Pirate everything, block ads, guillotine billionaires
this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2026
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Is that supposed to be unethical? Well I guess pirating everything includes things where paying would be fair.
For the US: The Supreme Court has ruled that flashing your lights to alert other drivers of an upcoming speed trap is protected by your First Amendment rights.
Flipping off a cop is also protected, but that's less helpful to others.
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Torrent everything. If it's legal for a company to cancel my subscription then torrenting isn't unethical.
Use the free tier if you are low-income. Privacy and security shouldn't be for those with money.
If it's legal for the Zuck to torrent all the books, it's legal for me to torrent a few books.
Alternative option is not to pirate the books and instead read the public domain ones that are just free. Project Gutenberg is a good completely legit source of free books.
If libraries didn't already exist and you tried to make one now, you would be arrested and likely get pretty hefty sentencing for copyright infringement.
Books are one of the few things I am more than willing to pay full price for.
Sure the publishers eat a lot of the money, but the authors don't do too badly.
The very nature of a book (unless something is published as an e-book only) keeps it from being enshittfied like streaming audio and video services. If someone were to print an ad in the book, I could just rip it out and throw it away.
Books are one of the last places where you just will not see an ad or be tracked, or have popups, and other irritating "features".
Books are good.
Not a lifehack, just a reminder that legality is not an indicator of whether something is ethical
I'm not sure about unethical, but blocking ads is a big one for me. The WWW is unusable without blocking ads.
Every year, call your insurance/internet/phone/TV etc. provider and tell them one of their competitors gave you a lower quote and you want them to match it or come close.
They will often give you a better rate just for asking. It's easier if you do have an actual quote to compare it against but you don't need one. Everything is made up. Just ask to pay less and threaten to stop paying them and they'll often just give it to you.
Even if they refuse, just say, "Okay. I need some time to think about whether or not I want to continue our relationship or switch." Hang up and do nothing.
USA centric.
This is known as policy walking and has been banned in the UK by the FCA.
(edit - specifically for insurance)
——
@nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Why the downvote with zero engagement?
Wait what??
The consumer is barred from swapping providers annually to get better rates? Or are they barred from lying about fake quotes to get a better rate from their current provider?
Edit: By chance did you mean "price walking"? I did some searching online and I couldn't find anything about the UK forbidding consumers from changing insurance companies to seek lower prices by searching for "policy walking" but I did find something about insurers slowly increasing prices on customers (thus creating the need for the behavior I suggested) called "price walking", though I didn't see anything about it's legality. Admittedly, I'm just skimming while working.
A new customer and a renewing customer should get the same price.
If you go to an insurance company to get a quote, as a brand new customer or a renewal, the price should be the same.
Historically, its to prevent companies giving lower prices for the first year and then raising it for the second year.
Youre not allowed to increase the price just because its not a new customer.
Its nothing to do with regulating the customer - its regulating how insurance companies price their products for new vs existing customers.
I said policy walking, but price walking might be the more accurate term
Oooooooh that makes sense! Thanks for explaining. Yeah I wish we had legislation around it here, it's stupid that I have to play games to get lower prices on things.
Wish that were the case where I live. Still I've noticed that what they're now doing is offering the same price to everyone, but then giving the option of free Netflix for 1 year as a sign up bonus or the equivalent credit towards your service for that year, which effectively is the same practice.
To me the it sounds a bit more likely that they're regulating insurance companies and not the customers.
insane, huh?
Not USA centric.
It is also solid advice here in Germany and probably many other countries.
Your comment might be UK centric...
You may notice I specifically called out my comment as UK centric.
You said dumb shit (as you have in the past) and every time I've engaged with you I've left said engament feeling dumber. You're barely worth the effort it takes to press downvote. Why do you care? You're interjecting to say USA centric (a country with 350 million people and a large presence here) to include information that only pertains to the UK (69 million people). It was a shitty stupid addition. You're bad, suck my dick through my jorts.
It was a question. I do not recall you at all. Why do you care enough to follow me around and downvote?
what “dumb shit” have I said today? Would you like to correct me on UK insurance law? How did that “make you feel dumber”?
edit - and thats all of our interaction in the last year. Youre this upset cause I didnt like a game you like?
I look at posts in this community, shitpost and showerthoughts. I remember you saying dumb shit and arguing with you more than once. You can do the research to find said interactions.
I gave specific, UK advice, in a thread that isnt country specific, since the comment I replied to was defaulting to USA centric. Not sure why youre so upset about that? At least I clarified the exact country Im talking about, rather than assuming everyone is from the same place.
You're the one thats upset here lmfao
Youre the one following me around arbitrarily downvoting.
I looked back at our last interaction. I actually said something positive. I was sincere about you enjoying starfield. Why is that “making you feel dumber”?
I looked at a comment thread and downvoted a comment I thought was dumb... thats the extent of this.
And what about my comment was “dumb”? was I incorrect about Uk insurance law? or the commenter posting country specific information without clarifying what country they’re talking about?
Lmao
?
Oh sorry, its an acronym that means laughing my ass off.
no shit. why.
Find our other discussions. Im certain we've argued because I recognize your name.
No. you find them.
youre the one randomly downvoting comments just because you recognise a username.
I stated why I downvoted. USA centric is a really dumb way to start your comment. If you wanted to talk about UK insurance stuff you could have just said something like. "Oddly enough that wouldn't work in the UK because XYZ". Which, genuinely, is interesting. However, I think the initial comment likely applies to many places outside the US. So, you chose a shitty way to start your comment. Why are you researching who downvotes your comments lol why do you care?
None, I strongly advocate for ethics in all things.
Now if we want to talk about illegal lifehacks, that's a different ballgame.
do you have any ethical but illegal life hacks in mind?
other than Internet piracy
What is your best illegal lifehack?
When I wanted to start using contact lenses, they gave me a pair of those that last one month for free to try them out, I didn't find them entirely comfortable so they gave another pair of another brand, and a third one. Then I started again on another place, and another, I think I went a full year without paying for contact lenses.
you wouldn't download contact lenses.. /jk
Watch youtube through other apps like Grayjoy If people are having a conversation in a dumb spot, walk through the middle of them
If you are working as a contractor and make above a certain wage it can be worth it to setup your own LLC/S-corp. I did it one year at the advice of my CPA and it immediately knocked off 30% of my AGI. Lowered my pass thru income and tax liability. Saved me many thousands over 20 years. Its what every corporation in America does.
If you get junk mail with a return envelope, it's automatically paid by whoever sent it, so you can mail back whatever you want, like vulgar imagery or blank forms
Lying will get you want you want most of the time.
I admit that rat poison is definitely unethical: it causes a horrible, painful death, the animal’s gets perforated and the poor animal gets internal bleeding. But is is one of the best ways to get rid of a rodent invasion.
If you know that the rat poison you use causes a horrible death, why not do some research and pick a better formula or a different type of trap?
In the US, a handicapped parking space is only an official handicapped space if it has both the sign and the painted wheelchair.
Disclaimer: I don't actually do this except for places where they've clearly set up actual spots close to the store and just didn't remove the pavement paint. Still drives my wife crazy, though.
Now that's some real unethical shit.
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