this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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Asklemmy
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Don’t buy things from Amazon. Go to your local book store, or direct to the website of the book you want to purchase.
Have you heard of Bookshop? For physical books they seem a decent option, albeit their reach is limited at the moment to the US, UK, and Spain.
Outside of that, and suggesting folks check their libraries, I've nothing else to add to your good suggestions.
Why not?
Amazon is a union busting company. They abuse their employees, they underpay them, they’ve taken advantage of communities they have distribution centres in, etc etc etc.
How can you be on the internet and not know the issues behind Amazon as a company…?
There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Everything you buy and consume in some way shape or form is going to exploitation.
This type of attitude is a distraction from actual change. Similar to individuals telling others to lower their carbon footprint. Fact is, until the people who actually run the world decide to change - nothing is going to happen.
"Carbon footprint" was a genius PR campaign by BP. Take away blame from companies and government's lack of regulation and put it on individuals.
A regular working class person is going to purchase the cheapest and most convenient product. Don't blame them and instead focus your ire on the people actually responsible.
Nah, I’ll continue to tell people to stop using Amazon. Absolving yourself of any of the responsibility is bullshit. If nobody uses Amazon, they stop existing. (I understand that they make most of their money via AWS, not the point). It’s very much within our power to change things. Laying down and taking it because we need the people who run the world to change things is pathetic.
Ya and if we all lived in the forest the world wouldn't be heating up. If we all gave our money to charity there wouldn't be any homeless. If we all didn't go to work the capitalist system would collapse.
But you know as well as I do that it isn't going to happen. Like I said, this individualistic approach to "changing things" is used as a deliberate distraction.
It's meant to take advantage of people's sense of responsibility. Nothing will ever change. If people stopped using Amazon then Walmart would step in to fill the void. It's a Medusa's head. The only way to ensure worker's rights is to write it into the law. Anything else is moral grandstanding. Which I think is even more distasteful when done to working class people.
While that's true I would still watch out on buying books on amazon anyways cause people have been pointing out there are books written by AI on there and might actually be useless.
Thanks for the book suggestion! I checked and it's available via my library, so I may have to give it a read sometime!