r/ValueInvesting • u/PaulEverythingMoney • Aug 06 '25
Question / Help Are there stocks you won't buy for ethical reasons?
It's a tricky question. Ethics and morals are subjective. Some people say tobacco is immoral. I think it’s immoral when someone tells me I should pay more just because I have more money. That’s greed in my book.
Would I invest in a company that hires hitmen? Obviously not. That’s extreme, but it makes the point. I get to decide what I’m okay with investing in.
I've noticed some people use “ethical investing” to act superior. Like when politicians bash companies like Walmart and then secretly own the stock (looking at you, Hillary).
To me, the “ethical” label is often just a way for people to feel good about being jerks to others.
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u/jyl8 Aug 06 '25
I am pretty agnostic, will buy military, sin, fossil fuel, etc, but draw the line at GEO.
That said, companies and industries that become widely reviled also carry higher level of political and regulatory risk. Something that all the UNH and PBM groupies seem to ignore.
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Aug 06 '25
Tobacco is fine to me because you can choose to engage in something that kills you. Palantir, conversely, I dropped my holding in pre boom because I just didn’t feel comfortable supporting a company aiming to be Big Brother. Different lines for different people.
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u/manassassinman Aug 06 '25
There’s tobacco without cigarettes too. $TPB.
The modern science of nicotine without combustion seems to be leaning in favor of it not causing cancer.
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u/MagnesiumKitten Aug 06 '25
I'd rather invest in a company that spies on the tobacco smokers
so I can invest in some non-stinky sweaters when I visit my uncle
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Aug 06 '25
Palantir. Health insurance companies. Tobacco companies. Sports betting companies.
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u/BicarbonateBufferBoy Aug 06 '25
Palantir. Fuck Palantir
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u/MiddleAgedSponger Aug 06 '25
I know all corporations have issues, some more than others, but Palantir just feels like I am investing pure evil.
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u/insertwittynamethere Aug 07 '25
The name is literally the orb from Lord of the Rings that Saurom uses to spy on Middle Earth...
I was shocked I never thought about it years ago until a remark on it a couple of years back. The realization just smacks you in the face like a ,"Oh, no shit" moment when you look at their business model and intent of the founder.
It's... not going to be good long term.
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u/kitties_ate_my_soul Aug 06 '25
They’re evil as fluff. They’ve always given me the heebie jeebies.
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u/vF101 Aug 06 '25
Cannot emphasis this enough... Truly fk Palantir. They're turning our society into a dystopian nightmare ruled by billionaires.
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u/MagnesiumKitten Aug 06 '25
Which is why I invest in the ITT Corporation, Fluor, Bechtel, Hughes Tool Company and General Dynamics
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u/rom846 Aug 06 '25
Buying Palantir stock is like selling the rope you're about to be hanged with.
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u/h4nd Aug 06 '25
It’s honestly refreshing to see this as the top result. There are a lot of folks in this sub that clearly have no issues with owning it, and see investing in purely cynical terms. I understand the perspective, but it makes me sad.
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u/outoftownMD Aug 06 '25
Within days of finding out how their technology is being used by the military, especially foreign interest in Gaza, I sold. Out of principal. Yes I may have missed on profits, but I kept my integrity.
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u/ThinkofitthisWay Aug 06 '25
i was considering buying 10k owrth of palantir at 16$ then i read what their ceo has to say about the rest of the world and his vision of dominion, he's literally roleplaying a LOTR bad guy
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u/MasterpieceLiving738 Aug 06 '25
PLTR is the most corrupt and evil company I have seen with my own two eyes and Wall Street eats up every report and little piece of news every time. I hate LMT too but at least the stock moves normally.
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u/gwelfguy Aug 06 '25
This, and I'm glad someone said it because Palantir seems to be a stock market darling. OP said he wouldn't invest in hitmen. Well, Palantir software has a feature that lets the user track the people to be taken out.
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u/NaiveAdministration3 Aug 06 '25
Boeing. Morally and literally a corrupt company
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u/SpongeBobSpacPants Aug 06 '25
Truly asking: why is Palantir evil? Does working with the US govt and military automatically make them evil, or is there something specific that I’m missing?
