• gon [he]@lemm.ee
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    12 hours ago

    I just think this year has shown as that USA as a country can’t be relied on and it would be dangerous to continue to do so. Hence why avoid their products.

    Well yeah, you’re a reasonable person. I really don’t trust the average consumer to be a reasonable person, though. Hey, call me paranoid!

    I’m a bit confused why you think this isn’t about avoiding USA products and why you say it with such confidence. The president of USA said/did bad things, the movement started/skyrocketed to avoid USA products, its not rocket science.

    I’ll be upfront. I say it like that because I think it needs to be that.

    This movement started out protectionist; you’re right about that. It was about culling imports from the US, and it was jump-started by negative feeling regarding the US and Trump’s policies, namely the tariffs. Protectionism is nationalistic, by the way. But boycotting is fickle and vapid, for most. Coca-Cola, Nestlé… They get boycotted occasionally, but it never works. The same would be true for a US boycott. That’s why this can’t be a boycott, it needs to be something else, which is why I want to push that perspective and that sort of approach. Now, this movement already has some other characteristics: it’s pointing out alternatives rather than just showing what not to do, it’s focusing on internal benefits (GDPR, warranty, consumer protection) rather than a rejection of foreign goods, it’s uniting people rather than dividing… So it’s already become quite different than when it started. I remember seeing “Boycott US” flyers, but now I see “Buy From EU.” I saw American flags with a cross over them, now I see EU flags. At this point, I think it’s not so much aspirational on my part, and just accurate to say that it’s not about boycotting the US.

    I didn’t meant to make it sound simple or obvious… Or event that I’m particularly confident. I don’t want you to read this and think that I’m talking down to you or something, I’m really just saying what I think. I just feel like these paragraphs I’m writing sound a little conceited, sorry about that!