TIL that Proctor & Gamble and Unilever actively sponsor Russian war efforts and are on the International Sponsors of War list.

No, it's not just the taxes, though that's obviously a component of it. A quick google search will lead you to find that they are obligated by law to directly contribute to Russia's military efforts by registering its draft-eligible staff, turning over information relevant to the war, assisting in the delivery of military equipment, and providing physical infrastructure, among other things.

Ukrainian or not, this isn't just "oh well you're kind of indirectly supporting the war by funding the government". It is a very direct form of involvement.

Some companies have a large business there

Carlsberg has started to sell stuff iirc but they had 2000 employees or something on a couple of breweries.

Their effectively paying taxes through their pay?

Also is there VAT in russia? That could also be part of it..

I have an idea. We steal lard from plastic surgeons, turn it into soap, and then sell it back to the rich bastards.

These are pretty common products. There are tons of ethical alternatives, in fact personal care items are among the easiest and cheapest products to find ethical alternatives for and a good starting point if you want to develop more ethical consumption habits. You don't need to make your own soap in order to avoid sponsoring genocide.

I’ll start: avoid Hellman’s easily by making your own mayo. If the eggs squick you out, or you just want bonus points, I use this vegan garlic mayo recipe. It keeps for weeks and I don’t miss mayo at all. This requires a blender - any kind is fine.

Soap: someone near you makes bars of this that are better quality and sells them for roughly $5, I guarantee it. If not, making it is pretty straightforward as long as you follow instructions carefully and use established recipes. If you want to go custom, you can also use a lye calculator. This one requires an immersion blender.

Breyer’s/ice cream in general: Get yourself some xanthan gum for regular dairy, and add soy lecithin to your list if you want to do vegan ice creams. The xanthan gum inhibits ice crystals for a smooth and creamy texture, and helps with scoopability. Soy lecithin helps emulsify oil and water, so you can use it to bring up the fat content of soy or oat bases to be closer to a heavy cream. Requires a blender.

Gillette: get a safety razor. Mine’s a vintage lady Gillette I got off eBay. You will save so much money on blades it’s not even funny.

Lipton: your local grocery store might have loose leaf tea in the bulk section. If so, try that first. If not, check out Arbor Teas instead. Small business, fair trade, high quality stuff, and the packaging is completely compostable, making it an awesome zero waste choice.

Mondelez is also a sponsor of Russia's war on Ukraine.

We've started a community at https://kbin.social/m/SponsorsOfRussianInvasion to track all sponsors of Russsian invasion of Ukraine. Come over and help us name & shame the SoRI lot.

Feel free to spread the word.

Farmers markets usually have good stuff, my only issue with that is the price is like double… might be an incentive to be a bit more frugal too I guess, but it‘s hard to save much on food or hygiene products for me.

Homemade soap is bad for my cast iron pans. Capitalism is really popping off for me

Tyler Durden? Is that you?!

That's crazy to me because it's SO preventable. I worked in the financial sector, and sanctions completely shut that sector out of a bunch of countries.

This is a governmental failure as well as corporate ethics failure in my book. It should be common use of American soft power to just entirely shut countries out of our sphere.

Always has been

I remember the founder or CEO or whatever actively supporting Russia a short time ago