Resist and unsubscribe

Last month, we watched the brutal deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis at the hands of government agents. Local law enforcement has been frozen out of investigations into these deaths of American citizens. The response from the Trump administration has been lies and propaganda. Masked ICE and Border Control officers continue to operate in American cities with impunity.

CEOs of major tech companies and uberwealthy Americans have been more than willing to go along with Trump's policies, even going out of their way to woo him with ridiculous awards (Tim Cook), large donations to his inauguration fund (Sam Altman gave $1 million), or paying absurd sums for the rights to a documentary on Melania (Jeff Bezos). In the case of the Minneapolis killings, their public comments have been milquetoast at best.

Tim Cook presents Trump with a gift in the Oval Office.

Tech leaders at Trump's inauguration.

Melania Trump at the opening of "Melania" (produced by Amazon).

In the past week I've felt very helpless. But I recently learned about a collective action that might have an impact if widely adopted. Market signals have forced several of Trump's major retreats, including his walk-back of tariff policies (after the bond markets panicked) and his reduced aggression around acquiring Greenland. Even a tiny drawdown in subscription spending by Americans could make a sizable dent in the revenues of the "Magnificent 7" companies that drove almost all S&P 500 gains in 2025.

In short, we can use our economic power as consumers to get the attention of tech CEOs and the Trump administration. In addition, by avoiding firms that have actively cooperated with the Trump Administration's ICE and Border Control (especially AT&T, Charter Communications, Spotify, Home Depot, Lowes, and Marriott), we can send a message that complicity with state terror is a negative brand attribute.

Scott Galloway explains the plan in a recent newsletter and briefly in this video:

The website resistandunsubscribe.com provides a simple list of Mag 7 companies with links to their unsubscribe pages. It also includes a second list of companies that are actively assisting ICE and DHS. It's understood that unsubscribing from all of these companies could be too much of a hardship for some. Simply choosing a few (and passing the word to your networks) could still be impactful, even just for the month of February.

Caveats

Could this actually have an effect? It fully depends on mass adoption, so it's far from a sure thing. However, I believe there are enough Americans who feel helpless like I do and are looking for a way to express their frustration. In a capitalist society like ours, the way we spend our money can speak volumes.

Rashna and I are choosing to participate because we believe that it is a worthwhile idea and there is little downside. In an age when subscriptions tend to pile up, it's a useful exercise to consider which ones are truly worth our money. And if that experiment makes a giant company question its choice to cozy up to an authoritarian, so much the better.

I hope you will consider joining us!

What we are doing

We are in the process of leaving AT&T and moving to a new mobile carrier. For at least the month of February, we are also going to do the following:

• Cancel our Netflix subscription

• Cancel our YouTube Premium subscription

• Cancel our AppleTV subscription

• Avoid buying anything on Amazon

• Avoid buying anything at Lowes or Home Depot