Inspired by acquisition of power yesterday by a corrupt tyrant and his possie of xenophobic chronies, people should be reminded that the voting is not over because you can vote in the consumer market every day for the next 4 years. Everyone in the world can participate in this voting process (despite ALEC’s effort to reduce democracy).
ALEC¹ is the extreme right lobby and bill mill. This org writes bills for Congress conservatives to:
- reduce environmental protection and neuter the EPA
- fight immigration, push xenophobia
- proliferate and privatize prisons
- privatize education
- reduce public healthcare
- reduce tax regs (individual & corp)
- neuter the CFPB
- suppress voting (e.g. tightening id rules)
- weaken labor unions
- reduce gun control
- mask corporate tampering in politics
They have a close hand-in-hand relationship with the NRA and they finance republican war chests.
These are some of the well-known ALEC members, all of whome I boycott:
- AmEx (American Express)
- Anheuser Busch
- Boeing ← also rampant safety scandals
- Bose
- Century Link
- Charter Communications
- Chevron ← also caught financing the cloakroom project to hide meetings between republican politicians and corporations; also uses AI from Microsoft to find oil
- Farmers/Foremost
- FedEx ← also known to ship shark fins, hunting trophies, and slave dolphins
- Geico
- LMG (Liberty Mutual/Safeco)
- Marlboro (Philip Morris)
- Motorola ← also equips the Israeli Defense Forces
- Nationwide Insurance
- PNC bank
- Sony ← also caught using GPL code in their DRM code
- State Farm
- Texaco
- TimeWarner (Spectrum)
- UPS
Most of these ALEC members finance ALEC particularly for its anti-union lobby. But it’s a package deal. They finance thw whole of ALEC and all its activity.
There was also a “grab your wallet” project to track all Trump’s assets for boycotting Trump directly, but I don’t know if that’s being updated anymore. There is a link to a google docs spreadsheet (yikes!) but I think it’s a decade old by now.
¹American Legislative Exchange Council
This is where oligopolies and monoplies REALLY fuck us.
Two out of three parcel carriers most Americans use are on this list.
Nevermind that most people in the U.S. don’t have a say in their internet provider, leaving CenturyLink and Charter laughing all the way to the bank.
Indeed some of those are for die-hard boycotters.
For internet, I think both fiber and cable are monopolistic shitshows. But I think DSL is commonly on offer with a choice of providers. In those cases the underlying copper owner is often a baddy but at least they are getting a smaller piece of the transaction. I personally would sooner use dial-up than support an ALEC member. Worth noting a rarely known decent option: WISPs (wireless). Some cities have a small WISP where they install a terrestrial microwave dish on your roof.
Another option is to talk to your neighbor and share a connection. Surprisingly, it does not necessarily violate any contractual rules. I once asked a Spectrum (Time Warner) worker who was working on the installation at a family member’s place: “what if we cancel and share the neighbor’s connection?” He said that’s fine with him… that it breaks no rules.
Mobile internet over GSM is also an option for some. AT&T and Verizon are both shitty but internet from T-Mobile would be a lesser of evils in some regions.
Back when I was willing to shop online, merchants would sometimes not even disclose who their courier is. I would add a note to my order saying “ship this USPS, or cancel the order if that’s not possible”.
(edit) A good bit of inspiration can be drawn from reading Tim Wu’s tyranny of convenience essay. Because convenience and boycotts are often at odds.
I appreciate your recommendations and sharing the essay!