Yeah I realize this is gonna be difficult
You must log in or register to comment.
Support your local small businesses so they don’t go bankrupt. Purchasing anything from Europe will have you pay tariffs to support the orange guy’s administration. Oh yeah - vote so the current admin gets weaker.
Other than that - I have limited sympathy for the country that voted in the current chaos willingly making the world unsafe and trying to throw the victim of military aggression (Ukraine) under the bus. And that is coming from someone who is half American with relatives living in the US.
Most Americans get stuck buying IRL things from a series of interconnected big companies. They’ve hogged the middle and leveraged that position, making it work to get out from under their thumb.
Edit: Most Americans also only see upper middle class urban European things and living. Farmers in rural places don’t live exactly healthy, idealized lives. They put their pear brandy in old Fanta bottles they drank themselves. Ployester and Ikea and the cheapest Chinese plastic goods are everywhere. Please keep expectations real.
First, buy local to the greatest extent possible. Do anything you can to starve big business. But local produce, local art, anything. Buy second hand as well. Repair things first before discarding.
Second, engage in lifestyle change that befits less consumerism. Use less paper products, get a bidet attachment, compost and garden, stop buying highly processed foods. This makes buying imported goods like olive oil more bearable.
However, buying things like Mexican Coca cola are silly - it’s still fucking Coca cola. If you buy imported mayo, is it still from a Unilever company? Nestle is fucking terrible. Don’t just shift your money to a horrible European company.
For tech, that’s eaiser. There’s tons of lists of personal tech stacks that omit US-based for profit companies. Proton and Tuta and Mailbox.org and Qwant and Startpage.
Hej! No shade on IKEA!
Stop buying name brand everything. Try all the international foods at Aldi’s. Buy everything pre-owned. Grow as much of your own food as possible. Cancel your subscriptions. Invest in a pirate hat, eye patch and a good eu vpn like mulvad. Participate in this economy as little as possible. Stay strong my friends.
Also making the US as dependent on left-focused, democratic countries as possible, by buying from those countries instead.
There’s a comment further up that brought up the very salient point that that would be supporting the current admin by directly contributing financially. I’m not disagreeing with you, but it is something to keep in mind.
Edit: typo
Spring the current admin?
Typo. I’ll fix it.
Very possible for tech or digital services. As long as you’re not paying import tarifs to the government.
Visa, Mastercard, Amex and PayPal should all be avoided as well. Pay cash where you can, crypto can be a workaround online.
I hate how crypto can be a workaround (given how much energy it uses), but that said, idk which crypto would be the best for queer- and european friendly stuff. Iirc Ethereum uses a lot less energy, at least.
I agree 100%. Not sure about its environmental impact, but due to it’s privacy focus I’ve used Monero before. Cash is ling either way.
In Europe we have some local payment alternatives like Twint or soon Wero. The US also has Venmo and CashApp, not sure if they are suitable alternatives. At least CashApp has sponsored Drag Race in the past, so I would hope they don’t donate to the maga pedo clan.
Advice, yes
Start being politically active. Start the US down a road towards being a trade partner that can be trusted.
There are vital elections later this year. Find out who the candidates are in the local areas. Offer your help to the one that you think will make the most change.
This would be the most effective thing around. Actually buying european stuff (at least besides online-services) doesn’t make sense right now. Due to tariffs you’ll end up funding the current circus around there and in exchange you don’t really get a lot. Sure, some (but not all) of the EU made products are better than their US counterparts, but you don’t buy winter jackets, shoes or anything like that every day.
If you really want to buy european stuff, be a part of change in your country and make it believable trade partner again and stop the orange clown with his circus. Then you’ll get better selection of our products with a cheaper price. And you don’t even really need to do that much. Just be active in your community, start a board game club or something and promote civil activism. And obviously go and vote to end this current madness, drag all your neighbors with you.
To start with the obvious, you have much less access to European owned products, but you can still choose to avoid products made by bad companies. Shop not where the price is lowest, but where the recipient of your money is most worth receiving that.
When it comes to digital services, you actually do have access. Having a VPN might help, but likely isn’t even required to switch your email provider, use another browser, another os, another search engine etc.
If you end up making a list, my advice would be to look at two different things:
- How easy is it?
- How much good does it do?
Then start with the easy things that do the most good, followed by the easy things that don’t do that much good but since they’re easy why not, next do the hard things that do a lot of good and leave the high hanging fruit for last if you get what i mean.
This isn’t just about tech.
Switch your mayo at the supermarket. Try Mexican cola. Stop buying cheap clothing and look at alternate brands from eu Canada etc.
Consider holidaying in Italy. Contribute to a Ukrainian Charity.
This is not a switch of software is a daily choice and a mindset.
Careful not to pay import tariffs on imported goods. Also check what mayo or cola you’re buying, in Europe (Aldi, Lidl especially) the off-brand products are often still made by the big brand owners. It’s going to require reading labels carefully and possibly some searching online to really avoid the big names.
Leave motherfucker leave
If I had to live there, I’d simply piss off. You already have the benefit of speaking English (well, some kind of 😁), so you easily get around anywhere in the EU, as most of us at least understand it.
Except the vast parking spaces, guns and cheap housing you would not miss a thing. We even have your great bbq-sauces 😊
Nothing here is perfect, but in comparison to the USA it kinda is.
The whole move can’t be more expensive than a mild illness.
If you simply can’t or don’t wanna emigrate: just close your eyes, ignore all media and try to believe in that it all will be better again. Somehow. Which is probably harder than emigration.
I don’t wanna mock you bro, but I have no better ideas. Being “awake” from the american dream (RIP Carlin!) but having to live there must be horrible.
If you simply can’t or don’t wanna emigrate: just close your eyes, ignore all media and try to believe in that it all will be better again. Somehow. Which is probably harder than emigration.
Living in a border town or by the ocean is a good way to get foreign produce at cheaper prices.
Leave
Amazing, why didn’t I think of that? It’s so simple!
Screw fighting, lets just bail and leave the most vulnerable and powerless to face down the horrors of fascism alone!
If you can “fly, you fools!”
What do you want to know?
The question was posed in the community Buy European. Therefore, they want recommendations for what things are easiest to change for European alternatives, and also how to get the more difficult to acquire things for a reasonable price.
