What can an individual do to fight against tech billionaires?
What can an individual do to fight against tech billionaires?
What can an individual do to fight against tech billionaires?
On your own? Not much. You can stop using certain products, save money, and so on. But that's mostly going to help make your individual existence a bit better/less bad. The CEO's aren't gonna give a flying fuck.
But our strength is in our numbers. Get organized. Maybe in a political party, maybe "just" in some sort of collective that helps in an area you care about. Help others in whatever capacity fits your abilities and your situation. And don't expect it to be a quick victory. That will only result in disappointment. As a wise man (?) once so succinctly put it: "Apes together strong."
All billionaires should be required to prove they’re not made of cake.
Stop using and/or buying their products comes to mind.
Adblock, Firefox, don't buy new phones, etc etc etc
Individually? Nothing. Therefore: Organise, organise, organise
Computer, who is Luigi Mangione?
The first thing you can do is not buy anything that makes the tech billionaires more money. All they care about is money: don't give them any if you can help it.
for example:
get off of facebook (easy). don't buy tesla or use starlink (easy). don't buy on amazon (difficult but doable). Don't upgrade your iphone, and don't buy new apple products (moderate). Don't use CHATGPT (easy).
Getting off Amazon was easier than I thought. Has been years now, and I only needed to order through a friend once, when I needed a specialty item I could find nowhere else. Most small shops have comfortable checkout systems now and short delivery times. And there's eBay, which afaik takes a smaller cut from third parties than Amazon.
I'd add not using Amazon Prime, Amazon Web Services and other Amazon services. Not using X, being critical of SpaceX. Also, stop advertising these things, stop telling your friends about them, maybe even stop talking about them altogether. I think for some strange reason sometimes bad press is better than no press.
But it will make me mildly uncomfortable! /s
The solution is simple, but not easy: Stop using their products. A mass exodus of their users will quickly take away their power.
Stop using all Alphabet/Google products. Other search engines, email providers, streaming video, and even cell phone operating systems exist. Switch to them.
Stop using all Meta products. Other social networks and messaging applications exist. Switch to them.
Stop buying from Amazon and watching their streams. Other online stores and streaming media exists. Switch to them.
Keep going for every company who has a billionaire CEO, owner, or shareholder. Their fortunes will evaporate quickly.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0gmsfr3
3 minute scene from planet earth series with seals chasing a great white shark away
People keep answering by trying to tell you to consume your way out of this.
There is only one way, organize, unionize and vote!
Voting? Really? You still think the corrupt system can be fixed using the corrupt system?
Many will believe that forever
Instead of spending 200$ a month on subscriptions, spend 300$ on a used PC, take a weekend to learn how to selfhost/pirate and then pay 5$ for a trustworthy vpn like mullvad. If you're in the EU, send data deletion requests to every big company you've had an account with. Start buying things off local retailers, not Amazon. Buy computers/phones either second hand or from smaller/more trustworthy manufacturers...
And most importantly. NEVER. STOP. COMPLAINING. ABOUT. IT. The moment the complaints stop is the moment that bullshit is accepted...
Not sure if this is really accessible for everyone.
It's probably easy to underestimate how difficult setting up and managing services can be.
YunoHost is what I use and its mainly been smooth.
I set up a Jellyfin server on a 10 year old laptop that sits closed in the corner and I have access to play the content from my TV in the living room and bedroom, and any other device that I connect to my network and it was fairly simple. Finding content is likely the hinge that holds more people back. My lazy ass didn't want to have to go to the corner to acquire content so I set up rustdesk on my phone so I can remote to the laptop from my phone, turn the VPN on to hop to Madrid or so, and acquire what is wanted then remote to it later on to take it back off the VPN. (Allows me to do such when out and about, say someone mentions a movie or show when at work)
Was going to see if I could punch a hole with tailscale so I could leave the Jellyfin server local and just share the drive so I could write to it from "Spain" while read from it on the TV without having to switch the VPN on and off but haven't had a a few hours to spend on that yet. The shared drive is an old 5400rpm drive and it'll play movies at 1080p in 2 rooms without issue. (I don't bother with 4k, my eyes really aren't good enough to find the storage space use worth it)
I'm not condoning violence but I'm kind of surprised no one have yet taken an RPG shot at elons jet or something. Even blowing it up empty would send a message I guess.
I mean someone actually shot at drump so it can't be that complicated.
I mean someone actually shot at drump so it can’t be that complicated.
Pull a Luigi
Halt excess spending. Don't spend a single dime more than necessary to survive. You are gonna need every penny in your bank account if you hope to make it the next 2 years.
Oh, and don't count on democratic politicians to do anything about anything. They fear progressives more than a fascist Trump regime because they are all in the pockets of those tech billionaires.
If you're a person with brown skin, I hope and pray for you and am donating what little I can to organizations who are trying to protect immigrants and non-whites.
