#OccupyBestBuy

=v= Last night's midnight openings at big box stores have attracted encampments of people with tents who say they represent the 99%. What are their demands? For some reason the authorities haven't sent in riot police as they have elsewhere, so these groups have taken to self-policing, pepper spray included.

(Title notwithstanding, this happened at a Wal*Mart, but I thought I'd spread the love around. 'Tis the season!)

So Many Places Not to Shop!

=v= Plans to open stores at midnight on Buy Nothing Day have prompted a backlash (and a petition with over 200,000 signatures so far), and has spread to other stores at this point. In fact I'm having trouble keeping up with which stores to boycott, so I'm pretty much going to go with all of them. You can, too!

Why We Fight (Redux)

Not getting into the spirit of Buy Nothing Day, 2010:

Almost ... TOO quiet!

=v= We've been quiet. The Powers That Be declared that the Shopping Season was starting earlier this year, because Black Friday Buy Nothing Day was just too darned late this year. Well, our response is to start resisting even later. That'll show 'em!

You know who else has been quiet? All those conservative pundits who for years have been telling people to shop! shop! shop! because it's good for America. I guess they don't want things to be good for America or something? If anyone can explain this to us, please pipe up.

Or perhaps the discussion has just gone Web 2.0 on us. There's now a Buy Nothing Christmas page on Facebook, and of course we're getting the inside scoop on the North Pole's appalling labor conditions from @angrysantaelf over on Twitter. But if you want to make some noise here, you're welcome to. Comments are on.

The Timely Times

=v= Just in time for those who held off shopping until the last minute, the New York Times suggests we can "Just Say No, No, No, to the Ho-Ho-Ho". Great timing there.

Also, for Xmas day, a boffo review for Sita Sings The Blues (which you could buy, but thanks to copyleft, you aren't forced to).

Comments 2009

Resistance has seldom been easier. Whaddya think?

Buy Today!

This is the day, and the fine folks at amazero.com have precisely the right product to start off this year's Christmas Resistance Non-Shopping Season with!

Santa's Cap

=v= I was fleeing a mob of rampaging Santas and ducked into a nearby upscale department store. There was ... something different about it. They were playing Creedence Clearwater Revival instead of Christmas Carols.

Apparently their gimmick this year is "Hippie Holidays," and there were peace signs everywhere (peace on Earth, man!), plus a tree that was festooned with VW Microbuses and, um, hallucinogenic mushroom ornaments. This reminded me of a rather loopy letter we got when we first put the Xmas Resistance on the web, arguing that Santa's red clothes had something to do with the Amanita muscaria. I guess that's one way to keep the economy afloat.

I didn't end up buying any Christmas presents, of course, even though the San Francisco Chronicle has argued that this particular establishment sells "environmentally conscious" gifts -- such as $15,000 nature-themed earrings!

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Turn That Frown Upside-Down!

=v= Another year, another barrage of demands that we consume, to keep the economy from failing and the terrorists from winning. This Xmas-themed disposable cup from the Xmas of Evil was available in October.

The message is clear: get out there and give them your money. $700,000,000,000 isn't enough. And by all means, ignore those reports that "Black Friday" doesn't actually help the economy.

Why We Fight

"30,000 retards, idiots, consumer whores, and knuckledraggers push and shove their way into the Boise Town Square mall for 10% off over priced T-shirts." Thanks to ELB for the tip.

The Get-Up-And-Go Spirit

The San Francisco Chronicle's front-page story yesterday had a large bold headline of the sort used to announce a war victory, for an article about insane shoppers knocking themselves out on "Black Friday." Here are the opening lines:

The get-up-and-go spirit that helped America settle the West, win two world wars and put a man on the moon isn't dead. It's just gone to the mall.

It took four Chronicle staff writers to pen this drivel.

There was little about Buy Nothing Day in most of the media and not a word about the Elf Strike. (Apparently, elf-oppressors control the MSM.)

What Would Jesus Buy?

=v= It's out just in time for the Xmas Resistance Non-Shopping Season: What Would Jesus Buy? is a documentary about Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, who last year went on a nationwide tour to the heart of the nation's Shopocalypse.

The movie might well be playing at a theatre near you. Check the What Would Jesus Buy? website for details (and have fun watching the trailer).