My Simple Four Step Guide to Fight Back Against Corporate USA

Consumerism is consuming us all. It is truly time that we need to think outside of the corporate box; dressing trendy, buying cars we can't afford does any of it really make us any happier? We need to uncool what is considered cool. It can only weaken the New World Order by doing these things, not help it. Here's some things that can be done.

1. This is the most important, do not ever shop at Wal-Mart. I could write a book. First of all most of their products come from slave labor in China. They also do not pay their employees a competitive wage and most have to have a second job just to survive. They've just about destroyed small mom and pop groceries stores in general because the average person can save a few bucks. Yes this is true you'll save a few dollars going there, but think of the greater good, spend $5 or $10 more dollars for your local grocery store and stop feeding the Corporate machine.

2. Buying Music: I don't think this is too much of a problem since everyone I'm addressing this to is on the internet. I say keep on downloading. However, what I do is support Independant music that I like and buy their stuff. It's usually more reasonably priced and better music anyway. So download corporate music that you want, buy the real music.

3. Your car is just a big piece of metal, no matter how great you may think it looks. Who cares it really just gets you from one place to another. I drive a paid off 99 Dodge Neon, before that I was buried in debt from a brand new Truck that I was tired of after a year. I'm much happier with the average paid off car that doesn't suck gas down like a 14 year old kid with a coke. And please, please, please, do not ever get a hummer. In fact, if you ever see a hummer, flip them off, and take a picture of it and show it off to your friends, and tell them to flip off a hummer as well. They are gas guzzling stupid trendy wanna be tanks. Most people that drive hummers are ass****s anyway.

4. Just stay away from the mall, do you really like anything you see there? or is it just a perception. It's overpriced crap. Clothes are just meant to cover your body. I'm not saying you have to dress like a slob but paying out $300 and getting one pair of shoes and a shirt is just bad money management.

Tries these things out, and it might even make life better for you, and more importantly it may make for a better America.

[edit on 25-6-2005 by NoJustice]

A 99 Neon? Not trying to one up you, but I don't buy any car new or off some lot, because I know how to fix anything on them. I would add to your post for anyone wanting to get away from consumerism to be resourcesful. I have a 88 car which I bought for $300. I spent $75 dollars fixing it and drove it for two years before everything started to fail. I then spent another $500 fixing everything important on it. Total cost and maintenance on a car that gets 28-30 mpg is now at is about 875 dollars and I know everything about it now and it is performing way better than cars I have ridden in that are used and bought off a car lot that people payed much more for. This cost is just for the priveledge of owning it for a total of 4 years now. And, it is payed off free and clear, no debt. A newer car would have cost me probably more than $200 a month for a standard 24 or 36 months would have cost me more than 7 or 8 thousand dollars if nothing broke on it. The end result is I have a car that I know everything is fixed on it, where if I had bought a financed newer car, I would have been out a lot more money with the possibility of anything breaking eventually. My insurance is lower and I don't worry about losing my arse if it gets damaged, because I will still be way ahead of people buying cars from a lot. The moral of the story is that it pays to educate yourself on how to be resourceful in order to save tons of money and stay away from consumerism. All the money I have saved, I can now use for things I truly enjoy, like pursuing my hobbies. Of course everything can be called consumerism if you buy something from a producer, but you can find many many ways to be creative and find ways to do it yourself rather than pay someone else to do it for you.

Well, I'm a socialist so I should be against super corporations, but I think that big corporations are good, but they need to only have power within the corporate world.


I'd rather save the money thanks, I dont care if my goods were made by some chinese person, slave or not.

I dont buy music, so yeah.

Well, I do agree in part about humvee's, but only because they produce so much polution.

Actually yes, I do find things I like at the mall.

Mattaku akireru yo...

and this guy claims he's a Socialist!? OK... I'll let the first thing about corporations slide because if they didn't have political clout it's a very organized way to get alotta stuff done, you can have that... however the fact that he doesn't care about buying stuff made through slave labour in China kinda upsets me... Isn't socialism and communism about protecting the rights of the workers I mean... I know Lenin went crazy and Stalin was just ruthless but damn... too many people give Marx a bad rep... and he's buddhist!? Puhleeez I'm feeling alot of compassion over here man... and as for the dude who started this thread... I mean it's cool what you're trying to do here and all but flipping off hummers and not going to walmart isn't going to start a revolution... BUT SUPPORT YOUR UNDERGROUND MUSICIANS AND ARTISTS!!! THEY ARE THE ONE'S THAT WILL EVENTUALLY GET THE WORD OUT...

