You could use njal.la, who charge a flat 15$ without deceptive schemes and actually protect your privacy properly too.
To be fair namecheap legally can't do what njalla does since namecheap is a primary registrar and njalla secondary.

In terms of activism I'd think both getting the cheapest option and donating 8$ a year to the eff or a similar group directly, or taking a njalla domain and donating 3$, would be cheaper than namecheap and also more effective at defending internet freedom.