The case for boycotting the United States | Robert Reich

I started boycotting everything America like 5 weeks ago Mr. Reich, and that was before the US started disappearing dissidents, and deporting innocent people to prisons in El Salvador. I'm glad smart people seem to agree with me. I'm glad my countrymen agree with me.

And yeah, I did it because Trump insulted and threatened my home. But I won't necessarily stop when he's gone. Depends how he goes. America rises up, arrests him and his cronies and cleans house - then maybe we regain some trust.

In the more likely event he dies of a stroke later this year and his regime tears itself apart with infighting- then it isn't really "Donald Trump's America", I have a problem with. The US is, to put it mildly, an unreliable and volatile nation and we won't be trusting or dealing with them again any time soon.

As a USian, please please boycott the fuck out of my country, it has completely gone off the rails.

Do not trust the US to function at a basic level for the forseeable future.

Already there.

Signed, A Canadian

Please boycott the fuck out of us - an anti-fascist american

If things go on long enough, I'm curious about what will happen with the 2028 Olympics in LA. I wonder if it'll be a situation similar to the 1980 Moscow Olympics

Oh hey, it's Sam Reich's dad!

Looking over my finances, I have three things I still directly pay for:

Steam (though I last bought a game months ago), Nebula, and various google services. Google is really hard to get around for a number of reasons in my current situation. I rely on voice for 2fa for my banks in the US (though I'm hoping they eventually support authy or something). Losing those US accounts is not possible right now (in the worst case, using a US payment method and address may make steam revoke my entire existing game collection for being outside the rights/distribution area I bought from).

Nebula feels bad. I really like supporting several of those creators and love their content. I may continue to support them.

I had one other thing I'm letting expire.

Other than that, my domains are already through a European registrar and I think everything else is Japanese.

BDS for the USA! Go for the head of the hydra. tRump is a symptom, not the disease. The USA’s crony/criminal/hyper capitalism is the real problem, tRump has just dropped the mask. The USA has always been a genocidal, imperialist, patriarchal oligarchy, it is long past time the world wakes up to that reality.

And it will STILL be what it is when tRump is gone.

This is somewhat unrelated but I thought it’s worth mentioning cause it’s something that I’ve recently heard from people whom I’ve met. I just need to get it out so that maybe I feel a bit better.

As much as I support this motion, the reality is that there are people who also don’t really care about humans rights or democracy, especially cause they come from countries that do not champion or even prize these concepts. And so they are either used to a world without one, or simply do not think they matter given that worldview. They too may wish for a peaceful life, but personal freedom is optional, and especially when that lack of freedom applies to everyone. They will gladly conform to whatever playing rules there is set out by the powerful so that they can live their own fulfilling lives, not (directly) helping those in power, but also not against them.

This isn’t to say that I support that notion. I think they shouldn’t think that way, as I believe personal freedom would be a better guarantee of not just their own peaceful lives, but also those of their families and especially their children, and for their future generations. It isn’t the only way to live, but it’s an easier path for humanity going forward, instead of having to rely on, in a sense, cunningness to stay alive, and that those without those smarts, or perhaps a little too much courage, to die in vain.

Here I am listening to these people talk about how life isn’t too bad back in their home country, where while they are threatened by their government should they ever say something out of line, they don’t ever plan to say or do things that are out of line and so they’ll mostly be fine. They even believe that they’ll have a pretty good chance at life migrating to Russia’s far east, where they’ll be somewhat outside of the ebbs and flows of Moscow, while having fresh new opportunities.

It’s somewhat sickening to me, so I needed to let it out. I don’t find fault with their way of thinking, but this sort of pessimistic and self-centric worldview makes me feel like the human world has no value existing or worth protecting; we’d literally be no different from animals.

I’m sure this comment will attract all sorts of unwanted attention. I may read replies, if there are any, but I’ll probably ignore them.

Don’t do this because it “sends America a message.” You are one person, your decision to spend tourist dollars has a negligible effect. You do not make a difference to them.

To whatever extent an aggregate message is felt by Americans, it will be spun by their King as justification for the preexisting messaging about how the world is against them. This messaging will almost certainly be successful — it’s always easier to blame others than look inward. Americans are not exceptional, and will respond to these messages the same way people did in the days of 1930s fascism and in modern China and Russia.

So no; don’t boycott America to send them a message.

Instead, boycott American tourism and products and companies for yourself. It will feel good for your soul. It feels good to stand up for yourself, to stand with your neighbours, with your countrymen, and with our allies around the world. In a world where we can feel like powerless pawns in a game played by evil behemoths — we can at least do what’s right and feel good about that.