Kim du Toit has an interesting article about how he’s responding to the tidal wave of political correctness and “wokeness” being forced upon us by Big Tech and Big Business. Here’s an excerpt.
In light of recent events (Amazon’s GoDaddy whacking ar15.com, [Twitter] delisting Trump and so on — you all know what I’m talking about), I did a couple of things yesterday to try to disentangle myself from these ***holes as much as possible.
- When I re-register this website, it will be with GoDaddy’s competitor. I discussed it at some length with Tech Support II, and it will be done.
- I’ve never used [Twitter] or [Facebook], so that’s okay. I’m probably not going to go with Gab or Parler, because I’m not interested in having an online “social presence” other than through this website, which I can control.
- If Hosting Matters shuts me down because of doubleplusungood thought- and speech crimes, Tech Support has a backup plan so that won’t affect me either, other than as a mild irritation while the handover is completed.
- Ditto WordPress.
- I canceled my Amazon Prime account. This will be a little inconvenient in that I won’t have access to their movies and such, but I’ll survive with Hulu and Roku, albeit with commercial irritation. Netflix is also under review for similar reasons.
- Most of the stuff I order from Amazon can be purchased locally or through the various companies’ own websites, so I’ll be doing that too. On the very few occasions where I must use Amazon, I’ll just pay the postage.
- Ditto Walmart, Target and so on. I’ve had it up to here with seeing “Made in China” on everything, so every time I find that irritant, I’m going to find a manager and tell them why I’m not buying from them today. Or I’ll only buy stuff made in other Asian countries e.g. Thailand if there’s absolutely no American-made equivalent. Or I’ll just do without.
- I already ditched Chrome; last night I ditched Mozilla and went with Brave.
- Today I’m going to ditch Thunderbird and go with ProtonMail, as soon as I’ve figured it out.
- I long ago stopped using the Google search engine, swapping it for DuckDuck Go, so that’s done. DDG isn’t quite as good, but it’s sufficient for my needs.
- Now I need to find something equivalent to Google Maps so I can ditch those assholes too. Any advice on this will be welcome.
I’m quite aware that this is like pissing in the wind, that I’m only one guy etc. Longtime Readers, however, will know the precept behind the Nation of Riflemen: turning America back into a nation of riflemen, one citizen at a time. The same applies to me, as an individual: I’m just one guy, but one of many such guys.
If my one action helps other people disentangle themselves from Big Tech, maybe, just maybe we can make a difference. Regardless, I’m not going to support their ****ing enterprises if there is any alternative — even if as noted above, the alternatives are not as good.
And finally, I’m going to do the same every single time a corporation does stupid woke **** or some kind of totalitarian activity.
There’s more at the link.
Read the comments from Kim’s readers at the link as well. They’re in the same vein. I know many of us here feel likewise. I’m already planning non-“woke” alternatives to a lot of my online dealing, and I hope many of my readers are doing the same thing. It’s not easy, but a lot can be done if we’re willing to make the effort.
If it’s all about the dollar, let’s provide fewer of them to the enemies of freedom, and more of them to those who “support and defend the Constitution of the United States”, like so many of us who have sworn an oath to that effect. It’s a sad and depressing reality that so many today who’ve sworn that same oath appear to find it anything but binding on their conscience.
Peter
I agree completely. I quit Amazon orime, I quit cable TV, and get by with Roku. I cancelled Nutflix after they made their deal with the devil (Obama). I don't use Googal but I do have a Chromebook. I did not want Windows 10 and the Chromebook was the cheapest laptop I could find ($150). I want to find an alternative for next time I need a new computer. I don't shop at Target. I do shop at Wally world but minimalize what I buy from them. I don't buy anything from Warren Buffoon's companies including Kraft foods, Heinz, Dairy Queen, and even Burger King and Popeye's (he owns 3%). I avoid his companies because he has bragged that his family has given over a $billion to Planned Butcherhood. I also do not buy meat from Smithfield foods- Chinese owned. They have MANY brands. Check it out to see all of them. Amd I also avoid all Chinese products. Yes, my shoes cost me more ($100) than Chinese ones ($15), but they are a lot better. And American-made. Rock on. brother.