Pirate, AdBlock/Sponsorblock and use Free/Open Source alternatives.
Years ago people laughed at me for not having Facebook (and never having had it in the first place). Who's laughing now? Not me, nor any other consumers. But hey, we tried...
Who are those two in the picture? Are we supposed to know them?
that's edited photo, original is just as derpy. it's altman and nadella
btw this is very much a "heartwarming - the worst people you know are fighting" sitution
Call Luigi?
Assuming Luigi Mangione is responsible for the murder of that CEO strips him of his presumption of innocence. Maybe refer to the gunman from the video as "The Adjuster" like people did before Mangione was accused until the trial is complete.
But if he's not the shooter, what if the real Adjuster isn't as hot as Luigi?
(I'm just kidding though, I totally agree with you)
That’s a great insight! However, there’s only one true Luigi…
An individual can do very little.
Which is why we organize, strike, and practice solidarity, together.
If you want to help, look for left movements in your area. Food Not Bombs for example.
Find out what National union would support your profession and go help them out.
artillery
antiaircraft gun antitank weapon Big Bertha cannon French 75 Vulcan automatic cannon coastal artillery German 88 Maxim machine gun mortar Panzerfaust Panzerschreck Paris Gun Schwarzlose machine gun
biological weaponry
anthrax plague Q fever ricin smallpox yellow rain
chemical weaponry
adamsite diphosgene hydrogen cyanide lewisite nerve gas phosgene tear gas chloropicrin
combat weapons ranged weapons
bola boomerang bow and arrow crossbow longbow grapeshot flamethrower Greek fire sling spear spear-thrower
hand-to-hand combat weapons
bayonet club dagger halberd lance pike quarterstaff sabre sword tomahawk
explosives bombs
depth charge dirty bomb grenade improvised explosive device mine shrapnel
explosive substances
PETN RDX trinitrotoluene (TNT)
missiles ballistic missiles
antiballistic missile ICBM Lance missile Peacekeeper missile Minuteman missile Nike missile Polaris missile Poseidon missile torpedo Trident missile V-2 missile
cruise missiles
Tomahawk V-1 missile
rockets
bazooka Congreve rocket
firearms manual
air gun blowgun blunderbuss carbine Spencer carbine Gatling gun handgun pistol revolver derringer harquebus musket rifle Dreyse rifle Lee-Enfield rifle Mauser rifle Springfield rifle shotgun
semiautomatic
handgun pistol semiautomatic pistol Luger pistol revolver rifle assault rifle AK-47 ArmaLite rifle M16 rifle Garand rifle repeating rifle Springfield rifle
automatic
handgun machine gun Bren machine gun Browning automatic rifle Hotchkiss machine gun MG42 MAG machine gun Maxim machine gun Schwarzlose machine gun rifle assault rifle AK-47 M16 rifle Browning automatic rifle submachine gun Sten gun Thompson submachine gun Uzi submachine gun
nuclear weapons
intermediate-range nuclear weapons tactical nuclear weapon thermonuclear bomb atomic bomb neutron bomb weapon of mass destruction
siege weapons
battering ram Big Bertha cannon French 75 catapult onager culverin German 88 ram Vulcan automatic cannon
Shit. You said my trigger word.
Fight for regulation
The only thing that can stop them from their established position of power and influence is regulation that limits those, with effective checks and prosecution.
Split up their platforms and companies, require transparency and provable decency, require structural or behavioral changes
They have so much money, fines won't do a thing [unless they're excessively high and against their companies]. They have such established prevalence with their platforms, activism of and with evasion won't have much of an impact at scale.
Demonstrating public aversion towards advertisers is also a workable approach that could have an impact [long term].
I'm all for that, BUT
Tech companies tend to push for policies that seem to regulate their strategies, but are really designed to not let anyone else use the loopholes they used for themselves. In that they are trying to weed out competition and become a monopoly. So if there are regulations, they need to be thought through. And definitely not be Big Tech backed.
EU has recent regulations that only apply to the big platforms. That's one way to implement that.
You start by 3D printing a gun.
Do what you can. A little more each day if it gets easier. Understand we can't fight all the worlds evils alone, but we aren't alone so whatever your fight is helps all of us.
I push for opensource, self hosting, being self sufficient, unionizing (at work, and for tenets), forming coops (worker, community, housing, and even producer coops), do mutual aid, support charities through donations sure but also volunteering. I also try to buy less, if you need it you need it, but if you don't then why support corps like Walmart or Amazon for them to take those profits to undermine us.
Again it's not about perfection or even self actualization, it's just every time we can empower ourselves and others we can shift the power balance.
try spray painting a cock and balls onto a Tesla
organize with others.
Learn what it is that makes a cybertruck rust...
Existing?
Good. Then 'existing' it is, that will make them vanish eventually...
The rain?
Commencing rain dance!
all individual can do is find other individuals and try to do something together
Nice
Self host
Yes totally, but I still kind of expected tries.