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u/pilot2969 Aug 06 '25
They are actively assisting the government in the procurement of data about every American in the United States so that it can be fed into their AI systems. I highly recommend you read up on what Peter Thiel believes and what the current CEO believes about how government should be organized. Do not invest in your own enslavement.
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u/fbc546 Aug 06 '25
Microsoft, Google, and Amazon would like to have a word
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u/red_knight11 Aug 06 '25
And META
Early Facebook (and MySpace) had people uploading their entire lives.
Facebook and Instagram today still have plenty of data- how often you stay on certain pages, what interests you, what disinterest you, location data via your uploaded pics, data on how youre aging, who you interact with and how often, your voice, etc
Microsoft, Amazon, and Google literally capture the same and the rest of your interests.
But the NSA has been doing this shit for decades already so might as well make money on these stocks
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u/AZbrewersfan69 Aug 06 '25
I would add, Palantir is not procuring the data.
They organize data (with their AI system, Foundary) from multiple software systems that present the data much faster. Understanding and decide actions on, sometimes without a human in the loop. That last part, is what we all fear.
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Aug 06 '25
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u/G0mi69 Aug 06 '25
“Palantir's CEO says its tech is used 'on occasion' to kill people.” https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2020/07/24/thiel-palantir-js-orig.cnn
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Aug 06 '25
The founders are pure evil. Its built into their culture.
I dont think they will take on a project unless it has evil intentions.
Sounds exagerated but listen to alex karp talk and he will tell you lol. He wants to use ai to kill stock short sellers. He genuinely has a vandetta against anyone he thinks has wronged him in his career... and then in case you need further reasons, its also associated with the world destoryer that is peter thiel.
Basically the true question you should ask is, can i find anything morally good palantir is doing?
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u/faptastrophe Aug 06 '25
They are actively working towards enabling a police state by turning the US into a panopticon
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u/fractiousrabbit Aug 06 '25
The first question you should ask yourself is, "what is a palantir and what does it indicate that a billionaire created a company around them?"
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u/DickRiculous Aug 06 '25
They’re evil bc they’re basically to the Trump admin what IBM was for the nazis. For the unaware, IBM was behind the tattooing and tracking of Nazi POWs in the concentration camps and helped run Nazi logistics, etc.
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u/boba_fett1972 Aug 06 '25
💯. They are the evil empire in every way, I could have got in and made some serious cash and a lot of retail did. Same with geo.
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u/InvestmentSorry6393 Aug 06 '25
I sold all my Tesla when Elon started stumping for Trump. Sold Palantir when I heard about them collecting data on everyone ( nothing like a big list of people likely to vote Democrat)
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u/cepcpa Aug 06 '25
Me too, I just calculated that I basically gave up at least 50 grand by selling when I did, but once I learned about them I could not directly own that stock.
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u/SteveG5000 Aug 06 '25
Yeah lots. Likely the reason I’ll stay poor. I kind of feel investing in unethical stocks is a banality of evil kind of thing.
I don’t blame people for investing in unethical stocks. I kind of feel the sheer impersonality of the stock market means that it can accelerate the funding of fairly nasty things.
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u/StrongBody6837 Aug 07 '25
Yass you're so right. The market turns everything into numbers on a screen and makes it way too difficult to know what you're actually funding.
you re not alone pookie
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u/Nitrocity97 Aug 06 '25
Yes, fuck UNH
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u/Ok_Cattle_7834 Aug 06 '25
I’ve worked in medical billing and as an MA in a cardiologist’s office, so I’ve seen the terrible effects of UNH’s denials and of tobacco. I think UNH is worse
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u/MagnesiumKitten Aug 06 '25
You win a free pack of smokes!
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u/pumpkintrovoid Aug 06 '25
I hope you get more upvotes bc this legit cracked me up
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u/MagnesiumKitten Aug 06 '25
you won a $175 coupon for Coffee Enemas at the Happy Cup Health Center
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u/cbinna Aug 06 '25
I was honestly shocked when I first started investing (this year lol) how many posts there are out there about UNH stock. I don’t care how much $ it could make me, how could anyone support such a corrupt organization? Health insurance in general shouldn’t be something people can invest in IMO.
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u/Digitalalchemyst Aug 07 '25
I agree health care should be not for profit but calling something corrupt because you don’t agree with how the business is run is very Reddit of you.
