There seems to be an uptick in businesses being used as soapboxes (Papa John’s, Whole Foods, Chick-Fil-A, ad nauseam); most often conservative soapboxes, since conservatism is the ideology of the business establishment. Time for us non-conservatives to circle the wagons…but one side’s boycott is always the other side’s buycott. At best it’s a wash. Frustration.
How far do you think I’ll get in life spouting liberal opinions in job interviews, or even doing lunch with management types? Conservative opinions are of course risky in such settings, but you know and I know liberal opinions are career suicide. But of course conservatives make oh so much hay about alleged blockage of the academic careers of conservatives; academia being, what, 1% of the workforce? For most of us, there’s a tacit understanding that it’s wise to check one’s opinions at the door when entering the workplace. I’ve always accepted that as part of the implied social contract. But now business owners are absolutely flaunting the fact that ownership has its privileges, and that one of these is the privilege of mixing commerce and politics.
Dollars are not votes, and the marketplace is not a form of democracy. In fact, it is profoundly antidemocratic.
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