I should have rephrased that,when I hear "slave labour" I think of people who are just a bit underpaid.

I cant worry about how a country allows its people, when I am doing that for my own.

[edit on 6/25/2005 by iori_komei]

I myself have successfully shut off the part in my head that makes ya constantly want crap. Oooh! gotta have this, gotta have that. No. The future I believe is minimalism. Opulance and decadence is passe. Simplicity is key.

How many people are absolutely addicted to StarBucks? Think about it. Yes its cliche, but there are literally StarBucks across from Starbucks. Some may get into the esoteric meaning of their cryptic symbols(the all seeing eye pyramid can be seen on some), the over caffeinated/mainipulated beans, the use of slave labor bean pickers, or just the overall massive corporate takeover of it...but whatever the case; StarBucks is symbolic of takeover.

And? Forget Mcdonalds. A symbol of pure anathema to health and free being. Why is it ya always feel like crap, and you rmind clouded after eating there?
It's really sad how much they market their ultra unhealthy food to kids.

Stop supporting companies that support tyranny, genocide and death culture like Phillip Morris, IBM, coca-cola, Bayer, etc.

Disney has gotta be trimmed down...one of the biggest corporations in the world, and one of the worst abusers of attrocious 3rd world labor next to Nike, I see them as a big symbol amongst anyones idea of a 'new world order'.

Dont buy into hip hop culture, be it music or clothes. Let the rich white men in suits laughing at the perpetual negative stereotyping and mental slavery of black youth is wrong. The innocence and block rockin beats of rap and hip hop was hijacked by greedy thugs capitalizing on unfortunate events.

Half the country seems ot be addicted to the 300 left turns sport that is NASCAR. I cant think of a bigger sporting event that glorifies and rill sinto your head corporate greed, logos and such ideals.

Anyways, just some ideas for ya.

Originally posted by 8bitagent
I myself have successfully shut off the part in my head that makes ya constantly want crap. Oooh! gotta have this, gotta have that. No. The future I believe is minimalism. Opulance and decadence is passe. Simplicity is key.

How many people are absolutely addicted to StarBucks? Think about it. Yes its cliche, but there are literally StarBucks across from Starbucks. Some may get into the esoteric meaning of their cryptic symbols(the all seeing eye pyramid can be seen on some), the over caffeinated/mainipulated beans, the use of slave labor bean pickers, or just the overall massive corporate takeover of it...but whatever the case; StarBucks is symbolic of takeover.

And? Forget Mcdonalds. A symbol of pure anathema to health and free being. Why is it ya always feel like crap, and you rmind clouded after eating there?
It's really sad how much they market their ultra unhealthy food to kids.

Stop supporting companies that support tyranny, genocide and death culture like Phillip Morris, IBM, coca-cola, Bayer, etc.

Disney has gotta be trimmed down...one of the biggest corporations in the world, and one of the worst abusers of attrocious 3rd world labor next to Nike, I see them as a big symbol amongst anyones idea of a 'new world order'.

Dont buy into hip hop culture, be it music or clothes. Let the rich white men in suits laughing at the perpetual negative stereotyping and mental slavery of black youth is wrong. The innocence and block rockin beats of rap and hip hop was hijacked by greedy thugs capitalizing on unfortunate events.

Half the country seems ot be addicted to the 300 left turns sport that is NASCAR. I cant think of a bigger sporting event that glorifies and rill sinto your head corporate greed, logos and such ideals.

Anyways, just some ideas for ya.

I don't have a lot to add to this. The NASCAR bit made me laugh. My fam is big into watching that crapola and don't realize it is only so popular now that they (NASCAR) realized how to market it to anyone who isn't a redneck. Only a minority of people actually deserve to watch it on the merits that they more than a fan and not a couch racer.

