28 Comments
Oct 26, 2022·edited Oct 26, 2022

Amazon. Amazon. How can I cut the cord? Before my surgery this year, I was trapped in my home for 7 years (thru the pandemic too) and grew to depend on delivery services for my office and personal needs. Amazon loomed large. They have all manner of products available at for the most part, acceptable pricing. But do I want to provide further fuel to this behemoth? No, I think not. It's difficult but I am going to make the effort to change my consumption footprint. They won't notice until enough people do the same, but the effort has to begin somewhere, sometime. Why not here & now? We have to fight back against these oligarchs with whatever means at hand, lest the situation worsen. Maybe it will get worse anyway, but I plan to go down swinging.

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I have weaned myself from Amazon 60 to 65% of the time. This reinvigorates me to go for 90%. There are companies out there striving really hard online to be as fast and serviceable as Amazon. I feel guilt when I use Amazon. I need to turn that guilt into action and Find other venues or reassess if I really need what it is I’m ordering

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Oct 26, 2022·edited Oct 26, 2022

Good for you. I was thinking that I have slowed down some and you are inspiring me to try for a greater ratio. Right now its been roughly 20-25% but dammit, I can do better. Thank you for sharing your experience.

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They're not always the cheapest (they used to be) and lots of other stores are also online now so I avoid them 99% of the time. But it's really hard to cut that cord completely.

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So like always, these corporations lied and only cared about public perception. Like anything else, with the passage of time people forget. Amazon and these other corporations are depending on it. I just saw an ad by Tim Ryan in Ohio last night. Best ad I've seen for a democrat in the last decade. It looked like a republican ad. It was attacking JD Vance and had his voting record for China and his face plastered in front of a Chinese flag. Some people might say "when they go low, you go high" or some other stupid saying that doesn't actually work in the real world. It was a great ad. We need more ads like this on the left. They work!

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telling the truth about vance isn't going low. Tim Ryans ads are accurate, whereas GOP lies and makes up fake issues-like CRT or trans kids in sports(oh you mean all 3 of the middle schoolers is a problem?, ANTIFA, full term abortions, groomers in schools... You dont really need to go low when your opponent said women should stay with domestic abusers, takes money from a sociopath, and wants a national total abortion ban-you just tell the truth. What we need is better media.

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I completely agree. But you know there's a crowd of people out there who would say Ryan went to far. I say bologna. If the right is going to continue to lie, the least we can do on the left is put out hard hitting ads like Ryan did. I need to see more of this. The left always loses the war in the media. This is a good start to fight back.

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I agree Jake. This is the way to go. Illinois Dems also have hard hitting ads. About time, I say!

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Maybe Democrats do better when they don’t act like Republicans. Ryan lost and it may have been because he acted like a Republican a bit too much.

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Possibly, but it's hard to out flip-flop JD Vance. I think the problem here in Ohio is that most people are hardcore right wingers. They'll be regretting their Vance vote soon enough. He's not going to spend any time in Ohio. He wanted to be famous and make money. He doesn't care about Ohio and that will be proven over his term.

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I enjoyed seeing Ryan come after Vance….it was good to see. He totally deserved it.

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It is difficult to cut the cord to these behemoths but I have had some success. I live in a big city so it is easier for me but all holiday shopping is done at street fairs and independent stores. I buy hand made soaps, lotions, unique earrings, art work, chocolates, scarves, gloves on and on. Buy people unique gifts that they can use. I’ve also purchased bed throws that are hand made and use Etsy and other businesses where the money goes directly to the artist.

But I’m stuck with Comcast, who we despise and other companies for certain clothing items etc.

We need the clothing industry back and other manufacturing. Thank you Judd, for your informative research. We must continue to humiliate these companies who support terrorism, nationalism and sedition.

The fact that Amazon said that Jan 6 was months ago, as if it didn’t count as much is an atrocity.

Spread the word of this list.

I’ve given up certain food brands that support rt wing…Amy’s frozen foods and others.

But we need massive response to these shameful companies.

I hope others have suggestions.

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Time wounds all heels. Amazon my a**.

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Amazon saying it would stop donating to MOCs who voted to overturn the election and then turning around and saying, "Yeah, well, we didn't mean stopping forever" is such craven BS. Corporate accountability is a complete oxymoron at this point.

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Shopping at amazon.com has been in my rearview mirror for about 2-1/2 years now. I maintain a boycott of them because of their initial involvement in helping Trump's administration store data using their cloud services, this when migrants were being routinely mistreated and abused at detention facilities across the nation. You can find reasonable alternatives (in real life or on the internet) for most everything you shop amazon.com for. It can be done. I'm living proof. Ta, Amazon.

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I stopped using Amazon years ago and don't miss it.

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We were already doomed in this system, but Citizens United really fucked this all to hell.

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I recently read that $13billion is being spent in support of Republicans this election season. $6 billion for Democrats. Dark money is the the biggest source (86%) with no traceable accounting, but corporate PACs, CEO’s and other corporate execs are in the mix. My small dollar donations can have little impact, since we know that the biggest spenders are the usually the winners (avg 91% of the time.) Advertising works, especially as we get closer to elections. Democracy has had a good run in the US, but our radical Supreme Court, along with decades of the right wing effort to capture the media and take control of state legislatures (gerrymandering, voter suppression) have allowed money to manipulate and corrupt our politic. Democracy is not being threatened; it no longer exists. I’m crushed and despondent about the future of my country for me, my children, and grandchildren.

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Mega Corps are truly grotesque. We need antitrust action against amazon, Walmart, et al. These companies and their billionaire backers have far too much power. Thanks Judd for pointing out always that every single corp is a soulless, faceless, bloodsucker with no morality. They are destroying democracy and causing more than 50% of inflation with their total market control-wish Dems other than Katie Porter would bang this drum more and legacy media would actually report on 70 yr high corp profits.

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Katie Porter is epic!

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Amazon’s move is different from many of the others we’ve discussed. At least as I recall, many other company PACs that you’ve followed have given to funds (like RGA) that support multiple candidates as opposed to openly singling out individual candidates. Unless they’ve given equally to the other candidates in those races, this move is blatant support of these candidates’ positions. The question continues to be what we can do about it. Boycotting Amazon is a non-starter and everyone knows it.

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Oct 26, 2022·edited Oct 26, 2022

Yeah, I'm afraid my bold stance may not last long enough to make any difference at all.

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Well, my Amazon account got hacked in September. More incentive to cut back on Amazon!

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Love your reporting.

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Oct 27, 2022·edited Oct 27, 2022

No, it's really not. And comments like this are part of the problem. Only one party tried to overthrow the government. Only one party tries to prevent people from voting. Only one party is trying to control women's bodies. Only one party is trying to install authoritarianism. They should get nothing. Who the F*CK cares how some corporation tries to "balance" the scales? The country is sinking.

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Only one party indeed. Of course, I would like to know of companies that don't cater to the criminal republican element. I would much prefer to patronize their stores and/or sites.

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Actually, you spoke of parties, just using difference language. Not sure what your point is otherwise. Yes, Citizens United is destroying our democracy, but that is the world we are currently living in.

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Oct 26, 2022·edited Oct 26, 2022

Precisely. They are jut spreading around the "heung yau" ("fragrant grease"). But in doing so presumably to ensure their bottom lines' health and longevity, they fuel the worst examples of corrupted and corrupting leadership we've seen in many years. They are in fact, choosing to betray their country in order to do business. There is something terribly wrong with this practice.

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