Boycotts

There have been reasons to boycott. Some have been successful, others not so successful. What are justified reasons to boycott and how do you make them successful?

The colonialists conducted some very successful boycotts of British goods. They hurt British owned companies and suppliers who were compliant with British tariffs. Boycotts are part of American history and were effective tools in their resistance of oppression.

The Civil Rights movement also had successful boycotts which impacted the oppressive systems.

Here we are today with companies imposing their own ethics on people. But how do we, as a people, make boycotts effective and successful to cause change?

Why Boycott today?

The government deems you and or your family and friends as nonessential, and forces the closure of your and or their livelihoods. The police enforce church closures and punishing those to attend worship. Walmart and Korger only allow you to buy 1 thing of meat. All the while businesses and corporations comply, willing to hurt their own employees and communities. Now, even the freedom to think and speak is violated by monopolizing corporations. Google censors your search results, and allows you to see only what they want you to see. Facebook and Twitter censor your feed, only showing you what they want you to see and even censors your posts, your friends and family posts, and delete pages of freedom minded businesses. Then, when a company who represents freedom starts gaining momentum, Google, Apple, and Amazon suppress their success and censor their free efforts. We are in the United States of Communist China. Are you okay with you and your friends and family being treated this way?

Unity

A unified effort in avoiding a specific good and service is key. This is an original tactic of the founding fathers and Patriots of America and was extremely effective during the Civil Rights movement. The community must, in unison, actively avoid certain products, companies, and services, and support their opposing or more just products, companies, and services. If there is no suitable alternative then the community must come together and be willing to, in essence, suffer without the unjust products, companies, and services as long as necessary. Also, consider DONATING money to alternate companies.

The Effect

Companies that are being boycotted must suffer financial hardships. Companies are all about money. They exist to make money. When their products are not being purchased, their profits suffer. The government can swoop in and “bail out” these boycotted companies with subsidies but the people, again, must then boycott politicians who support these subsidies by not voting for them. So the mission of boycotting is to hurt the ‘bottom line’ and their profits.

Constantly sharing negative information about the company helps in this as well. As the companies stock price falls, selling off stocks is another useful tool to drive down the stock price even more. On top of poor performance reports of those stocks will compound with the companies poor sales due to the boycott.

The Goal

Hurting the profits of a company to force them to change their unjust ethics is the goal. The Civil Rights movement boycotted public transportation for years. This took away profits from fees and hurt their revenue. The local governments eventually were forced to cave due to the lack of funding as a direct result to the boycotts. But, the community had to come together and in unison, boycott the public transportation system. They helped each other in sharing transportation resources instead of pay busing fees.

Justified Moral Grounds for Boycotts

True racist and racism promoted by companies are justified reasons to boycott a company. Notice we stated “true racism.” A more recent example of pseudo grounds of protest is the Aunt Jemima brand. THE COMPANY decided to remove their ‘logo’ or image because THEY felt her likeness was racist, when, in fact, it wasn’t. She was a real person who became the image of her brand that was bought and sold on her behalf essentially. She was the FIRST black millionaire. The reality is, the company removed her likeness from HER brand because she was black. And THAT is racist. It is HER legacy and HER families legacy. A proud example of black success. But, she was removed because she was black.

Because the company removed her because she is black IS GROUNDS to boycott that racists company decision. Aunt Jemima is currently owned by the Quaker Oats Company of Chicago, now a subsidiary of PepsiCo. But apparently the company doesn’t feel it is wrong to use the stereotypical image of white Quaters… They do feel it is wrong to have a black person as an image for their brand. That is the hypocritical racist view of this company. Now, PepsiCo is not directly involved in this poor racist decision, but Quaker Oats Company is. Therefore, Quaker Oats Company needs to be boycotted.

Alternatives to Quaker Oats Company are: Kelloggs, Goya Foods, and General Mills

Another valid justified reason to boycott is a company is when the company rejects freedom and takes an active stance against the public’s constitutional rights. Yes they are free to do discriminate but that does not mean they are free from repercussions of their discrimination. Religious rights and 2nd Amendment rights are the new battle grounds. Financial institutions do not remain neutral in social politics. Much like PayPal, Bank of America also stands against the American people’s right to bare arms. They take an active stance against firearms companies. Some retail stores also stand against the right to bare arms. Dick’s Sporting Goods is another example of this. They willingly stop selling products direly related to their platform. Though they sell hunting goods, they refuse to sell firearms…

PayPal stops payments for firearm purchases and business payment processing. Yet these companies have no problem informing law enforcement about unlawful purchase who use GUNS to enforce the laws.

Alternatives to PayPal are: Payoneer, GiveSendGo, and Wepay
Alternatives to Bank of America: Wells Fargo
Alternatives to Dick’s Sporting Goods: Academy Sports and Outdoors.

