use this time to up-sell or promote other products to make up for any lost sales.

    So, while the idea sounds powerful, it’s probably not going to cause the big change people are hoping for. We’ll just keep shopping as usual, and companies will keep humming along without much of a financial hiccup. And hey, maybe people will even forget about the whole thing after a week! This is nothing other than a “feel good” activity people can do, but it’s really not going to hurt any business in a significant way.

    If you REALLY want to have an effect, boycott a business over a long enough period that it shows up in their revenue reports. Of course, I expect “don’t buy gas for a year” to not be that feasible, so maybe the approach of limiting buying is just fundamentally flawed, especially with goods that you can’t live without, like gas or food.

    • Nougat@fedia.ioM
      4·
      1 day ago

      As always: all efforts, great and small.

      Other people have pointed out, and I will echo: there are plenty of people who have not yet been moved to take any action, and a “symbolic” action is something as opposed to nothing. People who decide to take this symbolic action are going to be more easily moved to take more directly effective action in the future.

      Building a critical mass takes time. Providing people with easy opportunities to experience involvement now will increase the number of people willing to take on greater risks later.

      This is why we don’t gatekeep resistance.

  • chaitae3@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 day ago

    I wouldn’t know how to distinguish all of these calls for protest lately from astroturfing campaigns.

    Are there really no institutions left in the US you can rally behind and who are big and experienced enough to call for organised protests? What are the biggest non-governmental progressive or liberal institutions in the US anyway?

  • KiloGex@lemmy.world
    15·
    2 days ago

    I honestly don’t know what the “don’t buy anything” protest is supposed to do. Everyone is going to buy extra stuff on the 27th and then just do all of their catch-up spending on the 29th. This isn’t going to affect companies at all.

    • stopdropandprole@lemmy.world
      14·
      2 days ago

      you have to crawl before you can walk.

      the point isn’t to impact companies… no one’s expecting a single day boycott to end capitalism. that’s ridiculous.

      small events leading up to bigger ones is part of growing a movement, of testing how far you can count on people to support your cause. these types of actions are test runs to see if people have any capacity whatsoever for organizing and acting together in unison.

      some leftists (other commenters in this thread who were gatekeeping) are too smart for their own good, and think that we can get millions to go on a general strike overnight or enact some dramatic v for vendetta moment. turns out, deeply individualist Americans conditioned by a lifetime of isolation and atomized existence need a little gradual coaxing sometimes.

    • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
      4·
      2 days ago

      It’s a show of support and organization. It’s a warning that “We are able to organize enough people to make this much of an impact for 1 day, if nothing changes then next time it will be longer.”

    • Sweetpeaches69@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 days ago

      It was something in Denver. There were tons of people, even in the snow. Many, many blocks were shut down. My 15 minute drive turned into an hour and some change just trying to get South of the Capitol. I saw a lot of news crews, too.

    • Majorllama@lemmy.world
      10·
      2 days ago

      I asked my little sister (19) who is pretty far left if she knew about any of these. She did not know about a single one.

      Part of the problem with an echo chamber is that no outside voices get in, BUT (and more relevant to this conversation) your voices also never leave because you guys only interact with other people who already share all your same opinions 24/7.

      None of these events will ever do anything if you can’t get other people involved.

      • ProtecyaTec@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 days ago

        That’s part of the problem with the media circle we’re in here in the U.S. - 4 of the richest American own and run 7/10 the most popular websites on the entire internet. The people who need to be reached won’t leave their platform because it’s all they know.

        The only way to actually reach people, to actually make change, is IRL. Write letters, attend protests, invite people to protests, encourage discussion outside an online space.

        • bier@feddit.nl
          1·
          1 day ago

          Hey that’s not true I also interact with people that have the same opinion on other social media 😉

        • Majorllama@lemmy.world
          4·
          2 days ago

          That’s certainly part of the problem. But my comment was more directed at these protests being planned almost exclusively in spaces that are already deeply saturated in left leaning opinions and people.