Anyway, nice avatar. Disney is too intoxicating for impressionable minds.

Good four step plan.
I totaly agree with the Hummvees, I was just telling my wife how ...lets say "insurgent" those vehicles make me feel. Their gas guzzling is raising the gas price for EVERYONE.
Ever notice when a humvee is rolling down the street its only ONE DRIVER
And they are using as much gas as a two or three vehicles holding entire families.
Such selfish people deserve death.

I had a boss that owned not just one, but two of those things, and then a friend
who worked for that asshat who died of diabetes because he was never paid on the books,
and therefore had no insurance, including the unemployment insurace he should have
gotten when he was laid off. So four years of illegal work + unemployment + debt + no meds = death. Humvee owners kill.

Sad to say its impossible to not support corporations like Phillip Morris, IBM, Coca-Cola, etc, since they actually own tens of dozens of other companies. So when you think you are buying juice and supporting farmers, you are really support the sugar water corporation. When you think you are buying a healthy breakfast cereal you are supporting Phillip Morris, when you think you are buying a "computer for the rest of us" you are supporting IBM.

I think its like seven corporations countrol the entire world food supply. Sick.

Last night I saw the first good episode of The Simpsons in years. Homer went to work for Wal-Mart I think they called it Stern-Mart though. His Boss comes up to him and asks him "Homer, how would you like to be an Executive Greeter and do a lot of overtime and not get paid for it?" and Homer said no and the manager said "well are we going to have to send you back to Mexico?" and Homer said "But I'm a born American" and the boss said "Are you so sure about that?" and he showed him a Mexican Passport with Homer Gonzales as his name and a picture of him with a long mustache. Then later the manager left for the night and locked the employees in the building and Homer tried to leave but they had installed a microchip in his brain, pretty funny I thought.

I was watching a news show like 20/20 or one of those last and they brought a gal out from Bangledesh and brought her into a Walmart. She makes clothes for Walmart in her hometown. When they showed her a pair of running pants that she had made she broke down and cried when she saw the price tag $12.00. That is more than what she makes a month to make them.they work 7 days a week. I felt very bad for her.

The Walmart rep agreed they paid them very little but for Bangledesh is was a competitive wage. Then he was all proud of himself saying that in about 30 years by still working in the factories Bangledesh will no longer be in a 3rd world state. I think he is full of it.

Anyway, that poor lady at the end of the show was raging mad that they were being taken advantage of and quit the factory and now is teaching economy or somthing out there. Can you imagine the difference we could make in those peoples lives by picking out one family and sending them $15 bucks each month. That would be more than they make slaving 7 days a week for Walmart.

I agree that we are consumer addicts. I am becoming more aware of my 'needs'. It is a hard habit to break, especially when you grow up poor and now earn good money. I want to give my kids the best I can to make up for my crappy time as a kid. I have taught them value. That was the best thing so far. As young as they are, they know that if they want to get some little toy, they have money set aside for them. But, if they spend it, then they will have to wait until they save more money for the next thing. It's kinda funny to see my six year old debate the value of yu-gi-oh cards over say a video rental. It's ok to have nice things, just as long as it is something you need, not just for the sake of owning it.

I hope that makes sense

btw...No Justice you made my new sig.!

Originally posted by NoJustice
1. This is the most important, do not ever shop at Wal-Mart. I could write a book. First of all most of their products come from slave labor in China. They also do not pay their employees a competitive wage and most have to have a second job just to survive. They've just about destroyed small mom and pop groceries stores in general because the average person can save a few bucks. Yes this is true you'll save a few dollars going there, but think of the greater good, spend $5 or $10 more dollars for your local grocery store and stop feeding the Corporate machine.
[edit on 25-6-2005 by NoJustice]

lol, I love that. Buy your things at your local "mom & pop" shop. People will go there now and mom & pop will now have to add on and get more things because your saying shop there instead.

They add on to their little store and buy more items to accommodate the growing number of shoppers. People continue to come and buy more...some people complain they do not have what they want so mom & pop get more items to sell and with that money continue to expand.

Because mom & pop want the business and now have the money, they begin building mom & pop shops in more locations so their customers do not have to travel to get their items.

mom & pop keep expanding their now not so little local store because people thought, like you, it would be better then shopping at places like Wal-Mart.

