What can we do ?
I ask myself this question every day lately. As an average citizen, politically invisible, odorless, and colorless, what can one do?
It's not about hoping to have any impact, but rather about nurturing and maintaining one's moral compass.
For me, there must be positive and negative contributions to society. Boycott the products and services you can boycott: Israeli food or others (take your pick from the list of fascist countries, there's no shortage), certain digital services, etc.
I just banned Amazon from my life, in favor of Cdiscount and local shops. It's not perfect, but it's a start. And it's painless.
I have my own Nextcloud server, which allows me to:
- have my own notes/sticky notes instead of Google Keep
- have an RSS feed manager instead of Google News
- have my own online file manager instead of Google Drive. I double that with a French and sovereign service called Cozy.
My email service is German, one of the countries with the most rigorous and reliable legislation on protecting citizens' data. I pay 12 euros a year for it. In return, I get a service encrypted at the quantum level and guaranteed without ads or violation of my personal data.
My digital distributor as a musician is European.
But in my opinion, it is also necessary to compensate with positive contributions to society.
- PayPal payments offer to round up bills with a donation to associations, which allows me to make donations to women's defense (Fondation des Femmes, UN Women), the LGBT community, youth, Emmaüs, etc.
- 2€ per month from my meal voucher allocation goes to Restos du Coeur
- 2€ per month goes to supporting Wikipedia
It's not much, but I can look at myself in the mirror.
What do you think ?
