There really needs to be an organized effort from sellers and buyers to identify a solid alternative, which is hard. And post listing about moving off to that platform. A lot of existing ones have their own downsides, and there are just not enough people on them consistently and actively

Is this how a civil war starts?

Outside of North America, most other countries’ use WhatsApp as a choice for personal and business uses is WhatsApp. Rest are mostly dominated by Facebook messenger. Excluding China which has WeChat domestically.

How Meta was ever allowed to buy WhatsApp without triggering anti-trust laws is beyond me.

Some numbers

Many of my European and South American friends are having a hard time because that’s where all their families and friends back home are, and it’s hard to get them to use something new, especially the older folks.

That’s good information. It does sound like the backlash happened before large scale car friendly infrastructure got too ingrained. That’s likely an easier pivot earlier on. And curious if guns were as fetishized culturally as it is in the US?

I still think industry financial interests are still the biggest roadblock to any meaningful change. In the US especially, where profit comes before well being, almost all of the time.

If she’s shopping on Temu with white labeled products, she’s going to get what she paid for. Sounds like you’ve also concluded she’s the problem. She’s the demand side of the equation. If there’s demand for cheaply made crap, there will be more cheaply made crap.

There are also ways to gauge the quality of products before buying online. You make it sound like it’s impossible. Like reviews and research and buying from reputable brands that have good track records. Most of which are likely manufactured in China, but with actual quality assurance.

While I still say buying local is king, you’re like way too irrationally angry at this. Likely because she’s offloading cheap crap onto you and making it your problem.

I would like to learn about this a bit more, I keep hearing it in conversations here and there. Do you have links around studies/data on this?

I mean, I would love North America as a whole not need to rely on cars as much as we do now. This involves building walkable neighborhoods and investment in public transit. But the car lobby is not going to let that happen. Same with the gun lobby in the US.