Age of the Geek

With great purchasing power comes great purchasing responsibility
     Wow, the Super Bowl sure has a lot of people boycotting things this year. Who knew showing immigrants in a positive light could get so many people so mad?
     I kind of doubt the people upset about a pro-immigration story will be willing to forego their Budweiser for very long, but Anheuser-Busch is hardly the only company in recent days to outrage one group or another. It seems like it doesn't take much to inspire a boycott against any company these days.
     On the other side of the current immigration issue, Uber saw a rough few days when it shut down its surge pricing around JFK airport during anti-Trump protests, a move that somehow got translated into an endorsement of President Trump's Muslim ban.
     Uber is merely the latest in collateral damage as people protest anything associating with Trump's administration or business (which he has still not separated). As it turns out, hitting record setting unfavorability isn't great for a brand.
     Not that Trump has a monopoly on boycotts either. Starbucks can't seem to make it through a holiday without people freaking out that they are declaring war on Christmas. Meanwhile, Chick-fil-A continually has fast food lovers torn between delicious chicken and a desire to not see the revenue from their purchases get funneled to anti-gay organizations.
     More recently, a movie about a dog was financially cut down when a video went viral showing what appeared to be a very unhappy dog getting dunked in some wild water. An investigation has since concluded that the video was edited out-of-context, but by then the damage had been largely done.
     On one level, boycotts of this sort make sense. Voting with our wallets is among the few ways the general public has to make themselves heard. Particularly since it's really easy.
     When the owner of Barilla made some unenlightened comments about gay people a few years back, it wasn't a big deal for me to explore alternative pastas.
     It's political activism without the "active" part, which has a natural appeal to Americans.
     But while boycotts are both easy and effective, it's not always a cut-and-dry situation.
     Take the case of Marvel Comics.
     For a couple years now Marvel has made big pushes towards shifting their cast of characters away from the legion of white guys that Stan Lee came up with in the 60s.
     Their efforts have, more often than not, been hamfisted and cringe worthy, but at least they're trying.
     This push for diversity has been applauded by people more interested in optics than stories, however these people found themselves in quite a pickle when they found out that Marvel Entertainment is run by Ike Perlmutter, who is now moonlighting as the Trump Administration's advisor for Veterans' Affairs.
     So what is a socially conscious comic book reader to do? Give their money to the comic book publisher pushing for the progressive agenda or withhold their funds from the company operated by an unapologetic Trump supporter?
     There are no simple answers.
     I'd never say to not exercise your right as a consumer to vote with your wallet. It is your moral duty to use whatever power you possess to move the world towards your ideal.
     That said, life rarely provides such binary options.
     And none of this takes into account that it's all but impossible to boycott every company that does something you disagree with.
     People campaigning for a $15 minimum wage organize rallies on Apple products assembled by Chinese workers making pennies.
     Do you think Microsoft and Google should stick to computers and stay out of politics? If so, is that enough to keep you from using their products in one way or another?
     And good luck getting away from Disney if you're upset that the next Marvel Studios or Star Wars movie has either too much or not enough diversity.
     Sometimes you just have to shrug and save the boycotts for when they really matter. It's less of a headache and it makes more of an impact when something really important comes up.
 
     Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and boycotted Marvel long ago over their lousy event books.