What can we (normal people) do about global oppression?

[Australian rePublic]

All over the world, there is extreme oppression. Uighurs in China are suffering holocaust-style genocide, in some countries, some religious groups are being oppressed, China has a satanic social credit score, and let's not even get into North Korea.

So this isn't a list of oppression happening, the question here is, what can we (regular people with little voice or power) do about it?

Well for one thing, we could learn from SJWs. SJWs some how have a huge voice but waste it on trying to solve imaginary problems, rather than solving actual problems. We need to learn how they manage to change everything. Secondly, we need to boycott companies who actively promote or use slave labour (e.g. Disney) and third, we need to call out companies which pretend to be moral and care about morals, but actually promote oppression. SO what do you guys think?

[Dakini]

Boycotting is an option, but it's nearly impossible to do properly as nearly every product you can buy is produced unethically (there is basically no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism).

The food you eat was probably harvested by people being paid substandard wages in poor conditions (this goes for fruits and vegetables as well as meats (slaughterhouse conditions are notoriously atrocious and there is actual slavery involved in some types of fishing)). The rare earth metals in your electronics were probably mined under unethical conditions as well as having severe environmental consequences, unless you're willing to pay a premium your clothing is probably manufactured with slave or underpaid labour somewhere in the supply chain (often this is true even if you are willing to pay a premium) and the environmental degradation associated with manufacturing clothing is also non-trivial.

Personally, I try to buy as little as possible in general, choosing products that minimize suffering and environmental damage as much as I can. I also try to vote for politicians who say they will try to fight oppression and inequality locally and write my elected representatives about these causes more globally. I participate in demonstrations and protests against racism or other forms of oppression. I also do boycott some of the worst offenders as much as I can and I occasionally write some companies about their policies so they are aware that there are consumers who have a problem with their practices.

edit: Oh, and I also give to some charities that try to help those who are worst off when I can (lately it has been the International Rescue Committee). I also keep wanting to participate in micro-loan programmes like Kiva, but I haven't got around to it yet.

[Krasny-Volny]

All over the world, there is extreme oppression. Uighurs in China are suffering holocaust-style genocide, in some countries, some religious groups are being oppressed, China has a satanic social credit score, and let's not even get into North Korea.

So this isn't a list of oppression happening, the question here is, what can we (regular people with little voice or power) do about it?

Well for one thing, we could learn from SJWs. SJWs some how have a huge voice but waste it on trying to solve imaginary problems, rather than solving actual problems. We need to learn how they manage to change everything. Secondly, we need to boycott companies who actively promote or use slave labour (e.g. Disney) and third, we need to call out companies which pretend to be moral and care about morals, but actually promote oppression. SO what do you guys think?

Demonstrate. Join activist groups. Go to work for an NGO.

I worked for a nonprofit for almost a year. They did conflict resolution in two regions experiencing a guerrilla war, mostly through their contacts with the political activist wings of the insurgencies. If you're really passionate about doing something about oppression - and I mean, real oppression, like genocide or the violent state-sponsored persecution of minorities - go out and find an agency that works in that field and intern for them, then network like mad and work your way up. It's not difficult.

If you sit around and complain that as a normal person you can do nothing physical or tangible about [X situation], you're not trying hard enough. Or you're more comfortable discussing it casually online rather than adopting it as a cause.

Boycotting is an option, but it's nearly impossible to do properly as nearly every product you can buy is produced unethically (there is basically no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism).

The food you eat was probably harvested by people being paid substandard wages in poor conditions (this goes for fruits and vegetables as well as meats (slaughterhouse conditions are notoriously atrocious and there is actual slavery involved in some types of fishing)). The rare earth metals in your electronics were probably mined under unethical conditions as well as having severe environmental consequences, unless you're willing to pay a premium your clothing is probably manufactured with slave or underpaid labour somewhere in the supply chain (often this is true even if you are willing to pay a premium) and the environmental degradation associated with manufacturing clothing is also non-trivial.

Personally, I try to buy as little as possible in general, choosing products that minimize suffering and environmental damage as much as I can.

It's about picking your battles. You can't boycott every unethical good, but you can certainly try.

