3d ago

What are your top easy recommendations to your more mainstream/normie friends?

I'm thinking of my friends and family who aren't on an alternative social media that loves Linux and Star Trek memes. I've been recommending stuff (I'll put in the comments) they can do that I think is easy and helpful but curious to see what your thoughts/recommendations are!

8 comments

Spotify -> Qobuz (French/Quebec owned)
Dropbox/Drive -> Sync.com
Chrome -> Vivaldi (Norwegian) or Firefox (American but way less evil than Chrome)
Uber -> Public Transit
Home Depot -> Home Hardware
American budget beer -> Moosehead (Canadian union owned) or local brewery
Twitter -> Bluesky (better) or mstdn.ca (best)
Visa/MasterCard/Amex -> Interac/Cash
Esso/Shell/Costco/Husky gas -> Irving/Indigenous owned/MacEwen/Canadian Tire/Petro-Canada/Pioneer

Chapman's icecream was a recommendation from even before the recent events
Switching local grocery stores could also be reasonably easy (but the exact list depends on where the person lives)

My suggestions have mostly been more on the attacking the American market side of things, so:
Switching browsers, or barring that, the search function from Google to DuckDuckGo (and the browser to Opera if they're ready for that step.)
Leaving facebook/insta, but if that's not an option, following John Oliver's advice for making themselves less valuable: https://www.johnoliverwantsyourraterotica.com/
For skincare etc, Deciem/The Ordinary. For bulk stuff like deodorant, soap etc, looking for Unilever instead of one of the American conglomerates like Proctor and Gamble etc.
- Any reason for switching to Opera over say Firefox and alternatives? Opera is chromium, which makes them susceptible to manipulation from Google. I think open source / nonprofit projects are still worth supporting even if they originate in the US.
  Zen browser is a solid recommendation for regular users, it has a beautiful layout and some new features that would make a browser change more palatable.
  Solid recommendations on the other stuff, I should pass them along to people
  
  I always liked Firefox more than Chrome, and with some new privacy issues coming up with Firefox I switched to LibreWolf
  
  Good point on firefox/Opera, didn't know about the chromium. I like open source, I just saw that the Mozilla foundation has 400 mill in revenue a year and is headquartered in America, so I figured Opera was a slightly better choice. But I don't disagree with you, open source is still a good thing to support.
  I'll take a look at Zen, thanks for the recommendation!
- im central european. afaik here the boycott and buy european mentality isnt yet in full force. i first said that i will boycott/buy european and from western countries. then i said pls join me in the Olvid messaging app instead of whatsapp. chrome disabled ublock origin a few days ago so i said switch to vivaldi or atleast "easier" brave. i have sent my fsmily a few charts of firms which are from america and another chart of alternatives of apps.
  
  Also from europe, millennial, the topic isn’t as present at the moment, but:
  more people switched to Threema/signal
  deleted Twitter
  use of google: 1/3 left years ago 2/3 will never leave voluntarily.
  about meta? Don’t now? Most of my friends and peers stopped long ago (millennials)
  Tesla, not an urgent topic but this brand is ruined
  holiday in the USA
  and there are a lot of ships sailing the sea arrrr
  alcohol, isn’t a topic, European alternatives were already popular.
  Big problem for our country: Energy Medicinal equipment Drugs

8 comments