Reply #12: Long term and short term boycotts [View All]

[wiggs]

Sorry for posting this in more than one place but I feel it is extremely important to keep talking about boycotts.

I really hope someone organizes a national, targeted, extensive boycott of companies that gets real attention.

I bet millions and millions of people would be willing to, say, not watch NBC for two months. Not go to WalMart for two months. I know that boycotting all of the above products indefinitely is great and I encourage it, but a recognized, quantifiable, targeted boycot would be scary for CEO's and their shareholders and would make a much stronger statement. I fear a diffused, undefined, soft boycott would not be effective. Sinclair worked because it was focused.

The WH and RNC need every one of us to be good consumers in this society. 55 million of us being bad consumers would get SERIOUS attention. If half the country could get on board by stating that NBC is tuned out for months due to their new role as propagandist for its militarist parent company, that would be a serious threat.

Witholding our money from corporations is now one of the few powers we have left. It is an untapped power. We don't have any branch of government. We don't have the media. We don't have the election process either, frighteningly enough. This is it, I believe. And it may be the most powerful tool out there if our side learns to use it well.

It is akin to taking the ball from the game and going home. No game.