          This is like screaming about the dangers of Satanism while inside a mega church surrounded by people who already agree with you. Not gonna do much.

          But if you do that same screaming about satanism somewhere where you aren’t surrounded by people who already agree you have a much better chance of reaching a new audience.

          • flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            3·
            2 days ago

            My main problem with them is that they were on a federal goddamned holiday.

            Everyone met at empty state capitols to protest, in a way that would inconvenience and send a message to literally none of the people who should be receiving it.

      • astronaut_sloth@mander.xyz
        10·
        3 days ago

        It’s a start. Just boycotting for a week, while a small drop, serves two purposes. First (assuming it registers), it’s a warning shot to the powers that be saying, “We are asking politely that you pick our side. We will get less polite.” Second, it gets people who would otherwise not resist more comfortable with it. Just as with evil, if one can go from A to B then B to C because C is not much more than B, the same incremental approach can be used for pro-social behaviors, too. In other words, not buying from Amazon for a week makes it easier to talk to friends about resisting, which makes it easier to go to a march, which makes it easier to…so on and so forth.

        That said, I doubt that this will have much of an effect on Amazon or the other powers that be. If it registers, it will be a small blip. With continued action, that blip will grow.

      • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
        14·
        3 days ago

        If a lot of people do it, it could have a bigger impact than all 1000 of us or however many who are on a permanent boycott. You have to meet people where they are at and give them the next step in the process.

    • Donkter@lemmy.world
      12·
      3 days ago

      The fact that we can’t advocate for the only obvious solution shows that systematized mass censorship has worked, they just know where the line they really care about is.

      Maybe you could get away with it in some Lemmy instances, but any sort of mass organization around the issue would be done on platforms that would squelch the opposition before it even formed.

        • Donkter@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 days ago

          That’s my point. That program is even more esoteric than Lemmy and Lemmy already would not be a large enough platform to do anything with. Even if people might agree if you laid out a long list of arguments for the movement, you couldn’t get it in front of enough eyes because you’re not allowed to post it to Facebook or Twitter or YouTube.

    • Nougat@fedia.ioM
      5·
      2 days ago

      I’m old, and I don’t personally understand the “images of text” thing all the time, but the kids seem to like it.

      • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
        4·
        2 days ago

        Blind people can’t read it. Its disallowed by most communities. It can’t be indexed by search engines. It takes up unnecessary space. Users can’t find-in-page for the content or copy-and-paste to share it.

        Its bad in every way, and op should receive a temp ban for this.

        • Nougat@fedia.ioM
          14·
          2 days ago

          … op should receive a temp ban for this.

          <ModeratorHat>

          No.

          </ModeratorHat>

          • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
            4·
            2 days ago

            Yes. All they have to do is type the text if they want to share it here. Low effort posts of text in pictures is ban worthy

            • Nougat@fedia.ioM
              11·
              2 days ago

              <ModeratorHat>

              I refer you to my previous comment.

              Of course, you are welcome to start your own community, with blackjack and hookers, and ban whoever you like from it for whatever reasons you deem appropriate.

              </ModeratorHat>

            • Majorllama@lemmy.world
              0·
              2 days ago

              No I’m a realist.

              I am legally blind without my glasses.

              Nobody should get punished for not going out of their way to make something accessible for 1-2% of the population. At least not a random person on the Internet sharing a meme or whatever.

              Do you go around yelling at speaking people for not providing sign language translations for all the videos they share?

              Get real.

              • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
                0·
                2 days ago

                Lol wut. We dont expect people to translate it. The requirement is to copy and paste instead of screenshot.

                It’s not asking much. And bans are the best way to remind people that screenshots of text are not welcome here.

                • Nougat@fedia.ioM
                  1·
                  1 day ago

                  <ModeratorHat>

                  Bans are the best way to remind people that backseat moderating is not welcome here.

                  </ModeratorHat>

                • Majorllama@lemmy.world
                  2·
                  2 days ago

                  I hope that you never have any control over another soul. You sound like the type of person that would abuse the tiniest amount of power if given the opportunity.