In a free market of ideas, censorship is the absolute enemy of free thought. Thus, companies that target and censor the free exchange of ideas are actually enemies of freedom. Yes, as private, even though publicly traded, companies are free to pick and choose what ideals they support and promote; they are not free from the repercussions of their discrimination. Social media platforms are the new battle grounds for the freedom of the free exchange of ideas. The major and predominate social media giants are all in unison when it comes to censorship (just like nazism and communism, though separate in philosophy, same in the pursuit of censorship opposition ideas). Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google have proven to be enemies of free thought.

Alternatives to Facebook and Twitter: Minds.com, Gab.com, Parler.com, Steemit
Alternatives to Google: Startpage.com and DuckDuckGo.com
Alternatives to YouTube: DTube, Rumble, and bitchute.com

How can YOU help boycott these immoral unethical anti-freedom companies?

• Refuse to purchase products from the stores on the Boycott List.
• Take your friends and family to the the alternative stores.
• Share negative information about the companies on the boycott list on your social media and tell your friends and family, and share positive information about the companies on the support list.
• Give the stores in your local area poor reviews on yelp; and give the stores in your area on the support list positive reviews.
• Support through sharing information and your money.
• Support local small business and community banks.

THE BOYCOTT LIST:

• Bank of America – stop banking with them.
• Quaker Oats Company – stop buying their products, dump their stocks.
• PayPal – Avoid using them and services that use them.
• Facebook, Twitter – Post only your alternate profile links, or just delete your account all to gether
• Google, YouTube – Don’t use or share any of their links.
• Dick’s Sporting Goods – Don’t stop there.

THE SUPPORT LIST:

• Wells Fargo
• Kelloggs, General Mills, Goya Foods
• Wepay, Payoneer, GiveSendGo
• Academy Sports and Outdoors
• Minds.com, Parler.com, Gab.com, Steemit
• Startpage.com, DuckDuckGo.com
• DTube, Bitchute.com, Rumble

Discussion with a Jehovah’s Witness

Evangelism takes shape in many forms.  At times God has random strangers walk up and ask random questions that spark spiritual conversations.  Other times major life events causes us to reflect on deeper matters which leads to spiritual conversations.  And at times, God even uses the internet.  In this case, God chose to use the internet.  A devout Jehovah Witness reached out and shared a screen shot image from the JW website about who they think Jesus is.  Given the massive importance of the topic, we felt it was necessary to engage in a dialog with this individual but it quickly changed in tempo, tone, and agenda.

THE DISCUSSION

We began to address the question, soon more questions rolled in.  As we attempted to address the new questions; the previously answered questions were re posted or asked in a different way.  It was odd but we continually attempted to address the same questions in the new re-posts.

The answers were not to the satisfaction of the individual, and as the same questions were re-posted, we noticed that our answers were being left out.  Even in some cases, only our references to support our answers remained but our actual answers were cropped out of the screen shot.

The individual’s rebuttals to our answers were in forms of YouTube videos produced by JW or screen shots from the JW website alone (later Wikipedia was used).  We then began to focus on bringing to light the unreliability of the NWT and issues with believing what you are told solely based off what the watchtower organization teaches.

The issues with the unreliability of the NWT and sole influence of the watchtower organization were never addressed by the individual.  Only more questions and rephrased questions without our answers were continually posted.

As we redirected the focus on the individual’s only sources, we began to notice our replies deleted and left out of screen shots as the same questions were re-posted again and again.

We then would ask follow up questions after we addressed the individuals question.  But, our questions were never answered.  No big deal, because our answers to their questions still shed light on the issue and brought truth to the odd constant questioning.

Given that this whole discussion (turned into an interrogation) was on Twitter, which limits messages to only 140 characters AND the constant bombardment of questions and re-posted questions; keeping up was becoming rather difficult.

The individual then made comments about how we had an audience.  It was then we realized that this was no longer a discussion but an attempt to publicly belittle and vilify.  So our focus shifted to the dishonesty of the re-posts and questioning and the unreliable nature of the sources.

Gradually, the questioning turned to more personal attacks and “showing [our] true colors” but the re-posts were manipulated where our answers were purposefully not included in the re-posts; with the accusation of avoiding to give an answer or changing the topics.  A clear dishonest accusation so that his audience would feel as though we were doing so.  When in fact we did address the topic, gave an answer which was deleted or cropped out of the screen shot in the re-post.  So the audience would not be able to see our answers, the original post was also deleted.

As we stood fast and focused on the fact the questions were answered in previous posts about Jesus and The Bible, questioning the reliability of the sources, and pointing out and exposing the dishonesty; we were then blocked.

WHY SHARE THIS?

