Kobo and other small acts of resistance
This is my third attempt at writing this post. The tariffs were coming, then they weren't, then they were again. Now it's all on hold for thirty days. More chaos and uncertainty to wreak havoc on our lives, businesses, and livelihoods. Last night Trump proposed exiling all Palestinians to neighbouring states, taking over the Gaza Strip, and turning it into a new Riviera. Everybody "loves the plan", apparently. Sure. And did I hear this right, about Ukrainian aid now being tied to them handing over their mineral resources? Maybe not. I don't know. I can't even follow anymore. I've deliberately tuned out news feeds from my daily ritual, but I'm not sure it's being all that beneficial: every traditional newscast is now a series of exploding grenades. He said what? When?? Mount Rushmore???? Yes, they're flooding the zone—but knowing that doesn't help. It's still tough to avoid whiplash.
Nick Heer wrote an article this week with a title that pretty much encapsulates our current mood in Canada: The United States Is a Hostile Neighbour – Pixel Envy
Here's a quote:
The president posted today that “Canada should become our Cherished 51st State”, effectively saying the tariffs are part of a hostile takeover strategy. And, sure, maybe he does not mean it; maybe if he gets a series of special edition Trump-branded Timbits, he will call the whole thing off. But we are now on the receiving end of economic warfare from the world’s most powerful nation, and an explicit threat of far worse.
Destroying is trivial—any fool can take a sledgehammer to a room and break everything. But relationships aren't as easily rebuilt as dry wall. Some just can't be fixed again.
Beyond the obvious geopolitical implications and threats to our national integrity, Heer's post also points out our technological reliance on US-made devices, platforms, and ecosystems. This is a fact of life we've never questioned but are now suddenly forced to view under a very different light. It's easy to label this as complacency on our (and much of the world's) part. As willfully blind, or even naïve. But what I personally find so immensely sad, is that it came from a genuine place of trust. Trust in the idea of participating in a mutually beneficial collective of allies, a world striving to exist beyond tribal considerations. Trust in friendship, long-held beliefs, shared values, and respect.
I could point out Trump's lies, the stubborn reality that Canada accounts for 1/5 of 1% of all Fentanyl entering the US. I could talk about the trade deficit nonsense and how that's like accusing Ikea of robbing you when you buy all your furniture from Ikea. I could say he's railing against (and breaking) an agreement he negotiated and signed. And on, and on. But none of it matters—it's all smoke and mirrors and incoherent drivel.
Last weekend I converted all my Amazon book purchases to EPUB. Tracing down the right procedure took me awhile, but it's actually not that hard once you figure it out. I ordered a Kobo Clara BW to replace my much-beloved Kindle Paperwhite. A Canadian product from a Canadian company. I'm not fooling myself: this is an infinitesimal drop in Bezos' bucket, to say nothing of the American economy as a whole. But Amazon has been at the centre of our purchasing habits as a family for years, and now we're actively looking elsewhere (1). Same with groceries. Same with clothes. Everything. It's not so much a boycott as a change in mindset: what used to be obvious needs to be re-examined. Small acts, all of them, for sure... but slow drips have a way of accumulating—until the ceiling crashes into the living room.
Ultimately, this might just prove to be a sorely needed awakening.
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1: We were never blind to Amazon's multiple labour issues. But this year marked a pretty astounding shift: the price of Amazon Prime went up drastically; they imposed tv ads to their existing subscribers (just pay us more and we'll remove them!); we witnessed Bezos and the Washington Post "neutrality" edict; followed by his million-dollar "contribution" to the Trump fund (like all tech leaders, shamelessly). And then, a few weeks ago, they did this. Incidentally, that number has since ballooned to 4500 affected workers.
