One of the upshots of US support for Israeli criminality over the past two years has been the cowardly position adopted by US supplicant states who feel wedged by realpolitik and morality.

This position can be summarised as follows: say as little as possible about Israel’s crimes, never mention the word genocide and do the bare minimum on Palestine in response to domestic public pressure. Australia is, perhaps, the purest example of this craven position, which is simply the latest manifestation of a long history of embarrassing deference to “great and powerful friends”.

Will this state of affairs change any time soon? Not unless there is a seismic change in US foreign policy in relation to Israel, which by default means a seismic change in Australian policy towards Israel. Who is prepared to bet on that eventuality?

Here, in Australia, ministers Albanese, Wong and Marles remain disciplined executors of the strategic status quo, or what I have called elsewhere the Canberra Consensus. Security establishments favour the most adroit conformists. This Labor trio see their role as maximising Australia’s power in the global system, which to them means placing the US alliance above any other consideration. This is how you can ignore a genocide for two years and still manage to sleep at night: simply convince yourself that whatever you did or didn’t do, it’s all in the national interest. In ordinary life, healthy shame functions as an operating influence on personal behaviour. Not so in the political sphere. Do Albanese, Wong and Marles feel personal shame at the complicity of the Labor Government in the genocide in Gaza? Perhaps in their most private moments, they do. But they’ll never say so publicly. In any event, private shame is meaningless if it doesn’t impact public behaviour.

Accepting this sad state of affairs, the question Australians who oppose genocide must ask is: how do I influence a world in which those who hold power feel no shame? How do I influence leaders who through their shamelessness have trashed international law? The answer, I believe, lies in the material realm. Presently, whether we like it or not, we exist in a theatre of power relations in which values-based rhetoric holds no sway. And so, we must wield influence with one of the most effective tools available: collective consumer behaviour.

Today, we all have a degree of default behavioural complicity in something nefarious, be it climate change, the plastic crisis, or child labour in Congolese cobalt mines. The list goes on and on. Simple changes to our consumer behaviour, however, can reduce our default complicity and apply pressure on nefarious actors. This is the theory of change of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS movement. The BDS movement recognises that Israel “derives its strength primarily from the complicity and support of governments, corporations and institutions”. By targeting corporations directly, it is reasoned, pressure can be brought to bear on Israel.

Everyone should now be reviewing their exposure to the companies listed in the BDS boycott guide, as well as the companies listed in the UN’s “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” report. Deciding not to buy a SodaStream or an XBOX or a HP product should be easy enough for most. As should cancelling an Amazon account. Migrating to alternative digital services, however, will be more difficult for many. There are many online guides offering detailed information about migrating away from the multitude of services offered by Google. It’s a lot to take in. For those who want to start simple, the most effective way to reduce exposure to listed companies is by focusing on the digital services used most often in daily life: email, internet browsers, search engines and messaging apps.

Below is a list of the product changes I made recently in each of these spheres (and a few others) in an effort to reduce my exposure to listed companies. All have a focus on privacy and security. I present this information not as a recommendation that the reader choose the same products and services I did, but as options to consider when reorienting their own digital life.

Email:

Switched from Google’s Gmail to both ProtonMail and TutaMail. Mailfence is another option I considered. All three offer a 1GB free plan for those who prefer not to pay for an email account.

Browser:

Switched from Google Chrome to Firefox. Firefox is, perhaps, the most popular alternative to Chrome and can be easily customised for additional privacy by installing uBlock and other privacy and anti-tracking browser “extensions”.

Search engine:

Switched from Google Search to DuckDuckGo. Firefox allows you to set DuckDuckGo as the default search engine. I now do all my internet browsing through the DuckDuckGo search engine, rather than Google.

Messaging:

Switched from Meta-owned WhatsApp to Signal. Signal is an open source, encrypted messaging service with both app and desktop platforms. Once the app is downloaded, you can start messaging contacts who also use Signal. You can invite those that don’t to download it too.

Amazon:

Deleted my Amazon account. Moved from the Amazon-owned Goodreads to an alternative called The Story Graph. Migration of reading lists from Goodreads to The Story Graph was simple.

Microsoft Office and Google Suite (G-Suite)****:

Downloaded LibreOffice which has an office suite that mirrors that of Microsoft Office and G-Suite.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.