My news blackout didn’t last long. Like many, I was outraged by the shit-show that took place in the White House Oval Office last Friday. The bullying and intimidation of President Zelensky by Trump and Vance was horrific. The last time I was this angry from watching the news was when Russia hit the maternity hospital in Mariupol on the 9th of March 2022 (these two things have made me remember - I once wrote a short post about The Ides of March).

It all got me thinking - what can we do as individuals to push back?

Over the weekend, European leaders made all the right noises in support of Ukraine and even backed this up with some real financial commitment.

I fear it’s not enough. The modest increase in defence budgets pale in comparison to what Russia is spending, especially when you take into account purchasing-power parity. The UK commitment of 5,000 lightweight multi-role missiles (LMM) is better than nothing, but in reality, it will perhaps cover Ukraine for a few weeks' defence against Shahed drone attacks. They will be useless against ballistic missile attacks.

Now, the situation is compounded by Trump suspending military aid to Ukraine.

He has also commenced the first stage of his trade war, supposedly putting America first by shitting on everyone else, including allies and American consumers.

Can this be a moment for Europe to get its act together? Fill the gap in support for Ukraine and build an industrial base that offers an alternative to US hegemony? I’m skeptical.

Back to the question - what can we do as individuals?

One obvious answer is that we can divest from America. We know from the first term that Trump’s primary objective and metric for success is growth in the US stock market and the enrichment of himself and his billionaire backers.

This gave me an idea. What if I were to create a website that informs users about US companies and brands and suggests alternatives? Instead of just pulling information from Wikipedia and other sources, it could use AI-backed search and suggestions.

I would need to ‘eat my own dog food,’ which means spending no money on a tech stack that involves US companies. That means no US-owned domain registrars. No US-owned web hosts. No US AI models, and of course, it would be hypocritical to use Chinese AI models. It should also not rely on any other US technology components that could require payments to scale the website - databases, caches, code repositories, etc.

Then, I may need to market it, but that means no Google, no Facebook, X, Instagram, or Threads. Again, no TikTok because of the Chinese factor.

If I eventually choose to monetise it in some way, it would need to offer customers a way to pay without involving US payment processors. That means no Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Google Pay, Apple Pay, or PayPal.

You see the problem here.

What if, personally, I take a stand? Move away from US services and technology? Shop for groceries and other goods, omitting US-owned brands?

Easier said than done.

Putting aside the lack of viable alternatives for many of these things, there’s also the little issue of cost.

This brought me to the conclusion - ethical consumption is a middle-class privilege. One I can’t currently afford to entertain, at least not in its entirety.

Ethical consumption, just like ethical investing, is complicated.

You could decide to boycott US fast-food chains such as McDonalds. The problem here is that most of these are franchises. You’re not just impacting the US behemoth, you’re also impacting UK owners and employees, who bought the franchise or were employed before the US decided to take this turn.

When purchasing a car, appliance, or buying insurance, you could decide that some of the big German companies may offer viable alternatives. But then you remember that Allianz provided insurance for concentration camps, Mercedes-Benz provided the Nazi elite with bulletproof cars, Siemens employed more than 80,000 slave labourers, and Hugo Boss designed the SS uniforms. These companies acknowledge their history. Some justify that they had no choice - they were only protecting their staff and shareholders. But still…

Boycotts and cancel culture can work, but they can also have repercussions. Nothing is simple. The international boycott of South Africa played a significant role in ending the apartheid system, but it wasn’t the sole factor. It also required leadership changes, shifts in geopolitics, and internal resistance within South Africa.

Where are the U.S. Heroes?

Is history repeating, or have today’s industrialists not learned the lessons of the past? There have been huge advances in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in recent years, mainly as a result of legal action and activist shareholders. So far, I’m struggling to list the American businesses and billionaires that are taking a stand in support of Ukraine. Plenty are moaning about tariffs, which makes sense, but what about Ukraine and the march to authoritarianism? I guess self-interest trumps everything.

I used to think, naively, that whatever happens in America, the US Constitution means that it can’t turn into Nazi Germany. Yet, we now have a situation where the American people have elected a president who doesn’t believe in the Constitution, backed by a US Congress that refuses to hold him accountable, and a US Supreme Court that cherry-picks and interprets the Constitution based on their political biases.

The Weimar Republic failed in Germany because it was a new experiment with democracy. Germany lacked the historical depth of democratic institutions. This, compounded with the Armistice Treaty and the Great Depression, fostered the environment that allowed Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party to get democratically elected. Yet to get there, he also needed financing. There would have been no Führer without backing from rich businessmen, such as Alfred Hugenberg.

I recently watched the excellent Apple TV+ series - Vietnam: The War That Changed America. The last episode featured a businessman who did stand up and do something.

In the dying days of the Vietnam War, when American troops had pulled out, and the North Vietnamese Army was marching on Saigon, the American businessman, Ed Daly, who was horrified that America would let down an ally, organised humanitarian evacuation flights to rescue South Vietnamese civilians.

In the same episode, I also learned about Larry Chambers, who, while in command of USS Midway, defied orders and risked a court-martial in order to save the lives of Republic of Vietnam Air Force Major Buang-Ly and his family. Buang-Ly was circling USS Midway in a Cessna light aircraft, but there was nowhere to land on the cramped carrier deck. Larry Chambers gave the order to push overboard millions of dollars’ worth of Huey helicopters to clear room.

The chaotic scenes in the last days of the Vietnam War would be repeated when America fled from the Taliban in Afghanistan 46 years later.

Less than a year before the evacuation of American civilians and “at-risk” Vietnamese from Saigon, Richard Nixon, facing conviction for abuse of power, was forced to resign as President. What would it take for this Congress to stand up to Trump? I dread to think.

History doesn’t repeat, it rhymes. So they say.