Shoes: SOME of the Durham brand (owned by New Balance) are American made. Good shoes, n I t stylish, but available in half-?sizes from mens 6 to 15, AAAA to EEEEEE, also available in extra depth for orthotic inserts. Some are Post Office approved.
I wear them, and pay full price.
John Sage
I have been in the process of doing pretty much what Kim du Toit wrote; never had a Twitter account and dumped FaceBook years ago. I am pleased with Brave and have used Linux as my primary operating system for over 12 years now.
I am at this very moment in the process of installing and configuring a Linux box to host my blog and email, whereupon I will dump Google/Blogger altogether.
Brave is a fork of Chrome.
unfortunately, there is really only Firefox and Chrome variants available as browsers
It is a fork and I looked at who runs the fork and have no problem with Mr. Eich.
Husband went to order some parts off of br ow ne ll s.com yesterday and Am az on credit card wouldn’t pay it. Ran through fine on a different card. Going to get that changed out for sure!
You may just be one person but you can count me in as #2. I have done pretty much the same as you and if there is another one out there then we add up to 3. Saw that FB and TWTR have dropped over $51 billion in the past week and so there are definetly more out there like us. Good company to be in I say!
I've had my own domain name since 2004 (never hosted by Go(big)Daddy) with my own email. I've never been on twitter and use DuckDuckGo instead of google. Yes, I know that DuckDuckGo sells their results to Google. But its still a step in the right direction. I am on Facebook. But I sue that for a different purpose and have never put much personal information there.
My next step will be to go to a Linux smartphone the next time I upgrade my phone, which will probably be around 2030 or so. I don't upgrade very often.
I think its great that countries such as Uganda have shutoff Twitter and the like. I hope this becomes a preference cascade where more and more countries shut off the big social media.
I've always voted with my wallet but have gotten lazy. That needs to change. Amazon as a managed business is admirable. I order something and have it the next day. A supplement I take is fully 80% less than my local health food store charges.
It will be a process but I will make the changes.
Amazon's income is interesting… they make money on web services and software and lose money on retail, especially Prime members. If you want to hurt them, order lots of small things from Amazon every 2 days (or more) so that they have to pay lots in shipping and processing. If you put in orders less than 2 days apart, they may ship in 1 package.
For web searching, I use Startpage (IXquick) which is based in the Netherlands. The FISA courts can force any US company to betray their principles under a gag order, but they can't do that to a foreign company.
Used to use Amazon Prime Pantry for canned goods and other shelf stable items.
Got a box full once or twice a month. Saved a few trips to the store.
About a week or two ago I tried to start a box and came to a banner page that Prime Pantry had been discontinued. No warning, no explanation, just "we don't do that any more."
On a totally different subject, I sincerely hope that what Mr. Trump does once he leaves office, after fighting whatever retribution the Dems, deep state, and media throw at him, is to start a service in competition with all the social media applications, one designed to actually serve their users with as few restrictions as the laws allow. Heck, he might just get Parler back in operation as a start, and then take it from there.
Linux is a good alternative to Windows and most options are free. Even better it is easy to install Linux along-side your Windows system without making any changes to Windows. Just add a new hard drive for Linux and set the computer to boot to it. Most Linux variants will then give you a boot time menu to pick either one.
If an internal drive seems too hard an external USB drive will work as well but be a bit slower. Even a big thumb drive will work for testing purposes.
Many of us have old Windows computers available, they are easy to wipe and load Linux on and many of them will do a great job.
On browser forks, most take the open-source parts of the forked browser, the parts that can't be taken back. They remove the objectionable bits and then build on that base.
Protonmail is quite easy to set up, and operates like any another email. Login is quick. The standard screen is easy to read. You can follow your mail and reply with no problems.
Well, that makes over a dozen of us, just on this little blog. Never think your voice doesn’t matter! there are tens of millions of fired up, and fed up Americans who feel the same way! Keep pushing and fighting for what you believe is right! WE ARE the majority! They have the megaphone right now, but WE WILL take it back!
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