So, what did you do, or not, on February 28, 2025? I went snowshoeing without snowshoes (too messy to get past the parking lot), and then dancing, which was a different kind of beauty. What I didn’t do was shop. February 28, 2025, was a boycott. Don’t buy basically anything corporate in protest against – the oligarchs, I guess. Whether it worked or didn’t, it may be the start of a new trend. And, to get all personal finance-y about it, trends are good things to watch because they can make a difference.

Pardon me as I steal from myself.
A frequent flaw in military campaigns is for generals to fight the new war using the old war’s tactics, but…
“Weapon technology advanced while tactics didn’t. Politics is no longer the social movement of the 60s. Marches are gratifying, but not as powerful as the right and lucky viral tweet or video.” –  (Nonsense)
Masses of people marching only affects people who listen and watch. Oligarchs may not care.

As I understand it, an economic boycott may be one of the ways to get them to notice the non-oligarchs. It was worth a try, and may be again. Early reports are that there wasn’t much of a change. As a friend mentioned (paraphrased), “One day may not do it. Maybe a month would.” Tesla is inadvertently acting as a test case. Tesla sales are down about 50% in Europe.

Tesla sales being down, even TSLA shares being down may mean a multi-billionaire is only, wait for it, a multi-billionaire. Money is not the motivation, except as a measure of something intangible and effectively artificial. 

But here’s the personal finance influence. TSLA shares being down won’t make their biggest shareholder poor. It wasn’t until I started typing this that I realized there may be thousands of shareholders who were impacted more. The oligarch may scoff at the consumer, but the shareholders have authentic power over the people associated with the company.

The last few months gave me a front-row seat to the impact of casual comments. Since the US election, my portfolio has seen swings of ~50% – and I don’t own stock in the mega-corps. A mega-corp CEO provides a personal opinion and my portfolio swings between me shopping for land for a house and me planning on stocking a prepper pantry.

On social media, I jokingly declared March is for Marches. Sure. Do that, at least for ourselves. But I think my friend’s idea of a month-long boycott may be more effective.

Ironically, many of my friends are not ‘normal’ – and I write that in an affectionate way. I am not the most frugal person I know. Calls for boycotts can make sense, but first find people who are spending money. Whether by choice or necessity, most of my friends gave up shopping at Walmart years ago. Amazon still gets business because sometimes that’s the only way rural areas get supplies. Microsoft/Apple/Google are a limited field from which to buy computers, which are not discretionary. When you’re already not shopping there, they won’t notice that you didn’t show up.

I violated the boycott two ways. I bought gas. I streamed a movie. It was a sunny and warm Friday, and I am using such days to take photographs for one of my next books and projects, Twelve Months at Hurricane Ridge. On Saturday, it was a new month, so I did it again, just in case the National Park gets closed for some bizarre reason. On Saturday, there was no boycott, and I didn’t even buy gas. (By the way, I buy gas at the station in the S’Klallam nation. I wonder if they can make a deal and get their country back.)

My friend’s response to decoupling his finances from the market’s was to sell almost all of his shares. He sold at the top, accidentally. Nicely done. I’ve ridden it back down again, as I tend to do.

This isn’t our old world. The old strategies and tactics may apply, but the terrain is shifting. The old strategies and tactics can also become counter-productive without warning. One bit of hope is that somewhere within human culture, society, and civilization, someone has the answer for new strategies and tactics. 

As I included above, a march or boycott may be worth doing to express ourselves, but in this new struggle, they may not be “as powerful as the right and lucky viral tweet or video.” Stay tuned. Shop local. Be frugal. Be kind. And speak up. That casual thought you just thought may be the thought that everyone else needs to hear.

And if you need to get a view of real reality, allow me to recommend looking at nature. I do.