I'm gonna piggy back on this. I often like to go to sites and search for political terms, just to see how different competing sites are. If you search for "communism" on Amazon, most of your results are anti-communist, where as on Ali it's hard to find anything anti-communist. On Amazon if you read the reviews on communist books or flags, for instance, you'll see a lot of the reviews are from anti-communists. Whereas if you read the reviews from anti-communist or NATO backed flags or books (or what have you) on Ali, most of the reviews are pro-communist or anti-NATO.

Amazon and Ali harbour entirely different cultures, and their core demographics are totally different geopolitically. So, for communists, Ali really is the best place to find political stuff.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

Man one time I tried to ask the seller on AliEx to urge President Xi to liberate my country but the message got blocked by the website's filter for containing politics. Thought it would be a bit cringe to try and circumvent the filter so left it at that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

Also, I've not heard anything about Aliexpress treating their laborers like literal cattle, so that's a plus.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 years ago (1 children)

tldr: Buying plastic crap from private company that forces cuts out of peoples sales by making independent shops invisible is cool, but only if they are from "communist" country.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

What's your point?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 children)

I don't know about "better than amazon in every aspect", but Aliexpress are sure as shit not perfect ideologically either. 5 minutes, and me having zero language or cultural context to know what spicy things to look for, and I found these blackface T-shirts:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003928029140.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003928001217.html

As well as that, and whatever other "gaps" exist in content moderation, a lot of the clothing on AliExpress (and in my experience a bunch of the electronics) is basically disposable, which is setting the planet on fire. And there was allegedly a child who died working in an Alibaba factory in 2016 which is not exactly sounding like a workers' utopia.

Amazon vs. another automated-negligence marketplace doesn't seem like a fight worth having, when things like Fairmondo are out there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

Possibly. But let's get some perspective too, the two t-shirts you pulled are from the same seller and only 1 unit was ever sold. Those are the only two items on the website when you search for blackface, it's hardly a widespread problem. Regardless I was able to report the items directly to ali and we'll see if anything comes out of it. Moreover, Amazon sellers are usually just aliexpress resellers, except their items are 3x more expensive. Amazon is just being a middleman for aliexpress (with the added benefit, perhaps, that your items arrive sooner though I've had very good delivery times on ali).

The child did not die in an Alibaba factory but in a seller's that sells on the platform, as alibaba and aliexpress are just marketplaces.

which is not exactly sounding like a workers’ utopia.

Nobody is saying China is a worker's utopia.

things like Fairmondo are out there.

Only available in Germany though.

Consumers are not responsible for climate change, and reading the vice article was somewhat funny because now UK retailers that have been racing to the bottom are, once again, being outraced by China and crying about it. They created this commodification (or rather capitalism did, and they were the mere vectors), and now they can't stop it. While we are in capitalism, as workers we will partake in it. The only way to stop the climate crisis is revolution, but until then there will be online retailers, there will be giants, and there will be labour exploitation.