I've given up on boycotts.

[Archae]

Boycott this, boycott that, stay out of Wal-Mart, don't buy what Rush or Hannity or Savage advertises, don't watch CBS because they wouldn't run the MoveOn ad, etc, etc.

This isn't just from our side.

Freepers say don't buy Dixie Chicks music, or Willie albums, etc.

The fact is, all these boycotts being called are making it simply a useless tactic.

[salinen]

1. I'm boycotting this thread.

[lastknowngood]

2. I'm boycotting boycotts

n/t

[countmyvote4real]

3. On the other hand, ever since the unilateral invasion of Iraq

I've made it a point to buy French wines.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

4. I disagree. I have decided to boycott to a reasonable extent.

No Wal-Mart
No Gropenator Movies
No Country "Music", on the other hand, there's none that I like
No Conservative Celebrities

[silverlib]

5. Boycotts are only important if people use the power!

edited due to too much wine on my BD...

Boycotts may only be important to me, but I do believe! Sometimes it's just important for my own personal satisfaction. Perhaps I feel it is my only recourse. Maybe it only makes a difference to me, but it is still important. Simplicity. Not for the masses. But for our nation. Maybe contradictory, maybe not. But I will still feel protest is important and let the vendor beware ... and let him know why. Important? Yes. Sometimes it is a bigger voice than voting.

[teach1st]

6. When I boycott it isn't a tactic

When I boycott it isn't a tactic or part of a political movement. It's just personal decision not to support jerks and weasels. Even if I'm the only person in my area who boycotts Walmart, that's cool. I just can't suppport them.

[BiggJawn]

7. Support Tibet. Boycott China.

Go around naked and barefoot, cooking in salvaged tin cans and drinking out of your cupped palm (coffee hot?)

It's futile. I don't make enough fucking money to be a "socially-conscious consumer", dig?

[MrPrax]

12. Putting Hammer to Nail Head...

"It's futile. I don't make enough fucking money to be a "socially-conscious consumer", dig?"

Right said--there is a certain elitism (some older folks might call it 'commodity fetish') to the consumer boycott mentality.

Nobody seems to realize that the 'poor' generally boycott out of necessity--not out of political committment.

If anything, there is overexposure on the boycott calling and like a many things Progressives? call for, are done out of gutless political expediency (couldn't agree on anything else substantive) and ends up being ridiculed...

I often think cynically that if you were Corp A and wanted to take market share from Corp B, you simply leak 'bad' information on this and that and , as predictable as rain, some group/or astroturf will launch a boycott on your competitor.

[Beearewhyain]

13. "Nobody seems to realize that the 'poor' generally boycott out of

necessity"

I'm with you MrPrax, that's why I am boycotting caviar and rain forest mahogany. :-)

[MrPrax]

14. LOL...

I support a SUV-free planet!! (especially the one's with a DVD player in the backseat)

In Solidarity, indeed

:grouphug:

[Hippo_Tron]

8. I suppose I boycott things for personal reasons...

But I've never bothered to do so for political reasons.

[Hamlette]

9. does this mean I can eat grapes again? Or drink Coors beer?

[if it comes from the whitehouse it must be true]

10. Good choice, whatever happened to

People who simply buy a product because they LIKE it???

If a person were to try they simply could find a reason to boycott anything, useless and time wasteing IMO

[Archae]

11. Exactly.

Boycotting Wal-Mart doesn't hurt the company one bit.

It only hurts the people who work for them.

Less sales only hurts their wages and bonuses, not the fat cats who run it nowadays.

[denverbill]

15. Great. I'm glad we can't count on your support.

It's great that when the going gets tough, people quit. Walmart is too big to be beaten anyway so what's the use in trying? I just don't give a damn if American jobs are being exported to China and American workers are losing benefits right and left. I don't care that Home Depot's CEO gave $1,000,000 to Republicans, because I can save $.50 shopping there. And dammitall, the SuperBowl is on CBS, so who cares that they won't air ads critical of Republicans, or even run a series that contains one critical line about a former President.

[noonwitch]

16. It depends on the purpose-boycotts helped end Apartheid

Not only did the US government place sanctions on South Africa in the 80s, but many consumers boycotted Coca-cola, Ford, DeBeers (a lifetime boycott, for me), etc. to force change. The state of Michigan and other states allowed no investments in SA, something that a Michigan bank (First of America) and my alma mater (Western Michigan University) were much chagrined about, as they had lots of money invested there.
The sanctions and the boycott did cause de Klerk to rethink the wisdom of apartheid, and he let Mandela out of prison. The nation was able to start rebuilding a democracy (and are still in the process of doing so) without a bloody revolution and without becoming a communist nation.

Reagan/BushI fought against sanctions and boycotts all the way.