Boycott the lot
It is the ideological quandary of the age: we know we ought to be boycotting stuff, but what, exactly? And whom? In these days of the media takedown, the Twitter pile-on, the meaningless digital petition and the non-specific accusatory whinge, it’s not about what you say or do or even what you believe, it’s whom you cancel that matters. If you’re a dim young actor who’s never read a book or formed a real opinion then just say “I stand four square with anyone who doesn’t feel seen by the Sorting Hat” and — woohoo! — you’re a Gen-Z identity hero and proud recipient of the Order of the Golden Snowflake.
So pity poor Harry and Meghan, those heroic campaigners for nobody is quite sure what, proud warriors for nothing in particular, brave footmen of the revolution against … stuff. For in giving their support to the Stop Hate for Profit initiative this week, they asked the organisers for advice on “which brands they could help target”.
Really, guys? You genuinely need to be told what not to buy or support in order to look woke? Let me see … I think those nice knobbly avocados are still out, on account of the whole Israel thing. Car firms are no good coz of global warming. Ditto energy companies, airlines, shipping people, anyone who farms animals for meat (or anything else), any company without a female chief executive or that pays some staff members slightly different amounts from others, or has ever benefited from any form of inequality in the past, or still has any objects or books in any of its buildings from “the evil times”, which means effectively before last Tuesday. So, basically, apart from not-for-profit enterprises set up in the last ten days by young people who care deeply about whatever is in the news this week, but will move on to other stuff when the wind changes, the best advice would be to boycott … everything.