Here's my list that I avoid if and where I can. As with everything, things are nuanced and complex, and it's not like every company I personally boycott is outright bad or good all around. I wasn't going to write down the reasoning for each and every one, but ask away if you want to know about the reasoning behind particular ones. I'll also note, this is 100% not in any order (other than as they came to mind), it was time consuming enough making this vs. ranking them all!
Disney
EA
Volkswagen
Tesla
BMW
Audi
NVIDIA
Nintendo
Google
Apple
Facebook
Shell
Microsoft
X
Discord
Reddit
Old Spice
Costco
Netflix
Spotify
Nestle
Toyota
Tencent
Blizzard
Uber
DuPont
Fountain Tire
Walmart
Boeing
Brave
Princess
Moxies Group
Hewlett Packard
Amazon
On the flip side, companies that while not perfect, I think overall are doing good things that I try to support when I can (if only with word of mouth in some cases):
Valve
Framework
Firefox
Pine64
Raspberry Pi
Hyundai
Lucid
System 76
A&W
Trail Tire
Plex
Amanita Games
iBroadcast
Volvo
Napa
Fairphone
There's probably more I'm missing, I'm a pretty strong believer that companies rule most of the western world and that if individuals want the world to meaningfully improve, we have to vote with our wallets as diligently as we vote at the polling stations.
Sure, thanks for asking, as with anything, these are my opinions and I hope you form your own as well. My opinions aren't perfect, and none of these companies are outright "good" or "bad".
Toyota because of their heavy lobbying against electric car technologies simply because they sunk so much money into Hydrogen technologies and wanted to be the winner. Also they have had a slew of absolutely colossal recalls lately for avoidable stuff, and people have died (see drivers floormat issues).
Hyundai because they've been a leader in electrification of vehicles, have always given me exceptional customer support, and all around are just making quality stuff right now.
Volvo because throughout there history there's few if any automotive companies that have shown more of a commitment to doing the right thing, they pushed for safety regulations back in the day and the implications have ripples to today, and still are, alongside also doing well with electrification.
Sure, thanks for asking, as with anything, these are my opinions and I hope you form your own as well. My opinions aren't perfect, and none of these companies are outright "good" or "bad". It is very hard, I definitely am not always successful (living without touching Apple, Google, and Microsoft some way in the modern world is near impossible), but I do my best.
Costco is definitely one of the less clear cut "they're bad guys" ones on this list, and definitely is doing many good things. My primary reason is the use of a yearly subscription model. Again, a hugely complex topic that could take up paragraphs, but overall I disagree with subscription models for goods, that $1.50 hot dog is not actually $1.50. There are benefits to subscription models (in this case ensuring regular stable income for the company, helps keep prices lower for products where profits might otherwise fluctuate more and they need a bigger profit buffer). They're also on here for the damage they do to local businesses and just suburban colossus that they are with acres of parking lot, it's an eysore, and unpleasant to go to. Lastly, is a 100% biased personal one, but I went once with an autistic client who was so excited to go see Costco, and he only wanted to see and look around, and despite being told beforehand we could go in with a friend who had a card, they turned us away at the door despite my explaining the situation and it totally ruined his day and forever rubbed me the wrong way.
Sure, thanks for asking, as with anything, these are my opinions and I hope you form your own as well. My opinions aren't perfect, and none of these companies are outright "good" or "bad".
Haha, you're closer than you think, chemical burned my wife. This one is fairly personal obviously rather than an overarching issue, but there was a class action lawsuit maybe 8ish years ago over a faulty batch, my wife was unable to be involved for compensation since the class action was in the US, but we were applying gauze and antibiotics, and watching her skin goopify and have to peel it off her screaming in the shower, it was pretty awful. Despite reaching out, all we got was a resounding "deal with it bud" from Old Spice. I refuse to ever use their products again.
That would be a TON of writing, which nobody would read. Thanks for pointing that out, as with anything, these are my opinions and I hope you form your own as well. My opinions aren't perfect, and none of these companies are outright "good" or "bad".
Their immobilizer issues (also see the fire issues with the Telluride and Palisade), are definitely a pretty dark mark on them recently, and I can't account for every individual's. It sounds like your views towards them are entirely justified, my main reasons (I have this above in more detail) for supporting them are because I've always gotten utterly exceptional customer support from them (again things vary), but primarily because they've been a leader in electrication, they continue to make smaller vehicles and not road hogging mega-SUVs only, and all around are making very good products right now despite some issues.
I think there's a definite media/perspective bias with vehicle manufacturers, for example Toyota is on my naughty list which would probably surprise alot of people, but they have had some of the largest (and indeed the very largest) vehicle recalls in automotive history in the last 10 years, some causing death and injury (see floormat recalls, Takata airbags, etc.) and yet they have so much hush money and such a "good reliable brand" reputation that nobody seems to care.
