Bored With Boycotts
I’m going out of town this weekend. And I just realized I’m flying Delta.
Uh-oh.
Isn’t there a boycott of Delta? Yep, I remember now. Delta scrapped its discounts for NRA members after the Florida school shootings, and 2nd Amendment supporters are boycotting the airline.
United’s in the same situation. So are a bunch of car rental companies.
If it’s all the same to you, I’m going to ignore the boycotts. Every one of them.
You see, I fly the airline that offers me the cheapest seat. Period. And when I land, I rent cars from the outfit that gives me the most car for the least amount of loot.
Furthermore, I eat at any old fast food restaurant I like, without worrying about whether the CEO supports the Keystone Pipeline or the Paris Accords. And I go to movies without first examining the political persuasions of the actors.
Oh, and even though I didn't like the national anthem protests, I didn’t boycott the NFL last fall. In fact I watched tons of professional football because football is the best sport in the world and watching it makes me happy.
Frankly, I’m bored with boycotts. I want to enjoy life.
A quick trip around the internet shows that scores of corporations are being targeted by activists on the left and on the right. Some lucky companies, like Amazon, Netflix, Starbucks and Ben & Jerry’s have angered both libs and conservatives and are dealing with dueling boycotts.
You know what’s even worse than boycotts of big companies? Boycotts that target individuals. Mean-spirited economic warfare aimed at ruining a person’s career over his or her political beliefs.
Which brings us to Laura Ingraham.
I don’t like her. She’s - and I’ll get in trouble with feminists for using this loaded adjective - abrasive. I never watch her show, “The Ingraham Angle,” on Fox and I don't listen to her on the radio.
Ingraham is immersed in a controversy that started last week with a snarky Tweet she fired off about David Hogg, one of the outspoken Florida high school shooting survivors.
The broadcaster accused Hogg of “whining” because he’d gotten rejected at four colleges, despite a 4.1 GPA.
It was a dumb and ugly thing to write. When it comes to kids - especially this one - it’s wise to just leave them alone.
Ingraham didn’t. However, the rabid reaction to her Tweet was insane. It’s like she drowned a litter of kittens on live TV.
As the frenzied outrage grew, there were calls to boycott her advertisers.
Ingraham quickly apologized and invited the student on her show.
Hogg refused to accept her apology and doubled down on his plea for the host's TV sponsors to yank their ads.
A number of companies knuckled under.
Some of you may cheer that. Ingraham is a firebrand. But this is looking less and less like a reaction to a mean Tweet and more like an attempt to get Ingraham and her conservative voice off the air.
That’s chilling.
The promiscuous use of boycotts by conservatives and liberals - not to right injustices but to silence political opponents - smacks of fascism.
I wish both sides would just stop.
