The futility of boycotts

The Friday Letter / No. 436

A website called Investing Advice Watchdog has a long list of  “the definitive list of left-wing companies you should boycott.” This a swell way to get back at the leftist corporatist power structure for teaming up with the Socialist Democrats to take control of every detail of your daily life – as long as you don’t need a credit card, don’t fly much, and don’t need computer software or search engines.

That’s the problem, simply stated. We can’t boycott every business that sides with the left, as most of corporatist America is now solidly aligned with the Democrat Party. So IHOP pulled its advertising from Tucker Carlson’s program, and major retailers won’t sell Trump loyalist Mike Lindell’s made-in-the-USA pillows.

Still, the list of anti-capitalist “woke” leftist businesses is interesting to read. Some people have suggested that because boycotts generally don’t work, a better strategy is for people to buy a share of an offending company’s stock and then show up at the annual meeting to demand that it stick to its corporate responsibility, as Milton Friedman often argued: earning profits for the shareholders.

That said, a few but growing number of oligarchies are particularly obnoxious: Amazon, Apple, Google (the most dangerous company in the world), Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, the NBA and Major League Baseball, now joined by Coca-Cola, Delta, United and American airlines, Disney, and lots of others. Most of these share a hatred for our rule of law, exemplified by their opposition to a new Georgia law that politely asks you to please identify yourself before voting. If not, that’s OK. We note, however, that neither United nor American airlines would say it’s OK for you to decline to show an ID before boarding one of their airplanes.

Sen. Marco Rubio calls these companies “woke corporate hypocrites.” He noted that Delta has not condemned China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims, proudly proclaiming itself as “the most Chinese-friendly U.S. airline.”

In a story at the Washington Examiner, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey said his company’s focus is on “supporting federal legislation that protects voting access and addresses voter suppression across the country.” Why is it that people who know so little about our constitutional system of federalism insist on giving us their ignorant, ill-informed opinions?

The perils of historical ignorance

The University of California at Berkeley’s student calendar for 2021 has a holiday for Cesar Chavez Day but not Columbus Day, part of its contribution to erasing Western history. As usual, the Left finds allies in eager-to-please self-styled conservatives, like U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, Republican of Indiana, who also favors ditching the celebration of our hemisphere’s discoverer. The quickest way to relegate Mr. Chavez to the dumpster of history is to remind leftists that the farmworker organizer vehemently opposed illegal immigration. It had something to do with depressing wages, we are told. Please somebody don’t tell the history faculty at UC-Berkeley. You see, when somebody is more interested in the welfare of his constituents than in manufacturing votes for the Democrat Party, well, that’s a problem.

Short takes on the news

The NCAA may pull championship games from states that protect women’s sports by barring males who call themselves females. Mississippi and Idaho are making such moves, Campus Reform reports. . . . An illegal immigrant from Honduras who killed a young father in a hit-and-run collision might call the President of the United States as a defense witness when he is tried for felony death by vehicle while drunk: In his campaign, Joe Biden proclaimed that drunk driving is not a felony and that illegal immigrants should be given a pass because driving drunk is part of their culture. Rolbin Pacheco was driving the wrong way on a street in Princeton, N.C., last year when he ran head-on into Cheston Edwards, 36, the father of two young children. Pacheco left the scene and was not injured.

Parting shot

Let’s make sure we have this straight. The Corporatist Democrats move the baseball All-Star game out of Georgia because of its watered-down law giving nominal protection of voting integrity but have no problem with keeping the Olympics in China, a slave state which operates re-education and death camps? Just asking.

The Friday Letter is updated later Friday at The News-Guardian.