Personally this is what I do: I try to boycott goods made in countries with severe political repression. I read the labels on everything I buy and will pay a premium for a version of the same product made in say, Spain as opposed to the cheapest version made in Laos. I like buying electronics and appliances made in Japan and Taiwan (as in, actually marked as being manufactured in those countries, not just by companies from those countries) because I generally approve of the working conditions in their plants and their relatively good treatment of their manufacturing staff. I'm very reluctant to buy anything that doesn't say where it's made.

I'm aware that most of these products still have some point in the supply chain which I would find personally objectionable. But as long as I'm not directly funding some military dictatorship or totalitarian state, I'm happy.

A good way to do this is buy everything second-hand. This way, you're simply recycling something that would otherwise wind up in a landfill, and you're not directly pouring money into a current retailer, distributor, manufacturer or subcontractor who profits in any way from unethical practices.

As far as food goes, I was raised on a family farm and hope to one day return to agriculture. I'd like to grow all my own vegetables and hunt my own meat rather than paying for something loaded with preservatives and churned out by a factory farm. Not there yet, but I see it as a goal that's certainly achievable in my lifetime.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Start local. Last summer millions of Americans marched in the streets against police violence and corruption in the United States, and honored the memory of those who lost their lives. People often think they gotta be George Washington leading his soldiers across the river but it's okay to start small. Signing a petition, putting up flyers. I started out being an activist that way.

[Mannixa Prime]

Obviously the solution is keep on voting for moderates and scream at people on twitter

[The Two Jerseys]

Become an arms dealer and traffic guns to the oppressed. For legal purposes, this is a joke.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

Lock up all the arms dealers. This isn't a joke

Arms are a productivity tool for oppressors.

[Adamede]

As an individual? Next to nothing that you can realistically do. This isn’t V for Vendetta.

Oppression, and at its core power, comes at the hands of a collective. Apes together strong and all that, especially when it allows you to go around slapping around the lesser monkeys.

Lock up all the arms dealers. This isn't a joke

Arms are a productivity tool for oppressors.

No more than they’re a tool to allow the oppressed to fight back. But tell me how the fact that the jackboots being armed with billy Luba rather than handguns changes the fact that they’re storming into your house unit the middle of the night to make you disappear?

Become an arms dealer and traffic guns to the oppressed. For legal purposes, this is a joke.

I’ll have you know I have no sense of humor and take everything literally.

[The Two Jerseys]

As an individual? Next to nothing that you can realistically do. This isn’t V for Vendetta.

Oppression, and at its core power, comes at the hands of a collective. Apes together strong and all that, especially when it allows you to go around slapping around the lesser monkeys.

Lock up all the arms dealers. This isn't a joke

Arms are a productivity tool for oppressors.

No more than they’re a tool to allow the oppressed to fight back. But tell me how the fact that the jackboots being armed with billy Luba rather than handguns changes the fact that they’re storming into your house unit the middle of the night to make you disappear?

Become an arms dealer and traffic guns to the oppressed. For legal purposes, this is a joke.

I’ll have you know I have no sense of humor and take everything literally.

Obligatory "Master has given Dobby a Glock, Dobby is a free elf!" reference.

[-Ocelot-]

People living in democracies should stop supporting Fascist and Communist parties, or people whose goal is to destroy said democracies. They should also stop buying foreign, anti-democratic propaganda all the time.

People living in authoritarian states should attempt to emigrate to democratic nations to weaken the dictatorships indirectly.

[Mercatus]

People living in democracies should stop supporting Fascist and Communist parties, or people whose goal is to destroy said democracies. They should also stop buying foreign, anti-democratic propaganda all the time.

People living in authoritarian states should attempt to emigrate to democratic nations to weaken the dictatorships indirectly.

Or we could sell oppressed people machine guns to take down their dictatorships. The less people flocking to and congregating in a few nations the better. People aren’t built to be packed like sardines.

[Mercatus]

People living in democracies should stop supporting Fascist and Communist parties, or people whose goal is to destroy said democracies. They should also stop buying foreign, anti-democratic propaganda all the time.

