this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
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This post is somewhat inspired by a recent post in this same community called "Is anyone else having trouble giving up Reddit due to content?"

I imagine "Reddit" will be a common answer. (And it's one of my answers.)

Another of my answers is "Hasbro." First Wizards of the Coast (a Hasbro subsidiary) tried to revoke an irrevokable license and screw over basically all 3rd-party publishers of D&D content, then they sent literal mercinaries to threaten one of their customers over an order mixup that wasn't even the customer's fault. D&D: Honor Among Thieves and the latest Transformers look really good, but those are within the scope of my boycott, so I won't be seeing those any time soon.

Third, Microsoft. (Apple too, but then I've never bought any Apple devices in my life, so it hardly qualifies as a boycott.) Just because of their penchant for using devices I own against me in every way they can imagine. And for really predatory business practices.

One boycott that I've ended was a boycott of Nintendo. I was pissed that they started marketing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (though it didn't have a name at the time) before the WiiU came out, prompting me to be an early adopter of the WiiU, and then when they actually released BotW, they dual-released it on WiiU and Switch. I slightly eased my boycott when the unpatchable Fusee Gilee vulnerability for the first batch of Switches was discovered. I wanted to get one of the ones I could hack and run homebrew on before they came out with a model that lacked the vulnerability.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

A little bit different, but Caseking will never get my business. They have a booth at Gamescom right now where you can race in a simrig and try to get the best time of the day. There is also a time of a pro which you can try to beat, and if you do and are the fastest at the end of the day you get a 200€ discount on Moza Racing.

Here comes the problem though, they ran the wrong game for more than half a day (AC instead of ACC) and when telling them that with the configuration of the circuit (Nürburgring with the slower chicane as the last to last corner) the time was simply impossible to beat. They just laughed at me and making it look like I had a skill-issue and am simply not good enough to beat the time. When I came back in the last hours they switched over to ACC but were driving a wrong, slower car making the challenge still not beatable. I tried to tell them this once again but they continued to just laugh and ignore me. If you ask me they dont want anybody to win the coupon and are just ripping people off

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Sweatshop clothes. Except for show merch but as most shows I go to are punk shows, they're usually pretty good about ethically sourced merch.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Fast / Branded fashion - When I was at grammar school there were attempts at bullying kids not wearing branded clothes. Attempts - because those days I was not only year older and head higher than any of my peers but also one pissed off boy scout. They say violence does not solve anything - I say there are exceptions. I don't wear clothes with any form of visible branding or statement. No matter if it is NIKE or similar piece of crap or some brand no one ever heard of. My backpack is the model bundeswehr used to use till the late 80s - re-stitched so many times it is probably a totally unique piece of luggage by now. My jeans are de-branded levis or wornstar bootcuts with reinforced crotch (iron-on patches), my jackets are by Polish company Helicon Tex - they mostly supply to military / police - their models are brand less single color rugged simple and big on pockets. I love Source sandals and linen pants for summer. It should be noted that my occupation does not require me to look respectable - I look like a used fiver - and everybody loves me.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't care how good the game looks, or how much I want it, or how deep the sale is.

I dont buy games from EA, or Ubisoft, and I don't buy anything from Nintendo or Sony.

Companies that actively hate its customers won't see a dime of my money.

Also Nestle, for what I hope are obvious reasons.. but its hard to avoid it since it hides itself in so many subsidiaries.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

My longest ongoing boycott is Nestle. I've probably bought a Nestle product by accident at some point or another, but if I see the logo or know it's a sub brand it's a no go. My newest boycott is LTT/LMG (Linus Media Group).

I left Reddit but I'm not sure if I would qualify that as boycotting. I don't browse there but I still use the search terms for niche information like I did in the past. Reading this thread I see a lot of boycotts that I agree with, but I wouldn't qualify as my own since I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary. Take Hobby Lobby, I've never had cause to go there so I've never gone there. If I had cause to go there, I would find an alternative but it's not like I'm actively going out of my way like I do to ignore Nestle products.

I still get Chick-fil-A occasionally, it's one thing I feel guilty about. Not often mind you, like once every few months, but growing up I had fun memories there with people I won't be able to make new memories with, so I find it comforting.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Oh there are a lot. Nestlé and Amazon are the most important ones. I can't really say I boycott social media such a Facebook or Instagram because I do not really care about them. Boycotting includes an active action for me

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

99% of my media consumpion (movies, tv series, books...) is, how do I put it, "free of charge"... so techincally I boycott anything that is not my local movie theater/library

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Boycotting is hard, because "no ethical consumption (etc).

