Despite a strong economy, an unemployment rate that sits at a 49-year low, and midterm elections that brought Democrats a majority of seats in the House, an atmosphere of progressive “resistance” continues to spread.
Last Thursday, talk show host Tucker Carlson discussed mass immigration, making the observation that the Left wants us to “admit the world’s poor … even if it makes our own country poorer, and dirtier, and more divided.” Later in his show, in what would become self-fulfilling prophesy, Carlson remarked that “anyone who disagrees … is denounced [as] a bigot and fired.” Carlson’s comments about immigration led life insurance company Pacific Life to pull its advertising, stirring up a fervor of contextually flawed, angry headlines about Carlson.
Pacific Life is not alone in using its advertising dollars to fuel a climate of divisiveness in politics. Throughout 2018, a growing number of large businesses decided there were profits to be made by joining the “resistance.”
In response to their decisions to create and take sides against their fellow Americans, I no longer honor such companies with my business.
I no longer eat Ben & Jerry’s, after the company’s October release of “Pecan Resist.” Though the flavor is meant to promote “inclusiveness, justice, and equality,” the company donated funds associated with Pecan Resist to the uninclusive Women’s March, one of whose co-leaders urged supporters prior to midterm elections not to allow family “to be comfortable around you” if they intend to vote for “racists and bigots.”
I will not purchase Nike apparel after the company released an ad in September alleging former NFL player Colin Kaepernick “sacrificed everything” when he wore his infamous cops-as-pigs socks to protest police brutality, and took a knee before the same flag that Americans like myself have watched draped over the coffins of our service member loved ones.
My protest extends to individuals, like Eminem, whose every album I auctioned off when, in January, the rapper informed fans they could not support both him and President Trump.
On a holiday shopping trip last weekend to Ann Arbor, Mich., I was dismayed to discover that I would have to extend my boycott to numerous small businesses, whom the stylized resistance had engulfed.
My favorite kitschy gift shop expanded their section of gear for the well-heeled feminist to include an array of anti-Trump paraphernalia, like an ornament showing the president in flames.
My beloved indie bookstore displayed an array of alarmist titles that transplanted customers into a dystopian universe, wherein a lone, plucky bookseller stays one step in front of the all-seeing eye of an authoritarian government’s thought police as it spreads its message about how Trump and conservatives murdered hope and democracy. The ringing of phones and cash registers brought me back to the reality that, in 2018, the thought police only came after conservative commentators like Carlson and Jesse Kelly, and suppressed conservative Facebook pages prior to the midterm elections.
At the upscale snack shop Cherry Republic, instead of finding a sugary respite from the atmosphere of hate, I found a $13 bag of “Resistance Mix,” its cellophane bag adorned with an image of a raised fist clutching flowers.
You may wonder what, exactly, Cherry Republic’s overpriced snack mix was resisting. The explanation on the company’s website was milquetoast: Resistance Mix “might just give you the power to resist becoming a couch potato this winter!” A Cherry Republic representative explained that the mix was released in summer 2018, and was named for its health benefits, with a nod to a “resistance to all the threats to northern Michigan’s woods and water.”
The omission of the above information on the product website indicates, rather, that “Resistance Mix” was designed to straddle the line of scoring points with the elite anti-Trump set, but not unsettling conservatives who happen to enjoy cherries, coconut, and cacao nibs. Whatever their intentions, Cherry Republic has parted me from my money for the last time.
With Americans entrenched on their sides in this cold civil war between two rival ways of life, companies, small businesses, and artists will continue to choose “resistance,” and use their influence to silence conservatives, or hypocritically portray us as bigots, consumed by our own hate. So long as these entities persist in sowing division and discord within our country, I suggest we resist them by taking our business elsewhere.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.