There are important lessons to be learned here.  Those who do not live in the light, hate the light (John 3:30).  What is the light in regards to this discussion? The truth about God and Jesus.  The whole things started with the true identity of Jesus.  This individual may not have hated the person sharing the truth about Jesus but they hated the truth about Jesus: that He is God.  How is this hatred?  Well, if someone is truly forgiving, merciful, patient, loving, and gracious, there would be no need to block someone if they are having a simple civil spiritual conversation.  There would be no need to try and be dishonest and manipulative.  But it is the hatred of the light that leads people to become dishonest, manipulative, impatient and intolerant of truth.

Another lesson to be learned is that God WILL be glorified even if the hatred of the individual causes them to reject the dialog.  The person who remained patient and gracious in the conversation did so in faithfulness to the Lord despite the turned public interrogation and belittlement.  Not to mention, being in the public sphere, God may lead others, who witnessed all this, to be exposed to the truth.  For HIS will to be done!

In this day in age, social networks and the internet are a huge tool to reach people around the world.  Proclaiming the person and work of Jesus Christ world wide IS the mission; and this is a God given tool to do so.

THESE TYPE OF CONVERSATIONS ARE COMMON

The conversations usually start off civil.  A back and forth discussion about spiritual matters.  That is a good thing!  BUT when the lies become exposed, those who genuinely believe in the lies commonly become more and more hostile; that’s natural. BUT the dialog usually shifts from spiritual matters to personal matters; turns from a discussion to an interrogation in an attempt to shame, discredit, vilify, and belittle the truth speaker through any means necessary like dishonest quoting, and manipulation.  When these more extreme attempts fail and are also exposed; the dialog falls apart and the person who hates the truth flees or seeks to silence the truth speaker.  Because these situations on social networks, online forums, and conversation tools all over the internet are common, we should expect it BUT hope and pray for the truth to impact their heart by the conviction of The Holy Spirit.

COMMONALITIES TO LOOK FOR

• One way conversation;  when the individual asks questions and does not answer any questions posted to them.  This is a sign that they do not really want to seek truth but to only argue.
• Misquoting; when the individual consistently misquotes or leaves out the key answers to their questions.  This is done to avoid the truth within the answer given.
• Situation Manipulation and public deception; when the individual manipulates the discussion to frame it a certain desired way.  Like saying that the question is being avoided by asking it in different ways and leaving out what has already been stated when in fact the essence of the question has already been answered.
• Loaded or “Gotcha” questions;  these are deceptive questions posed to trip up the truth speaker in an attempt to vilify and shame them if they do trip up.  Quoting a verse in the bible where Satan or Pharisees are speaking and then asking something like “do you agree with this statement” without stating who said it is a common ‘gotcha’ question but at the heart is purposefully deceptive.
• Personal attacks; when the individual begins to make the questions personal and negative in tone.  In God glorifying spiritual conversations, it is not about the people in the discussion but it is about the glory of God and his Son Jesus Christ.  Both individuals are imperfect sinners but the truth of God is perfection.

HOW TO ADDRESS THESE COMMONALITIES

• Always address the question with truth.  Provide references and illustrations to help illuminate the answer. 
• If misquoted, re-state the answer and point out the misquote
• If the situation is being manipulated, point out this as well and re-focus the conversation on the truth.
• When personally attacked, do not buy into the bait; re-focus the conversation on the truth and not on any one individual.
• At the end of it all, the gospel (life, death, resurrection; person and work of Jesus Christ) needs to be proclaimed.
• Research context and backgrounds of bible verses to avoid the ‘gotcha’ questions then expose the line of questioning for what it is; being deceptive. 
• Continually re-focus the conversation on Jesus; He alone is the way, THE TRUTH, and the life.

Eventually, 1 of 2 things WILL happen.  The person who hates the light will genuinely consider the truth offered and The Holy Spirit will work in their heart OR the person will grow in hatred of it and either flee or attempt to silence the truth speaker.  Regardless, God WILL be glorified and His truth will shine.

HELPFUL INFORMATION FOR COMMON DISCUSSIONS

• GO TO: resource for quick bible verse references  
• Manuscripts of The Bible and Textual Criticism
• Evidence for The Resurrection   
• Did the Apostles distort what Jesus taught?  
• Correctly Interpret and Understand The Bible
• Modern Secular Historians and The Bible
• Early Accounts of Christianity from Non-Christians 
• Why The Bible is Divine: Prophecy 
• Why The Bible Is Divine: Christology
• Why The Bible is Divine: Miracles
• Information about Other Religions and points of discussion  
• Who or What Is The Holy Spirit? 
• Who Is Jesus Really? 
• The Triune God of Christianity

THE INDIVIDUAL OF THIS DIALOG:

We pray that this person considers the truths presented and the Holy Spirit works in their heart and mind to genuinely seek truth.  We thank the Lord for this opportunity to Glorify Him through the means that He has offered.  We pray that anyone following the conversation is impacted for God’s glory and seek Jesus Christ as their Lord God and Savior.

If you have any questions or comments about this article please contact us or join our discussion forms