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[–] 9 points 5 months ago* (5 children)

No idea, but it's great that many of y'all and us are doing this. Buy local, buy from worker co-ops, buy from ethical countries!

I'd recommend to also use Buybeaver & No Thanks, to boycot the US and the like. Generally I exclude Russia & Belarus, most of the Middle East (Israel included), and North & Middle Africa.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

    Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Costa Rica, Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Portugal, New Zealand, Slovenia, to name a few, are relatively ethical. I'd also give props to Brazil for managing to stave off an authoritarian coup. Denmark in my opinion scores the best of them all.

    I'd at the very least exclude these;

    • Israel
    • US*
    • Russia
    • Belarus
    • North Korea
    • China
    • Iran
    • Eritrea
    • Turkey
    • Malaysia
    • Literally all of Northern Africa, the broader Middle East, most of Central Africa, and South Asia for horrendous human rights, except for Cyprus and possibly India.

    There's probably a lot more, but yeah.

    * If it were possible, I'd only invest in states that have a solid labour and civil rights' record, without giving a penny to Trump and the fossil & military industry. New England (minus New Hampshire), the West coast, Hawaii, Minnesota, to take a few, would be best.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago* (2 children)

    Sweden is swinging to fascism, and they have the largest arms industry per capita in the world. They literally profit from unethical wars.

    Norway is drilling and exporting oil, which is profiting from mass extinction and one of the biggest existential threats to most life on earth.

    Canada usually joins the US in their unethical wars for oil. Also, their tar sands project in Alberta is one of the most ecologically devistating projects on the planet. And also profiting from contributing to the climate catastrophe.

    Belgium, by god, their wealth is built from the severed hands of workers in the Congo.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    Counterpoints;

    Agree on the swinging to fascism being problematic, however, Sweden has a Nordic model and generally is pretty inclusive, Norway has been moving away aplenty from oil (most of its vehicles drive electric now and energy production is largely renewables), Belgium's wealth is no longer built upon that.

    Alberta is a stain on Canada, and I think it should be addressed by urbanising that state, plus tackling socioeconomic inequality and the bands farmers have to oil and gas companies.

    What countries in your perspective, would be ethical? And don't say "none", just say closest to ethical in that case.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago*

    Intergenerational wealth doesn't go away on its own. Belgium would need to return every penny extracted from their slavery and torture in the Congo to even reach neutral status.

    Norway's oil isn't much domestically. The problem is that they sell it. It's irrelevant if they use it domestically or not. It's still being dug up and burned. That's the problem.

    I don't think there exists an ethical country. It's a sad reality. Cuba is maybe one of the closest to ethical (specifically thinking of State-sposnored efforts to send aid workers to disaster areas for altruistic reasons), but they certainly are not an ethical country.

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