The mom & pop store you where so happy to shop at is now big enough it can lower prices and buy massive quantities of items people are looking for.

They change their name to "Mom & Pop Mart".

Next, you are complaining and crying once again because the local mom & pop store magically is evil now. You again beg people to shop at their local stores and the whole thing starts over again.

Originally posted by shadow watcher
btw...No Justice you made my new sig.!

Hehe, thanks.

Here's me flipping off a hummer. It's so easy, anyone can do it.






[edit on 27-6-2005 by NoJustice]

Originally posted by andpau66
Next, you are complaining and crying once again because the local mom & pop store magically is evil now. You again beg people to shop at their local stores and the whole thing starts over again.

Well, yeah. If that's how the chain has to work, then that's how it works. Corporations have too much power and say so in America's Laws. It makes me sick. Sorry that I support the average person's rights over the big greedy Corporation, but I won't ever change my mind.

They take our money and turn around and use it to lobby Politicians, who are supposed to be for the people, to tell them what they are going to do or what laws to pass or they withhold donations from them. It should be illegal, I don't want some CEO of some big huge company deciding what I can or can't do, but it happens everyday.

Besides all of that, these are just some ideas from my own individual brain that won't change a thing. But if just one person reads this thread and may change their mind about going to Wal-Mart, then good. That's x amount of dollars that they won't have. Or even if it doesn't change anyone's mind, I still think it's good to have ideas that are different than what you normally would expect.

[edit on 27-6-2005 by NoJustice]

1. This is the most important, do not ever shop at Wal-Mart. I could write a book. First of all most of their products come from slave labor in China. They also do not pay their employees a competitive wage and most have to have a second job just to survive. They've just about destroyed small mom and pop groceries stores in general because the average person can save a few bucks. Yes this is true you'll save a few dollars going there, but think of the greater good, spend $5 or $10 more dollars for your local grocery store and stop feeding the Corporate machine.

While I mostly agree with this statement, I think companies like Wal-Mart [along with others like K-Mart, Target, Etc.]have helped create an environment with little options. They keep prices low, and wages even lower. Many consumers are left with little option but to buy from them. People who can afford to shop at slightly more expensive places often times do just that. I live in a small town, where I believe Wal-Mart really seems to thrive. You are exactly right, mom-and-pop stores cannot compete and before long Wal-Mart is all that's left. Personally, I don't have the extra 5-10 dollars to spend. It is indeed sad that these prices are lowered partly because of slave-like conditions but I think so many Americans have become apathetic to anything that's not slapping them right in the face. Do Americans care? Sure they do. Just not enough.

Originally posted by NoJustice

Originally posted by shadow watcher
btw...No Justice you made my new sig.!

Hehe, thanks.

Here's me flipping off a hummer. It's so easy, anyone can do it.
~snip picture~

[edit on 27-6-2005 by NoJustice]

Thats great! I like how the guy put the giant "HUMMER" sticker in the windshield, just in case we couldn't tell....sheesh....LOOK AT ME!!!!!



[edit on 27-6-2005 by tjack]

I am wondering when America will wake up and realize, their religion aint Christianity..it's blind consumerism. My god, I wrote an article in early 2001 saying how obsessed with a absolute fervor America was with consumerism and conveinence. This was a theme of Fight Club that I liked.

I once joked that if those planes on 9/11 had slammed into Phillip Morris,
I'd be praying to Allah. You want to look at a real life culprit of the NWO, look at Phillip Morris. A company that spends a lot of time and resources trying to find new ways to make sure 3rd world and disenfranchised people become hooked on their posion. It's a science. Same with Mcdonalds. It's a culture of death really. You look at the unthinkable human rights abuses Coca Cola has perpetrated on bottlers in Columbia and to some extent India...or the gross 3rd world slave labor practices of both Nike and Disney. Look at what GE has done..."We bring good things to life", yeah right.

However, as a counter point...it's hard to try and isolated oneself from avoiding forms of consumerism. If you're poor in America and or dont like spending a ton, Walmart is the place to go. So it's hard to say.