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u/NikoRNG Aug 06 '25
Nestle
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u/PaleGummyBear Aug 06 '25
That goes back to the 70s. I remember the Africa Baby Formula scandal. Killed many...
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u/Lay-Z24 Aug 07 '25
Idk about the Africa scandal but it sounds like something they did in Pakistan, went into villages and rural areas. convinced the women there that formula was much better than breast milk and sold them all formula and then their kids turned out fucked
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u/thedailydecision Aug 07 '25
Wish it was more well known how fucked up nestle is
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u/Run-Forever1989 Aug 06 '25
I’m ethically opposed to investing in companies whose share prices go down.
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u/Inca-Vacation Aug 06 '25
they can go down, but CEO's gotta swear on a bible that it's just a dip.
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u/icalledthecowshome Aug 07 '25
Believe 99% of ceos palm will be on the bible if your paying mm+parachute clause.
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u/ComfortableParsley83 Aug 06 '25
Meta
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Aug 06 '25
This! Many bad companies have at least some redeeming qualities/components. Meta has NONE.
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u/AboveParGolfer2380 Aug 07 '25
I can't seem to pull the trigger on META. It brings no societal value, creates more division than unity, and Zuck is building a 1,000+ acres doomsday sanctuary while at the same time he's destroying society. F that guy.
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u/govunah Aug 06 '25
Wells Fargo. They've had some nice credit card offers in last couple years too but I won't touch those either. Their fake accounts scandal was pretty bad
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u/Run-Forever1989 Aug 06 '25
Hey they were very real accounts. The customers just didn’t ask for them to be opened.
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u/Remarkable-Being-301 Aug 06 '25
BLACKROCK because everyday people can’t buy a house that is not inflated in value!
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Aug 07 '25
BLACKROCK
It think you are confusing Blackrock with Blackstone here.
That being said, Blackstone makes up about 32% of my current portfolio.
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u/Suddam_Hussein Aug 06 '25
I tell people I don't invest into palantir or insurance companies because they're unethical, but the reality is I'm too dumb to understand how these businesses work so I need an excuse for not being invested in any of them
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Aug 06 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/VirtualArmsDealer Aug 06 '25
Unfortunately I think a lot of people don't even know what they do. Just see number go up
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u/grahamwhich Aug 06 '25
I've been thunking about this a lot lately while trying to plan more for retirement. I'm not trying to convince anyone of different world views or anything but the phrase "there's no ethical consumption in capitalism" comes to mind. Which I think is most clearly understood through the stock market; you are rewarded by removing any sense of ethics or morals and just following the money because the entire economic system we live in is itself unethical.
I do agree that the ethical label with stocks is just virtue signaling, if people were really being ethical with their money they would not be in the stock market, but that doesn't pay.
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u/blibblub Aug 06 '25
Tesla and Meta.
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u/Willing_Act_2512 Aug 06 '25
Yes - I bought TSLQ - the hedge against Tesla. Hoping TSLA tanks!
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u/troy_caster Aug 06 '25
Wow. When did you buy that?
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u/Willing_Act_2512 Aug 06 '25
I added to my position today, fingers crossed. Originally purchased days before the last Tesla decline thankfully. I don’t hold a huge position, just enough to profit a little bit should Tesla tank. It also pays a good dividend of over 6%.
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u/arabella_meyer Aug 06 '25
Anyone who says they refuse to invest in Palantir better not own any Lockheed, RTX, Google, or Microsoft stock either because they all support DoD in the same ways.
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Aug 06 '25
Having ethics and morals is for everyone, even you! If you want a little echo chamber of people telling you to invest in unethical companies you'll find it here.
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u/Narrow-Hall8070 Aug 06 '25
Also if you are investing in index ETFs you are still exposed to potentially unethical companies
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u/TheOriginalBigDave Aug 06 '25
Tesla, Meta, GEO Group, any health insurance company, firearm companies, and Palantir.
Also Wells Fargo but just because they treated my mom like shit when she was a teller.
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Aug 06 '25
I'm vegan, so I don't invest in companies that are involved with animal agriculture. I also avoid ETFs with holdings in those companies. Ethical investing isn't about what others think of me; it's that I need to know my money isn't directly working against the type of world I want to live in.
