Boycotting With Intent
What's the point of a boycott if you have no goals or they're unrealistic?
I realize this may not come across as particularly spiritual or religious in nature, as has been most of my goal for writing on Substack, but I do think it’s important to discuss. Especially when, for as cringy as it is to say, the “religious right” does have a tendency to be very anti-cancel culture, except in the case where they’re the ones organizing a boycott and doing the cancelling. And don’t get me wrong, there is a massive difference between what progressive cancel-culture goes after in the way of trying to censor people from saying things that don’t get the mainstream stamp of approval; vs what conservative boycotts go after in terms of trying to slow the degeneration of society as a whole… but at the end of the day, if done without real or sustainable goals the conservative boycotts become the same level of screaming in to the void as cancel-culture censoring.
So, how do we go about crafting something better, something useful that can actually create change? How do we stop screaming in to the void and start being heard and respected? Well, to start off, maybe we should behave in a respectable manner. Being “right-wing cancel-culture” will not accomplish anything. Choosing the correct targets is possibly the most important step toward running effective boycotts. Finding companies that are actively engaged in blatant agenda-pushing narratives that are actually degenerating culture is an easy way to get enough people on board to create an impactful event. Anheuser Busch was an ideal candidate following the Dylan Mulvaney can incident. Not because of the can or the “sponsorship” itself, but because the VP of Marketing then doubled down on the woke agenda and basically called the company’s entire customer base a bunch of uneducated, backwoods, rednecks and fratboys. While their social media and commercial messaging had been trending more and more progressive over time and should have been alienating their base all along. It just took that one major tipping point to push the act to boycott over the top. It’s the right target, for the right reason, at the right time. You can’t make it happen, but you have to be ready to pounce when it does.
The next step is that there has to be some level of intent or goal or purpose. What are we trying to accomplish through this? What do we want to see happen? I’ll go back to the Bud Light boycott… what was the end goal for those who have spearheaded the movement? No one seems to know. So now, Anheuser Busch has fired everyone who was involved in the Dylan Mulvaney and woke marketing debacle. On top of that the new marketing campaigns have taken a completely different direction to cater to those who were always their core customer base. Has it been heavy-handed and weird at some points? Absolutely! But they’re clearly making an effort to get back to what made them the #1 beer in America for decades. Also, Bud Light’s market share will never recover, no matter what they do with that renewed marketing effort. They might creep their way back to being #1 again, but the stranglehold they held over the industry is gone. Enough people have moved on with no intent of returning that the company is now dealing with and planning for a new normal in terms of sales expectations. This should be considered an objective victory. The boycott worked, the company got rid of the bad actors, their bottom line is forever damaged, and they’re taking deliberate efforts to make amends. What more could you possible hope to accomplish?
No one knows! And so it’s doomed to be stretched out and made in to a mockery. There are still people clamoring for boycotting Anheuser Busch and Bud Light harder. Keep going until they issue a formal apology to each and every one of us by name and the company is completely bankrupt. We are now screaming in to the void. In the name of fighting wokeness and progressivism, we will stoop to their levels. But not to their levels of effectiveness, no no! To their levels of insanity. See, the problem that those who want the boycotts to go on at infinitum don’t seem to understand when they say that “the left is more than happy to perpetrate all kinds of evil on us” and therefore we need to bankrupt a massive global corporation is that you can’t win in one fell swoop. This is not David vs Goliath. You’re not going to sling a stone and strike down progressivism with that single crushing blow. There has to be a strategy, a plan, a purpose, and an end goal in mind.
The way you win is by reclaiming the culture war they have stolen over the course of four decades. Understanding that the way they perpetrated that evil was slowly and surely and playing the long game. And the way to win it back is with similar tactics. Death by 1000 cuts, so to speak. When you’re down by 3 with 4 minutes left in the game, that’s not the time to start heaving up 3-pointers. The same is true with fighting the culture war. Trying to take down Bud Light or Target or any of these massive global brands with one slingshot throw is like firing up that 3 and then not bothering to run back on defense. You took the worst offensive strategy imaginable, and left yourself open for a counter attack. It is the tale of conservatism in my lifetime. Whiff on the big swings to try take down something evil and simultaneously do nothing to prevent the next cut from landing.
It’s time to use that strategy for ourselves. And it will work, because most importantly of all, those on the right are the ones who actually have the money; the ones who actually go out and buy things and put this stuff to work. The left screeches and squeals, but at the end of the day they only have the power of the vocal minority. The squeaky wheels getting the grease. But if we unite around a cause and put our power to work, that’s the other three wheels locking down and grinding this whole thing to a halt! Pick susceptible targets. Pick winnable ventures. Run the boycott or whatever it happens to be until they give in, give up, make concessions, change direction, do something that goes against the progressive agenda. 2023 saw a massive downswing in LGBTQ+ propaganda during “Pride Month.” Companies started to realize that people are getting fed up with the bullshit, and so they backed off. Now you keep the pressure on. Now you show them that as long as they continue to back off, they can continue to get your business. You don’t have to bankrupt them. You just have to make them sweat. If you’re taking another step toward correcting the culture every month, year, week, whatever, then you’re winning.
I can’t find the exact quote or who to attribute it to, but since I made some basketball references, I remember hearing one of the legendary coaches being asked about coming back from a huge deficit in the second half to win a game and his reply was essentially “you just keep working back 2 points at a time.” There is no 18 point shot in basketball. There’s no magic cure to the culture war. There is no David with a sling. There’s every one of us, working every day to get back those 2 points at a time. To take a piece of them, and not give it back. Stop looking for the death blow, and start finding where they’re weak and susceptible to taking shots. Play this game that is politics and the culture war like you’ve been there. Play like you understand how winning actually works. And then grab it when the opportunity presents itself.