Please stop spamming me with “not one damn dime” messages telling me to not buy anything on Thursday the 20th. It's a stupid idea and it won't accomplish anything.
First of all, I live in Mexico. Before that I lived in Canada. I haven't lived in the United States for a very long time, nor do I plan to do so again any time soon. So you're wasting my time and yours writing me and insisting that I not buy anything on the day of Bush's innauguration.
Second of all, the “apathy approach” to resistance is a farce.
You might as well call it “buy twice as much stuff on Friday the 21st day”. You think the economy lives in a one day window, or that the “international media” is going to be reporting on the day that a bunch of over-spending consumers took down the President with their lack of gluttony? You think Bush gives a damn what The Guardian UK prints? He doesn't even care what the New York Times prints. Power has been seized. I feel like that dingleberry John Stossel here, but give me a break. If you do this, you can bet that the only end-effect is that those in power will be laughing at you.
If you don't buy anything on the 20th, one of two things will happen. If you then have to go and buy all those things afterwards, then you've accomplished nothing. However, if you don't, then you've illustrated that there's something fundamentally wasteful about your current spending. Fixing that is a lot more than one let's all pat ourselves on the back for doing nothing day — it's a lifestyle change that you either make for the long term, or not at all. If you can't cut down your spending, at least buy from small, local companies as much as you can though — that will make a difference.
Want to get Bush out of power through your spending and consumer profile? Don't buy from the megacorporations that put him in power. Hurt the corporation and you hurt the Republican political machine… although that would require effort and thought and even research. Who's up for it?
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