Boycott Everything, Because Everyone Is Evil

One of society’s moral dramas (and my, is there drama) is the “good products that come from bad people / companies” dilemma. You know what I’m talking about - that service you don’t even think twice about using / downloading / consuming…. but the founder / inventor / head of the company is a total douchebag.

Should we refuse the goodies they peddle just because one (or some) of the people in the supply chain are morally deficient?

Let’s start with Starlink - Love him, hate him, Elon Musk will provoke an opinion of some sort. But Starlink sure helps out the troops in invaded countries, locations with local communications intervened, or simply super rural locations. Should one private person have such a far-reaching control over the systems or products we use? Or should we use Starlink for “good” and turn a blind eye to our money helping out the Musk. (and, before you launch your passionate opinion…. just what do you use your internet for? I mean, if you download illegal content and waste your day away looking at cat memes on the internet, maybe the question that needs to be asked is a different one…)

How about Spotify? Music? Open Spotify. Don’t know what other listen to? It will tell you. Long road trip? Download some songs. Maybe you’re not a fan of the company or some of its leaders supporting politicians from one side of the aisle or the other. Should we quit the platform because the CEO invested a ton of money (that came from us listeners) in AI weaponry?

Good people do bad things. Bad people, apparently, make cool things. (Not the weaponry, the music platform)

Well, guess what? I don’t have a clear answer on this one (though opinions, yes). And guess what? We’re not the first generation to contemplate this dilemma.

• Henry Ford - Name sound familiar? The car. Manufacturing. Cars for the masses. (You can have it in any color you like, as long as it’s black). Apparently he also has some pretty controversial anti-semitic opinions and used his visibility to spread them. Yet almost no one would consider this today when buying a Ford.
• Thomas Edison - This name should turn on a bulb or two. But Edison was also great at disputing patents and undermining competitors. He was a douche; let’s not turn on lights anymore.
• Alfred Nobel - Today his name is associated with those peace prizes. Got a lot of money and fame in his day making explosives, which greatly expanded the lethality of warfare.

Here’s my question - if we take a deep, hard look at every company, inventor, product and artist we come in contact with, will we eventually find something morally empty and compromised enough to boycott? Will we have anything left? Why, even the seeds we plant are often genetically engineered, so your home garden off the grid isn’t completely innocent either.

It’s a completely reasonable reflection as to using or not using great things made by terrible people. Perhaps another question we should ask ourselves first is: What are we using these things for ourselves?

Photo Used: magnific.com