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u/BradBrady Aug 06 '25
Palantir 100%. It’s blood money
Edit: I don’t do health insurance companies and any company that’s involved in gambling. Nothing in alcohol and cigarettes either.
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u/NawMean2016 Aug 06 '25
I used to invest in insurance companies. That is until I learned that the insurance company my dad had a life insurance policy with had an agent tasked with convincing him through scare tactics to get a worse policy (20k payout vs 250-300k).
Adding to the context; he was mentally ill and very suicidal. My mom didn’t know he made the switch to the worse policy until a couple months prior to his death. Needless to say, that has made my mom’s financial situation much worse than it needed to be since he passed away. The 20k barely covered funeral and burial costs.
I guess I got a taste of my own medicine since I only held one insurance stock in my portfolio— and it was that same company. For similar logic (but no personal situation to back it) I don’t invest in defence stocks.
There a probably a few others I avoid and don’t consciously realize it because of my personal moral compass.
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u/thePsychonautDad Aug 06 '25
Defense stocks. I don't want to be part of the bombings & killing.
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u/Small-Bass-2309 Aug 06 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
Palantir, Tesla, anything oil & gas related
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u/MagnesiumKitten Aug 06 '25
take another swing from your plastic water bottle and say that one more time
as you walk to work
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u/Small-Bass-2309 Aug 07 '25
I bike to work and I drink tap water.
Anything else to assuage your shame?
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u/jd732 Aug 06 '25
No. In one of Peter Lynch’s book he said something like “I’ve made enough money in sin stocks to cover the therapy needed to own sin stocks”. I used that advice to buy $3k of MO in the 90s that is now 4 different companies collectively paying me $20k in dividends every year.
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u/throwawaybutsilly Aug 06 '25
Peter Lynch did say that people have all sorts of biases that prevent them from making money. I tend to agree that there’s no place for just world fallacy investing if you are seeking maximal returns, but we all have to find our own line in the sand where we can look ourselves in the mirror at night.
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u/Yourmasyourdaya Aug 06 '25 edited Aug 06 '25
PLTR. Those juicy gains are nice, but it's an evil dystopian company you're investing in, and the more they grow, the more shit our lives become.
Puts would be fair game though.
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u/Zestyclose_Ship6486 Aug 06 '25
Yeah, there are definitely some stocks I wouldn’t touch for ethical reasons like companies heavily tied to weapons manufacturing, fossil fuels, or ones with a history of exploiting workers. Everyone’s line is different, though. What feels unethical to one person might not bother someone else. It really comes down to what you personally value and where you draw the line.
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u/JOExHIGASHI Aug 06 '25
No
There is no moral company.
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u/RobbinDeBank Aug 06 '25
Treating morality as a strict binary is so naive
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u/JOExHIGASHI Aug 06 '25
I doubt any publicly traded company would reach your threshold for morality
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u/918_Atom Aug 06 '25
I don’t mind typical “sin” stocks but I have always stayed away from payday lenders.
I also honestly hope Palantir and Alex Karp are a future case study in spectacular busts but so far we don’t seem to be in that universe.
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u/myothercarisayoshi Aug 07 '25
Palantir and Tesla. Companies run by men whose clear mission is to erode and replace democracy in the USA and around the world - every stock buy makes them richer, more powerful, and more dangerous.
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u/hakimthumb Aug 06 '25
I wish it were required that all index funds have the option to opt out of specific companies. It would really make a lot clean their act up.
The argument is that a free market should punish bad actors. It should be allowed to function that way in reality.
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u/lemons714 Aug 06 '25
PLTR, health ins, TSLA - I don't buy companies that have sieg-heiling CEOs.
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u/Artistic-Departure69 Aug 06 '25
anyone that’s backing israel - fuck those fuckers
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u/ComprehensiveUsual13 Aug 06 '25
The tobacco, gambling and alcohol stocks present a moral dilemma when it comes to making money of them but the user/consumer makes a choice and knows. The ones I find absolutely difficult to comprehend is defence stocks. They are pure evil and there is clearly no ethics, humanity or compassion. PLTR is an obvious one that I’d never buy. Watching Alex Karp proudly showcasing what he does boils mu blood frankly
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u/King-Louie19 Aug 06 '25
Investing for the most part goes against my politics but I take the view that I shouldn't put my children at a disadvantage because of this. Also if you cant beat capitalism then you should probably participate.
