Gog
this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
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Asklemmy
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I'd say Steam.
Only as long as Gabe Newell runs it. After that it will enshittify like any other company that needs to make profits.
Private equity is salivating over the idea of ~~running his carefully built brand into the ground~~maximizing value extraction from steam.
The current meta here is that things like brand loyalty and reputation are not really worth preserving, and are only as good as whatever short-term gains you can squeeze out of them.
I'm not sure if it's still true, but I seem to recall SC Johnson having profits as the lowest of their corporate objectives with higher ones being things like improving people's lives and bringing value to the world.
Granted, it's all just text, and times change, but I'd be curious to know if there's any truth to it, especially today.
Bandcamp, because it is the best place for independent music and there is nothing close to it.
Steam, because they started with non-horrible DRM (compared to other options) and now they are one of the companies that help Linux succeed for gaming (Steam Deck is just a Linux computer with controllers attached, and Proton is awesome for running Windows games on Linux).
King Arthur Flour!
Dr Bronners soap has specifically reaffirmed their DEI policies since Trump's reelection, and they have a 5-to-1 cap on the top-level exec's salaries compared to their lowest paid retirement-vested employees. They seem to walk the walk from what I've seen and read.
The only one that comes directly to mind is Valve.
Besides that I'm not going to follow this narrative too much of finding "the good ones".
I don't really believe in ethical consumption, but Penzys spices are awesome! They're such troll too, I love it!
NetBSD, Signal Foundation, other FOSS orgs
Costco
It should be noted that they are actively trying to bust their workers union so maybe boycott them when your local asks you to.
ACAB: All Corporations Are Bastards. Corporations are not your friends. Brands arenβt your friends.
Stop letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.
I used to not vote because all politicians are evil. Someone pointed out that if everyone picks the lesser of two evils then things are going to get less evil. Iβve voted every opportunity since.
Corporations are just legal structure organizing people together to do something. The soup kitchen, local artisan, person cutting hair out of their house, they all set up an LLC to operate under. They didnβt instantly become evil.
But if I need to buy a blender, plywood, or underwear (my shopping list this weekend), Iβm going to have to buy it from a corporation. If I could buy it from a less evil corp then hopefully I make things less evil.
One way to fight the corporations is to stop worshipping at the altar of blind consumerism, and embrace the concept of "Reuse, Repair, Recycle."
Stop buying stuff you dont need. Keep using what you have, sell/buy used items, repair things, and if it cant be fixed or repurposed, then recycle it.
Repairing things is a big one. Often repairs are remarkably easy. My wife has been ready to replace numerous appliances over the years, and I figured it was worth taking a shot at fixing it, if I can save a few hundred bucks, and successfully extended the life by years.
Very satisfying, and it forces your wife to rethink her conclusion that you are an incompetent dolt.
Sorry. My underwear is beyond repair
Voting for lesser evil just slows down the evil, it doesn't reverse it. It's still going in the wrong direction.
If people would vote for good thatβd be a choice. Consistently voting for βless evilβ works towards that goal - having good candidates.
If βmore evilβ candidates keep winning, what message does that send to candidates?
Yeah. Lots of people didnβt vote because we had two evils. The greater evil wonβ¦
You cant run a candidate who supports a far right wing genocide from the left and expect to win. Its really that simple. It'll probably be that simple next time as well.
What we need is Russian and israeli influence kept out of the US government with no exceptions. Zionist influence on the dems is why Harris lost, not some 'voters dont understand that voting for evil is just necesssary' like you pretend. Stop telling the voters they need to be ok with war crimes. Thats cowardly BS. I'll never be OK with murder and you shouldnt ever be either.
pointed out that if everyone picks the lesser of two evils then things are going to get less evil
That's just absolutely not how it works even if you take it at face value. Both evils can be greater than the one rn, that has absolutely no bearing on which one is "lesser" among them.
Repeal of Citizens United and change that.
All Corporations Are Bastards, in a four hundred year unbroken chain going all the way back to the English East India Company and Dutch East India Company, and even before those.
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Dropout TV
Open source orgs
Patagonia is a good outdoors brand from the US
You can always go for smaller/niche companies. System76 and Wooting come to mind for keyboards.
You have to do research and pay a premium. But you're way more likely supporting a business that cares about its employees.
In general consume less. And when you do need to make bigger purchases, do your research.
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i use the nothanks app on my phone to scan the bar codes and it tells me if it's okay to buy or if i should boycott, along w why
Clicking around, it seems like everything is on the boycott list. The reasons are also so bad. For example, Mars Inc is banned for working together with Israeli academic institutions to further foodtech innovations. Bullshit like this is why Republicans are able to link together antisemitism and reasonably critiquing the actions of Netanyahu.
I found the thing you mentioned a good idea so I googled the app to find out how they decided who should or should not be boycotted. I landed their homepage and it said they offered digital marketing solutions.
I'd love to use something like that if community driven but sounds like an important conflict of interest.
that's good to know that they're doing the same thing as adblock plus did.
there are other apps that do the same thing and i'll be trying them now; thanks for the heads up.
edit: maybe this one?
Buycott seems promising cause campaigns and boycott lists are user-driven (which, you know.. could also be faked I guess) and haven't found anything fishy in their policies yet, but still snooping around on them. Gonna look into their ownership now.
Edit:
So umm... apparently Buycott was founded by a random 20 something year old LA dev (Ivan Pardo), a 2008 CS guy from Colgate University who basically coded it on his own. Boycott's social media has been inactive since 2016.
Their business model is they sell access to their barcode API, which basically means they sell the pics of the barcodes and the product descriptions people add voluntarily to companies to do what they want. Not great but you know... better than digital marketing services.
Buycott is related to solidarity tech, which Ivan Pardo also founded, and is a CRM who claims to be "helping unions & grassroots organizations build people-powered movements that transform society...." which could be legit. They're not free and they're not cheap and they claim to cater to unions, advocacy orgs and non profits... but idk. Am I full paranoid delusional or does this sound like a honeytrap kinda thing? Like if I was an evil right wing politician this is exactly the kind of company I'd want to have leverage over to be able to sabotage opposition. And we don't know who Pardo's partners are. Only that he's founder.
Oh, also, solidarity tech openly claims they give their customer info to Google analytics in their terms, which, you know... Kinda concerning when your "I'll handle your grass roots movement" software sees no reason to not freely give your information to the most blatant and thinly veiled CIA front in contemporary history.
In their webpage they say they are "Trusted by Progressive Campaigns and Causes" and name a full total of 5 clients: Debt Collective, UAW, Pilipino Workers Central and CWA. As a non american I don't know what these things are...
idk I don't trust them. But I'm also running out of options at this point. Might as well use something. They seem like the best so far.
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