Hyundai (like alot of Korean companies, coughsamsungcough) has pretty heavy ties and influence over the government which is also kinda sketch, but perhaps you're right and maybe they better deserve to be in just a neutral category for myself.
I won't tell you to get the fuck outta here for your differing views on Hyundai, but as I noted, none of these companies are perfect and their recalls and issues with this pale in comparison to those recently with Toyota for example, as much as I know this has personally harmed you directly.
I replied above if you want more context for my reasoning. It seems to be one of the more controversial takes on the list, perhaps something for me to reassess!
If you see my reply to questions about Hyundai on the list, Toyota and many other companies do alot of PR to maintain certain reputations, and Toyota does a spectacular job of this. I do think they make more reliable than average cars, no doubt. But here's some lesser known facts, Mazda has actually beat Toyota for 2 years running as the most reliable brand according to Consumer Reports, Toyota has had the largest, and multiple other recalls in automotive history in the last 10-15 years, some causing death and injury (Takata airbags, floormat issues, and more), and further they have lobbied heavily against electric technologies since they were salty they invested so much in hydrogen fuel cell systems. Again, it's not like all Toyota's are awful, but while still reliable, they've been dropping the ball big time lately, and that's not to mention how utterly mundane their cars are which is a little more personal preference based. Thanks for asking, I hope that helps explain my reasoning!
I wasn't aware of the datamining, I know this is something other brands are doing as well (I believe Ford and Tesla had stories that come to mind. Thanks for the extra info on the immobilizer issues, they might well be off my good list here. I agree, a recall that is well handled isn't bad in and of itself, but repeated recalls shows carelessness, particularly when it isn't done voluntarily by the company but rather due to legal matters.
My only issue with the great information you have above is the fact that while battery fires do happen with EV's rates of fires in ICE vehicles is magnitudes higher than with EV's and this is fairly well documented (which you didn't directly say, but seemed to be implied) here's a link at any rate that's decently cited https://core.verisk.com/Insights/Emerging-Issues/Articles/2023/August/Week-4/Electric-Vehicle-Fire-Risk but maybe I read into what you wrote wrong. Thanks for the extra information!
I 100% wholeheartedly agree, but to actively lobby against the use of other clean alternatives that show promise are better established setting back the environmental progress make in this industry, just because they want to make the big money on THEIR clean technology, is what I have issue with. That is crappy in my books.
Hi, thanks for the extra information you clearly know your stuff on this topic. See my reply above, I seem to have been misunderstood sorry if I was unclear. I have zero issue with hydrogen technologies for vehicles, they're great, and even better in some ways than battery options. My issue is solely with Toyota actively avoiding going full electric themselves and lobbying EVs due to their heavy investment in hydrogen. I wasn't actually aware Honda had sunk in as much as Toyota in this area as well so thanks for the extra info. LIke with anything (especially with a list as long as mine!) I don't pretend to know everything, but it was certainly my understanding that Toyota was fighting against battery EV's specifically because of their desire to get a lead foothold in the hydrogen vehicle sector and make this the dominant clean option, perhaps I was mistaken!
You're 100% correct, fundamentally the drive system is still electric motors (and all the advantages that come with that!) I would have to disagree that lithium-ion EV is doomed, I think it's better to conceptualize it as a stepping stone technology, I think we will move away from Li-Ion in the relatively near future, but it has supercharged (pun intended) investment and research in battery technologies (lithium fluoride, solid state, etc.) that will likely take over this mantle. I would be surprised given the necessary infrastructure, and lack of adoption thusfar if hydrogen did become the dominant mode of power in vehicles, but any of these would be a step in the right direction even if none are perfect currently. Thanks for your comment, I added some more on my thoughts on hydrogen in replies above as well!
You do need to be a member, or accompanied by a member to enter the building and buy it though (at least where I live, perhaps this rule is different in different places?)
She is, thanks for asking. And to be fair to Old Spice it was probably a fairly localized issue, and isn't some massive awful pattern of being a bad company, but call it my personal vendetta, it's forever marked them for me, particularly given their response.
THANK YOU. Bastion has its flaws for sure, but I was just talking the other day about what an absolute masterclass it is in art direction. Painted, vibrant, cartoon art style, in a dystopian future where a world flying in the sky is destroyed with mixed futuristic and past technologies, with music that sits somewhere between blues, electronic, and eastern traditional.