That said, I boycott Wendy's and highly, HIGHLY encourage everyone else to do so as well because they still won't sit down with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and join the Fair Food Program.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Lol - wonder if this thread makes us a bunch of Karens.

In no particular order:

  • Reddit (obvious reasons)
  • My local KFC (three strikes on really, really shitty order fulfillment via Uber Eats, no fucks given when complaints lodged)
  • A pizza chain here in Australia - La Porchetta - for sucking people into a loyalty program where the points couldn't be redeemed via their shitty app
  • All social media sites except LinkedIn (there's still moderate value in professional networking) - I've even extended my boycott of Shit Tok to banning it on my home network (much to my teenagers' chagrin)
  • G2A.com because they fucked me over on a Xbox Live 12-month key after alleging my PayPal account was deemed a "payment risk", yet they still spam me with emails on a weekly basis
  • Netflix after they said they'd still charge me for password sharing when my stepkids use our account at the dad's place, even thought they're part of my household

Boycotts I've ended:

  • My mother (not a nice person, but my daughter deserves to have a relationship with her last living grandparent)

Boycotts I wish I had the strength/ability/motivation to implement:

  • Big tech
  • Nestle
  • (my daughter's use of) Roblox
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Roblox use extremely predatory tactics for children on top of being riddled with child predator. Go download Minecraft or one of the open source clones and let her use those instead.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I've been boycotting Apple for the past fifteen years. I tend to avoid any systems that are closed or proprietary by design. It's becoming increasingly difficult to adhere to this principle due to the profit motives for this practice. Notable examples of late are electric car chargers. You would imagime that there are different electrons in your battery compared with other people's but no, physics is truly universal. It's the car makers that dream up these differences and create incompatible battery interfaces. Compare that with petroleum products, one can fill a tank anywhere and it works the same, as it should do.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Cars - Even if it makes my life extremely difficult in today's day and age, I've decided to try my best not getting/buying a car. I'm in Europe, so this is much easier to do than in US, and I want to see how far can I go with a bike or public transport only.

Blizzard, Bungie, Activision, Bethesda (at least titles developed by them) - anti consumer practices, even though some of the games are definitely good. As for Bethesda, I still would be down to buy games published but not developed by them, though the only one I've ever gotten was Dishonored.

Google and Microsoft - terrible privacy, tries to monopolize things. Actual evil companies and I don't really like them, switched them out completely from my daily desktop life and I couldn't be happier.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

-> Nestlé (obviously)

-> Nintendo, despite their friendly appearance and their quality games they are one of the worst game companies of all time. They openly spit in the face of their fans and persecute anyone trying to make something good out of their creations (Melee, Pokemon uranium) or breaking their DRM filled proprietary walled garden (looking at gary bowser). Im a huge pokemon fan but i only play on emulators or foss projects like showdown so as to carefully not give them anything.

-> Amazon literally the devil and symbol of exploitation/over consumerism, never forgetting the working conditions of their employees in my country and everywhere else.

-> Tencent, Lenovo, Oneplus, Huawei, and all the others. Obvious.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago
  • DRM because it is feudalism, theft, and a disgusting violation of the fundamental unalienable human right of ownership.
  • Autodesk I experienced Eagle. -Extortionists
  • Subscription software
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@TootSweet Its said a modern human can't live without using Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and f*ckbook.
They dominate that much of our lives.

Wanted to change this notion. So I don't use a single Big Tech service. Why? How about-

  1. Their monopoly which stifles innovation
  2. Their potential influence which can meddle in anything from politics to even your day to day life decisions
  3. Worst of all, their privacy record
  4. Addiction problems, especially in kids

Hope that's good enough

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I'm not sure "boycott" is the right word, but I refuse to pay for games that have microtransactions in them.

I also won't have anything to do with Hasbro in general and D&D specifically until they issue a public apology for the halfling art in 5e. I'm only half kidding.

I have a local grocery chain I only go to when I'm desperate because the president of the company is an absolute shit bag of a human being, and because they have armed guards confronting shoplifters, which is really fucking dystopian if you ask me.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Fast food. It's all disgusting fucking garbage, the customer service is horrible, delivery services rip you off non-stop, and their business practices are completely unethical and cruel. So I decided, "fuck them all" and started cooking for myself. Nowadays I make food that's leaps and bounds ahead of that pig swill I used to gulp down, even comparable to a lot of restaurants.

