How do you get people who can’t see themselves boycotting indefinitely? You get them used to it by getting them on board to boycott for a fixed length of time. Ideally, as they warm up to the idea, you get them to boycott for longer.
True, but 7 days isn’t enough time for that. I’ve gone weeks between purchasing the kinds of things Amazon delivers, so it’d just be normal. 2+ months is probably better. Especially if those months are Nov & Dec.
Yeah but it lets people feel like they’ve boycotted. Which isn’t coddling/faux activism so much as it is starter-activism.
We don’t want activism to seem hard… even though we know that effective activism pretty much requires meaningful changes to behaviour which often brings discomfort.
People are really out of practice and our goal is getting people into the habit
I think it will more have the effect of “I did a boycott now I don’t have to do anything” and people like this will then get to feel good about doing absolutely nothing.
I really don’t hold out hope anymore when I see shit like this, people aren’t going to do anything unless they become VERY UNCOMFORTABLE and VERY SUDDENLY. Posts like this depress the fuck out of me.
Towing of the platform to its final position began on 11 June. By this time, the call for a boycott of Shell products was being heeded across much of continental northern Europe, damaging Shell’s profitability as well as brand image. […]
On 20 June, Shell had decided that their position was no longer tenable, and withdrew their plan to sink the Brent Spar […]
So it needed more than a week of concerted boycott action to bring big business into trouble, but not unlimited boycott.
That boycott had a demand attached, to prevent the sinking of the Brent Spar buoy. Effectively “unlimited” boycott until Shell gave into the demand.
This and the last no shop Friday thing seem mostly pointless. I mean fuck Amazon for sure but shouldn’t there be some goal? “Boycott Amazon until X, Y, and Z” not “No buy from Amazon for a week but then we’ll be back so no worries!”
A whole 7 days??? Gosh gee willakers!!! You think people can uphold a boycott a whole 7 days???
Look. Boycotts are effective, but you gotta be stubborn. It’s gotta be “boycott from now on” with no end date.
Otherwise, it’ll just look like normal fluctuations in their business.
“Oh, this week was slightly down…ah, but then it stopped. We’re good!”
But if you boycott forever, then their numbers continuously go down. And if you get other people boycotting, those numbers go down faster.
THAT’S how you make an impact.
How do you get people who can’t see themselves boycotting indefinitely? You get them used to it by getting them on board to boycott for a fixed length of time. Ideally, as they warm up to the idea, you get them to boycott for longer.
True, but 7 days isn’t enough time for that. I’ve gone weeks between purchasing the kinds of things Amazon delivers, so it’d just be normal. 2+ months is probably better. Especially if those months are Nov & Dec.
Some people can’t even handle a 1-day boycott. I think you’re overestimating the average person’s tolerance for discomfort.
I don’t even understand what people buy so often. I can easily go a month without buying a new physical item that’s not like, food
Yeah but it lets people feel like they’ve boycotted. Which isn’t coddling/faux activism so much as it is starter-activism. We don’t want activism to seem hard… even though we know that effective activism pretty much requires meaningful changes to behaviour which often brings discomfort. People are really out of practice and our goal is getting people into the habit
I think it will more have the effect of “I did a boycott now I don’t have to do anything” and people like this will then get to feel good about doing absolutely nothing.
I really don’t hold out hope anymore when I see shit like this, people aren’t going to do anything unless they become VERY UNCOMFORTABLE and VERY SUDDENLY. Posts like this depress the fuck out of me.
In 1995 we boycotted Shell for environmental reasons and it worked: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Spar
So it needed more than a week of concerted boycott action to bring big business into trouble, but not unlimited boycott.
That boycott had a demand attached, to prevent the sinking of the Brent Spar buoy. Effectively “unlimited” boycott until Shell gave into the demand.
This and the last no shop Friday thing seem mostly pointless. I mean fuck Amazon for sure but shouldn’t there be some goal? “Boycott Amazon until X, Y, and Z” not “No buy from Amazon for a week but then we’ll be back so no worries!”
The implicit demand is to stop supporting fascists.
for a week