It’s not a boycott, it’s an economic choice
A group of multi-billion dollar corporations caved to a boycott threat from Leftwing activists and jumped aboard the “Georgia is full of Jim Crow-era racists” disinformation campaign.
In response to this virtue-signaling cave, many on the Right decided to wash their hands of them.
Naturally, many conservatives who still think it’s 1994 responded by condemning this response while decrying the use of boycotts.
But is it a boycott when you make the choice not to spend money with corporations who cave to media and activist-driven disinformation campaigns? Is it a boycott to choose not to do business with companies that hate you?
It’s your money. You get to spend it any way you choose.
Twelve years ago I bought a washer and dryer from Home Depot. The delivery guys got to my home, looked at my basement stairs and announced that there is no way to get the washer and dryer down there unless I tore out the sheetrock wall in the stairway.
I did what they suggested. When the two delivery guys returned, they said it was still impossible to get the washer and dryer down the stairs.
I pointed out that there already was a broken down washer and dryer in the basement, so clearly that wasn’t the case. When I purchased the new units, I brought with me to the store the dimensions of the broken ones to ensure I didn’t buy something too large. I explained all of that to the delivery guys.
But they refused to even try to get the new washer and dryer down the stairs.
They offered to just leave them in my back room office. One of them even suggested I hire a plumber to install lines to hook them up in my carpeted office.
I was furious. I had torn out the wall for them. And now they wanted me to hire a plumber and spend thousands of dollars rerouting the plumbing to my office just so they didn’t have to carry the units to my basement?!
I told them to get the hell out of my house.
So they reloaded the washer and dryer onto the truck and drove away.
When I got my credit card statement a couple weeks later, I saw a charge from Home Depot for a brand new washer and dryer I did not have. I had to call the store and speak to several people before they agreed to reverse the charge.
Then I went to Lowes, purchased a washer and dryer and the delivery guys brought them to my house, removed the old ones and took the new units down to the basement and hooked them up. No bitching about my basement stairs. No refusals. They just came in, did their job, got a tip from me, and left.
For the past twelve years, Lowes has been my home improvement store, and I have never once returned to Home Depot.
That’s not a boycott. That’s Dianny choosing not to waste her money on a company that employs lazy idiots and charges her credit card for products not received.
It’s an economic choice, not a boycott.
The same holds true no matter how large or small the business.
If Coca Cola or any of the others are going to add fuel to the fire of an already divided country, why should I or anyone else spend a single penny with them?
Truth is I stopped buying Coca Cola products years ago – mostly because it’s carbonated syrup that rots your teeth and makes you fat. I don’t buy Pepsi or Royal Crown or generic soda either for the same reason.
If the guy you hired to mow your lawn goes around your neighborhood telling everyone that you are a White Supremacist because you have a “School Choice” lawn sign in your front yard, would you keep using his services?
The thing about a free market is the consumer has choices. You are allowed to pick and choose what businesses you patronize, what services you employ. And you can make those choices for any reason you want.
If Coca Cola’s CEO decides to wade into a highly partisan and divisive propaganda campaign against the State of Georgia and accuses anyone supporting Voter ID of racism, it’s your choice whether or not you want to spend a single dime on Coke.
Choosing not to purchase Coke products over calling you racist is just as valid a reason as choosing not to purchase Coke products because it’s carbonated syrup that rots your teeth and makes you fat.
It’s your choice.
That’s not a boycott; that’s just a feature of the free market.
A boycott is when you withhold money in order to coerce a business to bend to your demands.
“Stop advertising on Fox. And until you do, I will not purchase your products” is a boycott.
“You call me racist for supporting voter ID laws? Then I’m done with you” is not a boycott.
I don’t give a damn if Coke or Delta or major league baseball change their behavior. If they want to make business decisions based on partisan politics politics, what’s that to me? I have no interest in coercing them to bend to my will.
It’s a free country. If they want to take sides in a partisan political fight, they are free to do so.
Just as we are free to have nothing to do with them.
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