You don't actually need most businesses to survive, especially food service. Food service is arguably the easiest aspect of society to gain true independence from.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The state of Florida. They don't need my tourist dollars right now. When they can figure out state government again, I'll consider spending my money there. They have no shortage of tourists, but I know it's not my money propping up that insanity.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Pokemon go, since they upped the price of remote raids and made waaay harder for people like me out in a remote town to fully participate I’ve not been back. Which sucks because I really liked collecting pokemon with it. But I kept getting the feeling that the company hated me. Well it doesnt seem to like any of its users, but it especially didn’t like the ones in locations like mine. So I left and refuse to go back.

Also a local art shop , the owner was really snobby and said I couldnt afford the paint I was after. She was correct but still, not nice to make me feel bad about it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm still boycotting Blizzard for the Hong Kong thing. Then they kept piling on more reasons.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm boycotting them because they haven't made a good game in about 20 years.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

EA and Ubisoft.

Most clothing brands... I'm not paying a premium to be a walking advertisement and its all made in sweatshops anyway. I'd rather some non branded stuff so I'm contributing less to that whole system.

I dont care about all of the android watch or apple airtag stuff either. The new phone can do xyz.. Great still dont care as its a tracking piece of shit that will break in a few years.. I may as well keep my current piece of shit until the wheels fall off.

Subscription services. I used to use Netflix back in the day when you only needed one subscription and changing the DNS still worked.

I use free Spotify with brave adblocking and newpipe for music. I hear sailing is lovely this time of year.

TLDR: I avoid most corporations where I can , I think valve are the only one that I dont mind interacting with.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Nestlé and big chocolate brands such as Hershey. I doubt they'll stop their human rights violations until they face actual repercussions so I'm probably gonna keep it that way.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Amazon - that dude has already enough money

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Reddit, Epic Games Store

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I stopped using Apple products since the time when they convert my mp3s to an iTunes derivative. Never buying/using Apple again.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Too many to list, here are a couple of mine:

Companies that support Russia's war in Ukraine by doing business and paying taxes in Russia. Leroy Merlin is one of them, I used to spend a lot in their store. I use Zrada app on my Android phone to track these companies and avoid them.

Apple - mainly because they fight against customer's right to repair their devices. Also, I prefer devices that are easy service and upgrade and I feel they steered the industry away from that.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Anything Tencent or Bytedance.

Every western country bashes Tiktok but it's owned by these companies, and their holdings are in the thousands of apps and games including Reddit and Discord.

They're just data mining companies and anywhere the CCP has access to your data is a problem.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I'm still boycotting Wizards of the Coast over the OGL drama. In addition to being against open and shared content in their game system, I was getting tired of their half baked books with no substance coming so frequently that I just couldn't keep up with it. When they announced their own Virtual Tabletop software, I knew it was only a matter of time before you couldn't even play D&D 5e on another platform so I bailed and I'm not looking back.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Twitter, barilla, chik-fil-a, hobby lobby, papa johns, reddit

Twitter is a cess pool and reddit is bafflingly going down the same path. Barilla attempted to change its image but I dont trust anything that suddenly claims to care once money is involved. Chik-fil-a and hobby lobby are still run by religious nutbars and I dont see a point in going to papa johns after years of going elsewhere and making my own pizza when I feel like it. Also they died off immediately in my area after the controversy came out lol. So I'd have to go out of my way to eat there.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

There’s no way some of the stuff itt is actually boycotts.

Boycotts are organized and have specific goals and demands. Not buying nestle products isn’t a boycott because whats the demand, that they break up? Pirating media or blocking ads isn’t a boycott both because it’s not organized (in the political sense, not the semantic sense) and there’s no demand.

There’s nothing wrong with not buying nestle stuff or piracy but they’re not boycotts.

Also boycotts don’t work on their own. They gotta be paired with a protest movement, the more militant the better (the option of boycotting covers the non-militant bases).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Reddit, because… you know.

Walmart, people I know who’ve worked there were not treated well… and then there’s the plopping down in a town/city and hurting the local business just cause…

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Several things but the most interesting one to others might be Firehouse Subs. Got treated like shit at one over a decade ago and have boycotted ever since.

I guess I've effectively boycotted McDonald's too. I'd rather go without food than go to McDonald's. Doesn't taste good so I'd rather not waste my money.

I've had to tell friends several times that I don't eat at these places.

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