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Comment by justaguyhere | Hacker News Reader

In an ideal world, it would be nice if we (governments, individuals, businesses etc) didn't support oppressive regimes and other bad actors. But would we though? Take Amazon - we know that they are almost as bad as Walmart on a host of issues, but how many of us would give up the convenience of one click shopping? It would be inconvenient, sure, but it is much easier for an individual to stop shopping at Amazon than for companies to give up billions of dollars in profit and answer their shareholders (to whom nothing matters but profit).

I am not saying Google/Apple is right - just pointing out that almost all of us are hypocrites at some level, some more than others.

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Be the change you wish to see in the world. Smartphones are now essential, so you can't completely avoid doing business with at least Google xor Apple, but you can absolutely give up one-click shopping. I've never used it. I've never had Amazon Prime. It's been multiple years since I last bought anything at all on Amazon. I've used Uber less than five times (and Lyft none), and the last time was over three years ago.

Don't act like these services are essentials. They're nothing but tiny conveniences. And while your individual boycott won't have an impact on their bottom lines, their entire existence depends on hundreds of millions of people in your exact situation, giving in to defeatism or not even caring in the first place.

> Smartphones are now essential, so you can't completely avoid doing business with at least Google xor Apple...

What? Why?

Smartphones are convenient, but essential? Phone calls and SMS/MMS still work without a smartphone.

There are plenty of (nontrivial) services, devices, etc. that you simply can't use without a smartphone any more. Most of that dependency is artificial, but it exists nonetheless.

Exactly. We seem to forget that our parents lived just fine and even happily without most of these instant-gratification and convenience services. It is possible, if we try.

There are people who often apply this logic to smartphones and even internet access, which is wrong. Those things are now as necessary as cars for participation in society. But there are plenty of other modern products and services that are very much just conveniences, many of which come from the companies with the most scandalous headlines.

Does it hurt to have priorities and pick your battles? Oppression, especially state-sponsored, of women and minorities is way higher concern to me than Amazon's many and varied infractions.

There's also a problem of feasibility: Fairphone eventually conceded on their idealized fair trade product after an amazing effort. There's also world hunger and disease resulting in serious but avoidable death.

You could call this hypocrisy if you want but it's a matter of resources available to fight for these causes.

Convenience is one factor and an even greater factor is price. People have as much morality as they can afford.

For the things that make a smart phone smart. We expect people to be able to find locations without directions, access arbitrary information, receive email, use eTickets, access calendars, etc - on the go, at any time of their day.

Smartphones aren't really about phone calls or sms.

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