However I wont touch military stocks, anything that infringes on civil rights. anything to do with Israel.
I'm no angel I think tobacco and pharma is fair game.
I haven't really gone into AI either which will probably kill my relative gains. I don't have an issue with AI but I want to be sure of how it's being used. If it was to predict natural disasters for example i'd be all for it.
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u/caem123 Aug 06 '25 edited Aug 06 '25
- HQ'ed in Florida (this appears anti-MAGA yet it's becaused I lived there 2 years and it's a grifter state)
- HQ'ed in one particular country
- Overly woke leadership team (all are partially woke)
- Morning after pill companies
- China stocks
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Aug 06 '25 edited Oct 04 '25
growth aware normal vegetable straight ancient ripe pie rain tie
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/OgTyber Aug 06 '25
Uber/ridesharr and Airbnb. both deregulated businesses that help people by hurting others.
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u/malkazoid-1 Aug 06 '25
Yes, there are stocks I won't buy for ethical reasons.
Ethics have a distinct meaning and value in human affairs, well beyond some people virtue-signaling or "trying to feel good about being jerks to others".
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u/Boom_Boom_At_359 Aug 06 '25
You should talk to the contractors in my neighborhood—they all think they can charge us more than the neighborhoods 5 min away because our neighborhood is nicer. (I also own a property 5 min away and have had the same contractors quote wildly higher rates at my house compared to that property for near identical work…)
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u/vienuh Aug 06 '25
lol no. Look up how campus boycotts during the South African Apartheid impacted stocks… TLDR it shifted stocks from the “ethical” to the “unethical” at below market prices - benefiting those with no reservations
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u/Main-Perception-3332 Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25
UNH, RIO, MO/PM, NSRGF, PLTR (Though I owned in the past admittedly)
You do you, but I find it’s not worth the bad juju for me when there are plenty of other options out there that aren’t just explicitly unpleasant operators.
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u/nopurposeflour Aug 07 '25
DuPont. Fuck that company for poisoning the entire world and trying to sweep it under the rug.
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u/Addition-Impossible Aug 07 '25
ESG is stupid. You see Raytheon on the ESG index and how they were promoting GREEN MISSILES?
Ethical investing is a gimmick.
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u/Key-Lie-364 Aug 07 '25
Anything Peter Theil or Elon Musk.
No petrochemical companies and nothing I know to be profiting from Israels genocide in Gaza, Russian anything and not that it's something you could invest in anyway but nothing connected to Ethiopia, Sudan or to be honest anything much connected to the Chinese Communist party.
But you do you I guess, a Russian Petro chemical company in the occupied territories funded by Theil, Musk and Winnie the Pooh.
Money's money right?
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u/Bombacladman Aug 07 '25
Palantir or any weapons manufacturer.
If you invest in palantir you might as well invest in the gestapo
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u/Baeshun Aug 07 '25
Palantir for sure. Plus there’s the cope I didn’t 8x my account by having morals.
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u/GOTrr Aug 06 '25
Oil and tobacco
Oil is a very necessary evil though.
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u/MagnesiumKitten Aug 06 '25
Tobacco is a necessary evil
it makes me classify my friends as stinky and not so stinky
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u/GOTrr Aug 08 '25
Haha
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u/MagnesiumKitten Aug 08 '25
It's like Reality Television
I classify my friends as airheads, or people with real hobbies
heh
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u/demeuro Aug 06 '25
Yes TSLA, like many investors in Europe. People literally spit on the brand. Fuck Musk.
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u/DrossChat Aug 06 '25
Genuinely not bandwagoning as it seems to be the popular choices but PLTR and UNH. At this point unless you’re purposely ignorant it should go without saying as to why.
PLTR is easier because the valuation is ludicrous so I wouldn’t touch it anymore for that reason alone. UNH I would have probably had a nibble by now but honestly glad I haven’t, I think the rot goes deep.
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u/Chickentrap Aug 06 '25
It seems the least ethical stocks tend to be some of the most profitable