askchapo

Buddy, I promise you, you're already buying Chinese. There is almost no physical good on Earth that is not primarily produced in China. And you can't really buy Chinese services because they usually don't take customers outside of China.

Consumer activism is a waste of time and energy. Be mindful of BDS but the BuyEuropean movement is just a successful distraction of actual things you can do to resist Western Imperialism.

BDS is successful when workers and members force their workplace, associations and cities to boycott isntreal. Individually following BDS is a way to talk to people about the genocide and how interconnected our economies are.

With the US and EU you need slightly different tactics. Especially with tech it can be useful to look up who you’re buying from or what services you’re using and what their connection is with the genocide or surveillance industry (like amazon which is heavily implicated). This is partly for your own protection. Other than that, policy change must come from pressure through worker strikes and disruptive action.

Just try to find the best quality possible so you don't throw away money and material with stuff that deteriorates. China has good and bad products just like Europe and America, the best way not to get scammed is to focus on the product and not the country that the company operates from. If a worker coop is making good stuff in the US, it's better than a megacorp that successfully avoided regulation in China

wdym those sub/comms totally aren't xenophobic/jingoistic/racist

Fuck the haters, OP. Import as many treats as you can before everything collapses

Psh yes buy Chinese stuff friend, ignore these nerds. There isn't any good reason not to. Anyone advocating against it is basically saying, "pay more to imperialist middle men". It's not a movement or anything but it's a win-win for your wallet and slightly decreasing the profits of imperialist middle men.

is this meant to accomplish something politically or just make you feel better?

I literally thought this was badposting

No

Yes, Buy Chinese. Go to the BOC in NYC etc and make an RMB savings and buy all the Chinese you want.

I don't think boycotting the Seps and Zionists has ever been about their voting record at the UN, or else we'd also be boycotting countries like Argentina, Paraguay, Malawi, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, FSM, Nauru, Palau, Tonga and Tuvalu, who all voted against a 2024 General Assembly resolution demanding an end to the Zionist entity's unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territories within 12 months. BDS exists because the Zionist entity is reliant on financial and material support from the rest of the imperial core, so if you cut off that support then the whole colonial project goes kaput in the face of resistance. As for a boycott of Seppoland in Europe, as I see it, this serves two purposes:

Firstly: Europe is highly reliant on Seppoland in military, government, academia, daily life, everywhere. Weakening Seppoland's power in Europe is beneficial for European socialists, because a revolution in Europe cannot survive if your enemy can just starve you to death with an economic blockade, or paralyze your military and government with a software update and then invade your country using the troops they already have stationed there. This isn't to say that European socialists should actually support European military buildup — absolutely not, we'll presumably be fighting Europe's bourgeois armies some day, too — it's just that Europe needs some amount of resilience against Seppo meddling during, before and after the revolution. This is how I understand it. To put it another way, before Europe can become socialist, it needs the material independence from Seppoland required for European workers to be able to choose socialism, and that independence doesn't exist yet. I don't think "buying European only" is the answer — that's jingoism, right — but maybe pursuing Russia and China etc as trade partners over Seppoland, and at the same time pursuing a more self-sufficient economy… I think that could be good, right?

Secondly: Seppoland is a fascist settler colony. It might be the "head of the snake" on which Europe relies, but at its core it still has being a fascist settler colony in common with the Zionist entity, except that Seppoland is much bigger and much more colonized for much longer. This is the big difference between Europe and Seppoland, that settler colonialism is a much bigger contradiction in Seppoland than in Europe^[Which is not to say that there is no part of Europe under settler colonialism: https://hexbear.net/post/4293310], and the decay of capitalism is currently much more advanced in Seppoland. Right? But the scope and duration of settler colonialism in Seppoland relative to the Zionist entity does not change the fact that depriving Seppo settler capitalists of the funds and materials to maintain settler colonialism, and instead directing those funds and materials to those interested in dismantling the settler colonial system… can still contribute to the downfall of fascism and settler colonialism. But keep in mind that even if your patronage can perhaps help build up generational wealth in a marginalized community or whatever, a Black Capitalist™ or a Native Capitalist™ is always going to be a Capitalist™ at the end of the day, and will not necessarily be materially aligned against the settler colonial system. There's a lot of quotes and viral tweets about ""Black Capitalism"" I could mention here.

In any case, as pointed out by Salah: if these boycotts are just you changing your Consumer Habits to feel better about yourself, you won't achieve much. Change your personal consumer habits by all means, but you should mainly be thinking on the scale of workplaces, associations, governments and institutions.

Also, keep in mind that I could just be talking a load of nonsense. This is just how I understand things at present.