this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
188 points (99.5% liked)

Boycott US

1412 readers
556 users here now

Overview:

The community dedicated to boycotting the US until they stop fascism, restore full democracy and start following international law.

Americans have a moral obligation to resist Donald Trump and project 2025 at every turn.

America is a flawed democracy currently being ruled by oligarchs. Stop the backslide! Dont let America become the next Hungary.

America needs to challenge the court rulings of citizens united v. fec and shelby county v. holder, protect the media, implement independent district drawing, and the single transferable vote so they don't end up having people stay home in life-changing elections because they cannot vote for their favourite candidate.

Join 50501.chat to fight back!


Related communities:

Boycott:!buycanadian@lemmy.ca

!buyeuropean@feddit.uk

!boycott@lemmy.sdf.org

!boycottchina@sopuli.xyz

Activism:!antitrumpalliance@lemmy.world

!petitions@lemmy.ca

!palestine@sopuli.xyz

!protest@lemmy.world

!israelicrimes@lemmy.world

!patriotsforprogress@lemmy.ca

!goodsuniteus@lemmy.ca


founded 5 months ago
MODERATORS
 

Figured somebody here needs to ask this here.

top 35 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] SpicyTaint@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Cash if you're in person. Gift cards if it's a service that has those (like Steam). A crypto currency, if you feel like that's a valid option.

We could band together and pressure them back to doing their jobs? I think the majority of shit won't get better without active involvement with addressing it.

Is violence a currency?

[–] systemglitch@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Luigi says yes.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Is violence a currency?

No scarcity

[–] No_Eponym@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

But unlimited demand?

[–] NaibofTabr 30 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The problem with answering this question is that on the consumer side you don't really make this choice. The businesses that you pay for things at make this choice.

Visa and Mastercard are payment networks. The businesses that accept them are renting access to those payment networks, because ultimately accepting those forms of payment helps them make more money.

There are other options for payment systems, but for you to use them requires that the business you want to buy something at accepts those options.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Ya

Highest profit margin in the whole S&P 500? Visa/MC duopoly, like 70%!

Long read

Meanwhile Brazil has a 0% solution. Real card fees shouldn’t be 3%, should be IDK like 0.1% or something

[–] Redex68@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

The fees are insane to me. I do think it's fine for there to be some fee, they do provide an infrastructure and keep it up to date, but current fees are just insane for what they're providing.

[–] noughtnaut@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I'm not aware of how payments work in Brazil, but in Denmark we've had a debit card that everyone uses and every store accepts. It's completely free for consumers, and stores pay way less for Dankort transactions than for credit cards, so it's a win-win.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Some businesses offer more options though, and when they do you can choose to use those options.

[–] NaibofTabr 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Er, yes, that's my point? It's up to the business to make that choice.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago

My point is, hardly anyone goes out of their way to use other payment options, and that's one reason why most businesses don't bother with them, so this is also a choice of the consumer. Of course there's also little incentive for the consumer not to bother, but that's kind of just the deal with catch 22 network effects, someone has to take the leap to using something else.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Here in the U.S. at CVS pharmacy, I've seen Venmo option on their self check outs.

[–] The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

lol...like the business has a choice?

Before COVID it was almost 50/50 cash/credit and now we're at 25/75 cash/credit because people learned to use their card more than before (Spain).

Banks make the choice, you use what the bank gives you in business, or you have no business.

[–] NaibofTabr 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In a practical sense it's true that most businesses can't afford to not accept Visa & MasterCard.

This is not a choice made by banks. The credit payment networks are not banks and are not owned and operated by banks.

A business does have the choice to accept other forms of payment besides Visa & MasterCard, which is the point I was making. If you want to use a different method to pay for something, the business has to accept that form of payment.

[–] The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org 1 points 1 week ago

Correct, they are not owned (mostly) by banks, but the fees go to the bank and cc company for processing, so it's relatively the same. Also noted that when you open an account you don't have a choice of what company your debit/cc issued by the bank is. In the US & SA it was exclusively VISA (I've had one at one time or another since early 90s....fuck I'm old) and in the EU it's Mastercard...I haven't seen any other type issued....id love to see that change.

I will also add some banks are just CC companies in the US- the junk mail kind that offer zero rates, etc.

[–] Hirom@beehaw.org 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Cash for small physical payments. It's the most private payment system. There's no third party payment provider involved.

[–] knightly@pawb.social 9 points 1 week ago

Seconded. Cash is simple and convenient, no app or phone necessary.

[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 week ago

If you're in Canada, Interac is a Canadian grown company. Just use your debit card and skip the credit if you can.

[–] Sunshine@piefed.ca 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] GameGod@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

To use Wero, both the sender and recipient must have an account at one of our bank members in Germany, Belgium or France (source)

No Canadian bank or credit union offers JCB cards.

Basically the only option is Interac, but it only works inside Canada. If you want to use your Canadian debit card internationally, it's going to go through an American payment network like Cirrus, Maestro, or the Plus network (ie. MasterCard or Visa's network).

[–] Sunshine@piefed.ca 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The payment options can expand, JCB was initially only available in the Japanese market and today there affiliated cards issued in Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Laos, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Many canadian terminals here already accept them. They would be a great alternative.

Wero is experiencing massive growth in Europe where more and more banks are accepting them.

Nothing is set in stone.

[–] Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Isn't JBC acceptance in many countries through partnership agreements with US American Express or Discovery cards? Doesn't that make them the same as using Visa or Mastercard?

[–] Sunshine@piefed.ca 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I checked and it seems like only JCB is only independently used in Japan without the partnerships. I wonder why not the skip the middlemen and do it themselves?

Amex and Discover do not act as sketchy as Visa and Mastercard so no they’re not the same.

[–] HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 week ago

In the US, JCB and UnionPay cards are processed on Discover infrastructure. I suspect it's a matter of instant broad acceptance, which is more appesling than trying to sign up 5 million new merchants.

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

I don't have any experience with it myself, but GNU Taler sounds promising.

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

Cash. It's so much better for the smaller shops - any store you want to support you should use cash.

[–] BaroqueInMind@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There are none that allows for practical day-to-day grocery purchases, and/or international travel. Someone please prove me wrong.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Amex is apparently the “little” guy I think? (I’d just linked this a second ago)

[–] Redex68@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

While they are smaller, they're worse for businesses as their fees are higher

[–] dai@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

In AU at least most places here will pass fees onto the cardholder as a surcharge. Very rare to find a business that eat the surcharge these days.

Edit: Larger businesses yeah they will eat it, I'm more speaking of smaller businesses.

[–] Redex68@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Interesting, in Croatia I've seen only a handful of very small businesses do that, not a single chain of stores does that.

[–] Scolding7300@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

https://www.privacy.com/

Not sure how they get their payments processed, though they give you a credit card to use. Might be US only

[–] Chivera@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Is Discover a good choice?

[–] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago

Not anymore since it was acquired by Capital One.

[–] Dark_Soul@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

In India We use Rupay Card. Rupay Market share in india is more then 60%