People living in authoritarian states should attempt to emigrate to democratic nations to weaken the dictatorships indirectly.

Or we could sell oppressed people machine guns to take down their dictatorships. The less people flocking to and congregating in a few nations the better. People aren’t built to be packed like sardines.

[Australian rePublic]

Cut all ties with the State of Israel and arrest/disband the ADL, for a start. Then start arresting heads of major financial institutions and political donors in the United States.

I don't get all the anti-Israel sentiment. Especially by the people who go nuts about Indigenous and women's rights in the west. I mean, if you want Indigenous autonomy, you have to support Israel, as the Jews are Indigenous to the area. Further, Israel is one of the only countries in the Middle East which supports women's rights and the only democracy in the Middle East, save for Lebanon. Without Israel, the Jews would be stateless. Why would anybody not support Israel

[Washington Resistance Army]

Cut all ties with the State of Israel and arrest/disband the ADL, for a start. Then start arresting heads of major financial institutions and political donors in the United States.

I don't get all the anti-Israel sentiment. Especially by the people who go nuts about Indigenous and women's rights in the west. I mean, if you want Indigenous autonomy, you have to support Israel, as the Jews are Indigenous to the area. Further, Israel is one of the only countries in the Middle East which supports women's rights and the only democracy in the Middle East, save for Lebanon. Without Israel, the Jews would be stateless. Why would anybody not support Israel

Most Israeli Jews are from Europe and lived there for a millennia. The number of Jews in the Levant in 1900 was no more than something like 10,000, the vast majority of them are very recent settlers.

[Conservative Republic Of Huang]

Cut all ties with the State of Israel and arrest/disband the ADL, for a start. Then start arresting heads of major financial institutions and political donors in the United States.

I don't get all the anti-Israel sentiment. Especially by the people who go nuts about Indigenous and women's rights in the west. I mean, if you want Indigenous autonomy, you have to support Israel, as the Jews are Indigenous to the area. Further, Israel is one of the only countries in the Middle East which supports women's rights and the only democracy in the Middle East, save for Lebanon. Without Israel, the Jews would be stateless. Why would anybody not support Israel

Considering that major Jewish presence ended more than a millennium ago, no, they do not have a stronger claim to nativeness than the Palestinians. In any case, the right to self determination does not mean you are above any criticism, especially when they are oppressing the Palestinians, who are actually stateless and are most definitely indigenous.

[Neanderthaland]

Cut all ties with the State of Israel and arrest/disband the ADL, for a start. Then start arresting heads of major financial institutions and political donors in the United States.

Even assuming this is a good idea. I (as a normal person) can't do any of that.

[Spooky Candle]

overthrow the government in an armed revolution

[Sengoku Americas]

I'm surprised how you created this thread and didn't mention one of the largest sources of oppression: the United States towards the world and its own people.

[Aguaria Major]

Vote for socialism.

Much of the oppression that exists across the world today is a direct result of the colonialist dynamic (of rich importer nations and impoverished exporter nations) from the late 19th and early 20th centuries being re-asserted post-decolonization through the globalization of capitalism - rich nations have got richer and poor nations have stayed poor. Poor people are desperate and often elect dictators who make promises to alleviate that poverty at the expense of groups they deem to be, "the other".

Slavery and forced prison labor still exist as a result of the desire for the cheapest labor possible, and the Chinese are only aggressively expanding as much as they are so as to be able to be at the center of world trade again and be able to dethrone the US in its own game.

The US has also been responsible for keeping the developing world from progressing beyond poverty and asserting itself for decades through CIA intervention to protect the interests of the corporations who have bought out our government. So if you live in the US, like I do, then I reiterate:

Vote. For. Socialism.

That could either mean voting for candidates who have to disguise themselves as Democrats, or voting for people like the DSA, but either way - vote socialist.

[Australian rePublic]

Vote for socialism.

Much of the oppression that exists across the world today is a direct result of the colonialist dynamic (of rich importer nations and impoverished exporter nations) from the late 19th and early 20th centuries being re-asserted post-decolonization through the globalization of capitalism - rich nations have got richer and poor nations have stayed poor. Poor people are desperate and often elect dictators who make promises to alleviate that poverty at the expense of groups they deem to be, "the other".

