Comments on: Please Don’t Do This

By: r.cynic

r.cynic — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 20:35:33 +0000

ahem… i haven’t bought anything at walmart in over a year. that i have to shop at a big box store at all is only a reflection of my closeness to penury.

this is not a practical affair. most people who do participate in these kinds of things are doing so on principle. while i know that the economy makes the world go around, my participation in these things is only to invoke questions about WHY the economy,especially as exploitative an example as we have has to make the world go around in the first place.

and no, i dont buy more things on the day before. i make do with what i have

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 19:14:14 +0000

Yeah, both of them are still going strong. In fact, they are both major players in the “Keep Austin Weird” movement and sell merchandise with that slogan on it.

By: Pandagon

Pandagon — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 16:22:17 +0000

Not One Damn Decent Protest

I’m with Greg in calling bullshit on “not one damn dime” day. For the blissfully ignorant, today’s major protest seeks to rock the inauguration by, uh, not spending any money. Which is stupid. Why no money? What if we…

By: tom

tom — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 07:03:02 +0000

while i like the idea of boycotting mass, irresponsible consumerism, i hafta agree that these “protests” are rather ill-conceived and stupid. ross hits it on the head… it’s all about taking the responsibility to know what you’re buying, and where that money goes, in all of your purchases EVERY GOD-DAMN DAY!

I like “Buy Nothing Day” better because it’s not a protest of anything specific, it’s meant to make people rethink their dependency on consumerism. Ultimately it won’t make an impact on the market (because you end up buying more stuff the day before), but i think the goal is to make people think about their own consumer habits. But the concept is lost in the translation and ultimately it doesn’t work either.

By: Ross A Lincoln

Ross A Lincoln — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 02:26:41 +0000

Is Book people still around? And what abotu Waterloo?

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 01:51:57 +0000

Great post. I too think the generalized anti-consumer days are really badly thought out. I much prefer things like the “Keep Austin Weird” movement, where people vow to spend their money at locally owned businesses when they can, keeping the money in the community. It’s a good way to do something small that actually works. Of course, even that takes a bit of effort, since you have to find out which businesses are local and which are not.

By: Roddy McCorley

Roddy McCorley — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 01:12:03 +0000

What if we all sent the White House a copy of Mandate magazine?

But make sure the pages all separate easily…

By: the eligible Ross Lincoln

the eligible Ross Lincoln — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 23:40:57 +0000

Excellent post G-child. There is of course another reason to oppose such silly kinds of protest – our economy is a consumer economy, and people actually need to work and earn a living. Somehow, I doubt these people are going to look at a sudden (imagined) loss of business and think Hooray! Besides, what sense does it make to take money away from the entire economy as a whole, which won’t affect Dubya at all?

Besides, a lot of businesses out there in the hated consumer economy actually donated significantly to progressive causes. SHould they be punished alongside those companies who actively work to promote evil? Instead of trying to “make a statement dude” by not buying anything, why not actually get off your ass and whenever possible, just refuse to spend any money on any product, or at any store, whose owners donated the bulk of the political money to republicans.