It isn’t mixed messages. It isn’t even hypocrisy. It is so very far beyond that. There is no inconsistent morality or ideals to depart from. Words, categories, definitions… these things mean what they need them to mean in the moment. Whatever serves their interests becomes the reality they pretend exists.

Do I suffer when I offend people with my speech? Respect the first amendment! Free speech! Government oppression! Tyranny! Anti-American!

Do I suffer when someone else says it? Well, that’s hate speech. Damages our children. It’s basically a call to violence - terrorism really, when you get right down to it. Anti-American!

Name a value and I promise you they’ll flip on a dime given the right situation.

2nd amendment? Not if minorities start carrying! Freedom of religion? Only as long as it’s their religion… Every life is sacred? Nah, only the lives they care about, like cute little white babies.

Nothing means anything anymore and that’s just how they like it.

While I like the idea of credit unions, I opened a bank account with one for my first credit card - I was traveling overseas and it was recommended to have a card for that. I put $500 in a new savings account but the card arrived too late for my trip so I kind of let it sit and never really used the card or account. Checked back a year or two later and the account lost money due to an inactivity fee. Closed my accounts instantly. Shit like that really sticks with you and I’m still hesitant to try them again.

When I was a kid my mother’s boyfriend bragged of doing exactly this. He heard them having a conversation in another language at a gas station, approached them, and started speaking to them in German. When they were confused he allegedly said exactly the phrase. You are in America, speak English. He thought it was hysterical.

He may have been full of shit, but the fact that he felt it worth bragging about said enough about him.

Don’t know about getting money back, but it is something of a coop. My link includes a recommendation to vote “withhold” in the current election, why they recommend the action, and how to do so.

REI. Just another corporation in a “Good Guy” costume. https://www.ourrei.com/2025-rei-board-elections

Union busting, problematic supply chains, pulling PPE from staff. Hell, officially supporting Trump’s pick for Secretary of the Interior because I guess they can’t help themselves.

I try to spend consciously and it’s fucking depressing. The list of companies I avoid grows and grows and grows. If it isn’t some antisocial billionaires throwing their weight around trying to get more money or change the world to better fit their vision with complete and utter disregard for normal people, it’s pressure from the millionaires to increase share value so they can try to get their turn.

The need to increase profit, or more recently increase the rate of growth (the line that shows how fast the line goes up has been discovered so now that line needs to go up), has ruined everything.

If the company isn’t completely, directly captured by these antisocial forces they are indirectly captured by the environment that is dominated by those same forces. Monopolies, anticompetitive business practices, hostile takeovers, vulture capitalists, ladder pulling, or just people strapped for cash that just buy whatever is cheaper regardless of the human cost involved.

Now everyone else is being squeezed and struggle to live a decent life or find dignity. Those responsible for this environment just use those struggling people. They’ll redirect them to squeezing each other - scams, pyramid schemes, MLMs. They’ll keep us fighting amongst ourselves - blame immigrants, minorities, DEI.

Now “AI” is continuing to get hyped and pushed even if it sucks at its job and demands insane amount of energy. It’s way cheaper than people, or at least the cost is easier to pass on to others and it might be even cheaper eventually… so everyone is investing in it.

From an American perspective, it’s just so much and I feel like things are only getting worse and fast.