Slavery and forced prison labor still exist as a result of the desire for the cheapest labor possible, and the Chinese are only aggressively expanding as much as they are so as to be able to be at the center of world trade again and be able to dethrone the US in its own game.

The US has also been responsible for keeping the developing world from progressing beyond poverty and asserting itself for decades through CIA intervention to protect the interests of the corporations who have bought out our government. So if you live in the US, like I do, then I reiterate:

Vote. For. Socialism.

That could either mean voting for candidates who have to disguise themselves as Democrats, or voting for people like the DSA, but either way - vote socialist.

Socialism is just terrible. Everyone that's tried socialism has suffered greatly for it.

[Conservative Republic Of Huang]

Vote for socialism.

Much of the oppression that exists across the world today is a direct result of the colonialist dynamic (of rich importer nations and impoverished exporter nations) from the late 19th and early 20th centuries being re-asserted post-decolonization through the globalization of capitalism - rich nations have got richer and poor nations have stayed poor. Poor people are desperate and often elect dictators who make promises to alleviate that poverty at the expense of groups they deem to be, "the other".

Slavery and forced prison labor still exist as a result of the desire for the cheapest labor possible, and the Chinese are only aggressively expanding as much as they are so as to be able to be at the center of world trade again and be able to dethrone the US in its own game.

The US has also been responsible for keeping the developing world from progressing beyond poverty and asserting itself for decades through CIA intervention to protect the interests of the corporations who have bought out our government. So if you live in the US, like I do, then I reiterate:

Vote. For. Socialism.

That could either mean voting for candidates who have to disguise themselves as Democrats, or voting for people like the DSA, but either way - vote socialist.

Socialism is just terrible. Everyone that's tried socialism has suffered greatly for it.

There are the authoritarian variants, and then there are the libertarian variants. The latter have generally been resounding successes, such as the Rojava, Zapatistas, etc.

[Conservative Republic Of Huang]

There are the authoritarian variants, and then there are the libertarian variants. The latter have generally been resounding successes, such as the Rojava, Zapatistas, etc.

The Zapatistas are barely above smashing rocks together, to call them a success is very much to be uninformed about the facts on the ground. Wouldn't surprise me much if the claims about Rojava are likewise.

First, iirc, they have millions of dollars in international trade relations. Two, libertarian socialism is not a magic bullet. They live in a fucking Central American jungle and continually face barriers put up against them by the Mexican central government. In comparison to how things were before the uprising, standards of living have markedly improved, and the Zapatista areas are one of the few places in Mexico free from cartel activity.

Does your ideology transmute frogs into skyscrapers?

[Dakini]

Cut all ties with the State of Israel and arrest/disband the ADL, for a start. Then start arresting heads of major financial institutions and political donors in the United States.

I don't get all the anti-Israel sentiment. Especially by the people who go nuts about Indigenous and women's rights in the west. I mean, if you want Indigenous autonomy, you have to support Israel, as the Jews are Indigenous to the area. Further, Israel is one of the only countries in the Middle East which supports women's rights and the only democracy in the Middle East, save for Lebanon. Without Israel, the Jews would be stateless. Why would anybody not support Israel

It might have something to do with the human rights abuses they are committing against the Palestinians.

[Major-Tom]

Post an Instagram story so people validate that you're a good/informed person? Why try to fight the arduous fight against oppression when you can just signal that you don't like it to others?

[-Ocelot-]

People living in democracies should stop supporting Fascist and Communist parties, or people whose goal is to destroy said democracies. They should also stop buying foreign, anti-democratic propaganda all the time.

People living in authoritarian states should attempt to emigrate to democratic nations to weaken the dictatorships indirectly.

Or we could sell oppressed people machine guns to take down their dictatorships. The less people flocking to and congregating in a few nations the better. People aren’t built to be packed like sardines.

I'm with you but this won't work in many cases. Let's say that you somehow arm the willing citizens in countries like North Korea, Russia or China. Their government will simply turn them into a pulp. It's much better for these people to emigrate and live their lives in democratic countries that respect political, social and financial freedoms.