#stop using amazon

[averyrosyyear]

Stop using Amazon!

I have been really frustrated lately with the blind spot people seem to have about Amazon, especially people who are "good liberals" and probably vote democratic and think they are on the right side of history, yet use Amazon without thinking very much about it at all. The degree to which we are pleased to exchange our values in action for what we perceive to be convenience is disappointing.

Amazon is so integrated into so much of the internet, Amazon Web Services notwithstanding. I am thinking about it again for two reasons. First, I had a long conversation with my sister about it this weekend, and we talking about convenience and the value of any type of action. We were talking about how much people order from Amazon, and how easy it is to throw something in your cart for two day shipping. She said, well what do you do? You still shop at Wal-Mart probably, or Target? And I said yes, sometimes I do. But sometimes I order from Swim Outlet instead of buying goggles on Amazon. I go to Dicks a lot more, which is a business that started locally. I order coffee from Deans Beans. It's a mild pain in the ass, but it is a very small amount of friction and I think that's okay. It's okay to not have things in your hand 3 hours after they pop into your head. I also sometimes just don't buy stuff. I think about the stuff and then I just don't buy it and that's okay too. Also, two day shipping doesn't exist for me anymore even when using Prime! It never came back in my area after covid, so half the time anything I would order on Amazon arrives in about the same time as anything else.

Amazon has a patina of convenience and ease. It purports to offer a frictionless shopping experience, but this isn't true. It has predatory and monopolistic business practices and the convenience it offers wanes by the day.

My sister also made the very good point that if lots of people absent mindedly put one or two items in their carts to order from Amazon and think it's no big deal, we should apply that same logic to acts of goodness or service. We often get paralyzed wondering how to do good things and help these days, but doing one good thing, or taking one action here and there adds up.

Secondly, there is a blogger I follow who makes a point to link books through bookshop dot org, which is a good website. She talks about supporting your local bookstore and she just posted today a massive list of her favorite amazon prime day purchases. I have like 4 disparate items that I wanted to buy before my trip next week, so I was looking to see if they were on Amazon so I could get them quickly. I forgot it's Prime Day or Week or whatever, and almost every item was like $15 cheaper if I just signed up for Prime at the same time. So many influencers post huge lists of their favorite Prime Day deals! These are people who would probably identify as democrats or even progressives and are just being fucking obtuse and not connecting the dots. Why is that? Why volunteer yourself to write up an unbidden multi-page ad for Amazon? I know the answer to that. They have affiliate programs and they profit from the links. They have an Amazon Storefront where they get money when their followers buy. Even charity orgs set up Amazon Wishlist where people can purchase things for others in need.

Amazon gets a pass when it absolutely should not. Their labor practices are abhorrent. They have begun their own shipping company but do not pay taxes to support the roads they place wear and tear upon. They do not offer health insurance, so they contribute to the general weakening of the US healthcare system. They do not offer fair wages, which results in stress on social services in the communities in which they operate. They are contributing significantly to excess waste in the environment. Prime Video is shit and Amazon music is fuckin stupid. Bezos was at the inauguration.

Why do they get a pass? Why do people who otherwise think they care about things like the environment, labor practices and local health care have this persistent blind spot when it comes to Amazon?

STOP USING AMAZON! Cancel PRIME!

You probably won't be perfect at it, I know I am not. I still order a few times a year. Sometimes I make the choice for convenience. But what the fuck! At least we can all agree to try!

[rollerska8er]

I FUCKING LOVE PAYING EXTRA TO BUY BOOKS AND GOODS INSTEAD OF BUYING THEM CHEAP THROUGH AMAZON. I FUCKING LOVE KNOWING THAT THE GOODS I'M BUYING WILL BE DELIVERED BY UNIONISED POSTAL WORKERS AND NOT EXPLOITED AMAZON DELIVERY WORKERS.

[bvckbiter]

fandom talks too little about hylla and reyna. reyna killed her father when she thought he'd killed hylla. hylla dragged them out of puerto rico and found them sanctuary and employment on circe's island AND became one of circe's favorites. then when they got captured by blackbeard hylla also got them out of that situation by out-pirating literal immortal pirates. then in a span of three years, they split up, found their own ways to the amazons and cj, and became the leaders of their respective factions. when hylla's queenship was being threatened by otrera in son, she plotted a counter-coup and defeated an amazon queen who couldn't die two nights in a row in one-on-one combat, THEN led her cavalry to camp jupiter. (ik this woman slept like a corpse for a week afterwards). hylla used reyna as an absolutely ruthless bait-and-switch to capture orion, and all reyna said in response to that was, "bet." reyna carries insurmountable amounts of both guilt and gratitude towards her sister. even though they havent seen each other in a while, hylla still drops everything and does everything in her power to save her baby sister when she knows reyna needs her.

[dykedvonte]

I'm sorry the Brotherhood of Steel is so goofy in the show but the idea that not a single member thought "Maybe we should use a ball instead of fucking rocks" to play post-apocalyptic basketball is so funny and in character for how the BoS operates in general.

[gnomewithalaptop]

Damn, I really thought I was about to make some crazy observation here and connect the dots that Hercules was the one who gave Cassie the costume she ends up using for her Titans of Tomorrow Evil Arc, but alas, DC in 2007 was simply not on my level

[catz4ever]

Just found out today that our beautiful Sam Hazeldine is 52 years old.

I'm sorry... 😳

WHAT!?! EXCUSE ME?!

He's two years older than Joseph Mawle and walking around like this?!

[sadbeautifutragic]

lately i've been getting into youtube videos that discuss social media/tech and all i can think about is this one person who said that convenience culture has stripped us of our ability to have spontaneous and genuine moments

[wulfhalls]

GIRLIE NEEDS TO CHILL A BIT (no <3)

SAME PICTURE SAME PICTURE SAME PICTURE!!!!!!!!!!!

[aropride]

ordered masks from my local mask bloc in early march and they usually take ~a month to ship but i hadnt gotten mine when i moved out in mid may and i havent gotten a call from the school abt a package being there for me so . thats awesome :( they also havent updated their instagram since january so idek if theyre even active

[villain-byteniwoha]

dc did not need to hammer this much tension between clark and diana in the batman ninja vs yakuza league 😭😭😭

[lagaans]

i have really started to hate the phrase "consuming media". i kind of understand why it's gotten to be so heavily used but i think this should join the growing list of concepts where we need to go back to just saying what we mean! reading books playing games watching performances listening to music and podcasts and stories !!

[shannonpurdyjones]

Holy shiitttt go off Melville House

(screenshot from Melville House Books email to indy bookstores and booksellers)

^^^THIS is why we say support small indie presses.

Big companies are already caving left and right to this administration. Even from the bigger publishing houses we're seeing fewer political books in their catalogs for the next year, though they are standing up in other good ways.

But small presses like Melville House Books can take risks like this^^ in their commitment to our right to freely access information.

Support small presses, indy bookstores, and libraries. They are on the front lines of free press and free information these next four years.

[im-goin-mad]

hear me out

[burning2know]

i made the mistake of looking up Temu on tumblr

[ace-malarky]

The problem with having been impulsive enough in my teens to like. throw some short stories up onto amazon kdp for the hell of it is that I now have that penname attached to my author account as my Real One which is.

anyway yeah I just had to email amazon to go "can you please change this penname that's more of an insult than my name ever was, because I can't attach the Literal Book I Published (for the bit also but come on) to my account" will the problems around having changed my name never end

[kuurosakiis]

I promise I ain't dead. Just been a bit focused on something else. I got a therapist now, at least.