I have a saying, "if someone says a movie is great, and the description sounds like crap, it's probably genuinely amazing", I say this because for a movie that sounds on the surface not good (e.g., "a teenager hallucinates a rabbit that tells him to do stuff, then his girlfriend gets murdered on Halloween by the rabbit, but he goes back in time to stop it") it must mean that it has to have been done so expertly, that it has to land every punch to be good. I feel that way about Bastion too, it sort of shouldn't work with all it's influences (especially the soundtrack), but it nails absolutely everything.
They're both so good it's hard for me to decide, underground 2 is probably my favourite of the 2, but 1 is definitely the more important impactful game and I feel the driving is better. I still think that NFSU 1 has the absolute god tier pinnacle of what I want and like in an arcade handling model. Most wanted, and nfsu2 were good in their own ways, but once they switched to that god awful handling model around 2010 where every car feels like a sled of bricks, and you just press a button to drift and gain speed while drifting it's been garbage ever since. Not that I'd buy another NFS these days anyways because I'm utterly done with EA's shit and refuse to buy anything from them.
I'm in the fairly niche group preferring digital ownership (although I also strongly feel we need legal revisions and consumer protections over things we digitally own, instead of the "well if this digital shop goes bankrupt, your stuff is just gone", DRM, HDCP hellscape, wild west we're in now) primarily because I'm against the huge amount of plastic and physical materials physical media creates. I am most heavily against the "subscribe to everything, give all the companies your money, and own NOTHING" extra super duper hellscape we're going towards now.
Trump is a giant prick. Robert DeNiro is a lesser prick, but an uneducated, stupid, anti-vax prick nonetheless, who should not have the spotlight shined on him any more. Just because the brainless ape happened to say something correct this time, doesn't mean his opinion matters. He's right, but they both suck royally.
To try to give you a genuine answer, perhaps because 1) Lemmy is a left leaning environment generally, 2) if you're American, because the majority of the western and 1st world countries are dramatically more left leaning than the US (I live in Canada, and your democrats are more right wing than our main right wing political party)
This is true to an extent, I think the focus there (if done correctly) isn't on being retributive so much as ensuring a very safe "err on the side of caution" buffer that often means longer times spent imprisoned than the exact point that they are rehabilitated.
I'm not 100% sure, that's a good point, I'll look into this. I agree in this case is does seem that way, but be careful for falling prey to making conclusions on a sample size of 1, there are outliers in any data sample. To be sure there are without doubt cases where the insanity plea yield shorter sentences, but from my education on the topic it's always been my understanding that this is the case on average (to be clear, this isn't through internet articles or word of mouth on Facebook, this was from multiple sociology and criminal psychology courses taught by PHd educated individuals. As a disclaimer while I have a Masters in Psychology and have done original research in political psychology, my main field is not criminal psychology specifically).
I looked for a solid while and couldn't verify the claim of my past professors, I found one study in New Zealand contradicting this claim specifically saying that on average NGRI (not guilty by reason of insanity cases) served shorter sentences (note the wording of "served" referring to how much time they actually served, rather than just the sentence as you were asking about initially) on average in murder cases compared to other individuals with serious mental illness that did not receive NGRI sentences. However they take this as evidence (since it's based on actual time served, rather than the initial sentence), that murder cases treated as NGRI are a positive vs. putting these same individuals in prison given the taxpayer pays for them to be incarcerated for a shorter period of time, AND alongside this results in a lower likelihood of future reoffending upon release. Some things I found across studies was 1) there is heavy racial and gender bias present in when NGRI pleas are granted, 2) recidivism rates are generally lower in NGRI cases upon release.
Thanks for raising this point, I learned some things!
What are some companies that deserve to be boycotted to death?
So far my list includes Comcast, EA, and Nestle. Tell me yours, and I’ll help out.
The best Android phone to buy in 2023 - The Verge (www.theverge.com)
This land isn’t for you or me. It’s for the meat industry. | Almost half of the continental US is used for meat production. There’s something better we could do with it. (www.vox.com)
What's the most beatiful game you've played?
What’s a game that made a visual or musical impression on you? Or maybe it had a story that has stayed with you for years....
need for speed underground (en.m.wikipedia.org)
Used to love playing this on PC. Sequel wasn’t bad either....
Best Buy to End DVD, Blu-ray Disc Sales (variety.com)
Robert De Niro Warns Of Dangers Of Reelecting 'Evil' Trump (www.comicsands.com)
He stated it perfectly.
What is the worst way to start an apology?
I’ll give it a shot, “I thought I apologized already, but whatever…”
Why it seems a majority of political communities are left-sided?
Idk, doesn’t matter where I go, be it Political Memes, Politics, Elon Musk Spam, etc, it seems everyone hates on capitalism all together-
Brain-eating cannibal back in public life after 10 years (www.the-express.com)
A man who killed and ate a man has been released back into public life after ten years....