I don't have any problem at all avoiding Wal Mart, or the local Mall. Well, sometimes I do have to go to the Mall, but I park as close to the store I'm going to visit as I can, go directly to it, buy what I came for and leave. I've had to go there something like 3 times in the last 14 years so I wouldn't say it's a habit or anything. My situation is probably different from most folks though-- I'm retired and single.

I probably don't avoid the dang things for the right reasons though. I do it because I don't like crowds and all the noise, etc. that comes with them. On the other hand, I don't see any reason to fight back against corporate USA. What did they do that I should do that for? Most corporations are owned by average Americans through stock they bought. If you don't believe that, look up the stats and you'll see it's true.

Many people in this country (especially blue collar workers) resent the fact that jobs that could go to Americans are instead going to foreigners by virtue of the fact that our corporations are building their plants & factories overseas. You hear the unions holler about it all the time. They feel that corporations should build plants here in the U.S. and hire Americans--That it is wrong to build plants overseas and hire foreign workers. I'll grant you that we could do this and keep many jobs at home, but we would also have to erect very stiff tariffs on much of what we import just to keep our U.S. made products competitive. Tariffs here would quickly lead to tariffs everywhere and world-wide free trade would largely grind to a halt. In a nutshell, American workers earn far more per unit of labor than just about any other worker in the world, hence building a widget in America is going to cost more than building that same exact widget elsewhere--even including the cost to ship it back here. Overseas workers simply have cheaper labor rates--far cheaper labor rates and that difference permits building a less expensive product (no matter what the product is).

What does this really mean for America? Well for one thing it means our corporations are going to continue building plants overseas because they can get their products made more cheaply that way and thus be more competitive with similar products from somewhere else. It also means that the U.S. worker is transitioning from a "blue collar" job to a "service oriented" job and getting paid less as they transition. The alternative for most workers is to be without a job if they don't transition. Sure, some of them are going back to school and learning new trades & skills, but not enough of them to maintain their previous high standard of living. Again in a nutshell, it means that wealth is being redistributed around the world and American workers are involuntarily giving up wealth to others and they don't like it.

I perhaps don't have as much sympathy for american workers as I should. I think that greed led to excess demands for more money & benefits and that over time those demands (and settlement contracts to fill them) basically priced the American worker out of the maketplace. Those same cumulative demands/changes led directly to their jobs being exported overseas. I suppose American corporations bear some of the blame as well, but not much. Their whole purpose for existing is to earn income for their stockholders and I can't fault them for doing just that. Sure there have been excesses and mismanagement in some of them, but the business world is pretty ruthless & unforgiving of mistakes and the really bad corporations either went belly up or got bought out by others.

I don't buy the argument about "slave labor" either. I don't know of a single corporate factory overseas (U.S. Corporation) that employs slave labor and I don't believe there is one. Granted the factories are sited in countries where labor is cheap--hell that's the reason they are sited there in the first place. However, I don't see anything wrong with that. If they want higher wages let them organize unions and go through the same processes American workers went through to get them raised. I would encourage them to do just that. Perhaps they'll raise them enough that some factories will start coming back to the U.S. and American workers can get back some of their lost jobs.

[edit on 28-6-2005 by Astronomer68]

[edit on 28-6-2005 by Astronomer68]

[edit on 28-6-2005 by Astronomer68]

Originally posted by NoJustice
Consumerism is consuming us all. It is truly time that we need to think outside of the corporate box; dressing trendy, buying cars we can't afford does any of it really make us any happier? We need to uncool what is considered cool. It can only weaken the New World Order by doing these things, not help it. Here's some things that can be done.

Other than never stepping foot in Wal-Mart, the other three aren't really fighting "Corporate America" beyond the superficial in my opinion.

Big box retailers are just the distribution hub for evil, not the evil itself.

You want to help? Divest. Quit buying stock. The most widely held stocks are technology monopolies, media monopolies and pharmco monopolies.

Widely held means YOU own it. You are the NWO. Quit funding it at the source, which is NOT consumerism, it's CAPITALISM.

It'd help to stop voting Republican too. :shk:

For the sake of this thread I flipped off 2 hummers on my way home from work yesterday