Phi for All

As iNow intimated, you've just described the scenario for season six of the TV show 24. Was this an article in TV Guide?

Does it make a difference when the boycott becomes organized past the single-disgruntled-customer-exercising-his-prerogative level? Is it more like blackmail when organizers gain tens of thousands of supporters by spreading "the word"? Remember that there are already laws in place in case "the word" is slanderous or libelous.

It was brought up in this thread that boycotting is a form of blackmail. Boycotting threatens a company with tarnishing their public image if they don't give something up. Taking away business dollars in this organized method is no different than threatening to publish dirty photos if the victim doesn't pay up. I don't think it's blackmail. Boycotts are usually over some great injustice prepetrated by the company being boycotted. They call for the company to adhere to the spirit of the laws rather than the letter only. Nothing is gained personally by the boycotters and nothing was taken away that wasn't already decided by the will of the consumers in the first place. A corporate image is already in danger if activists are organizing a boycott. What do you think? Is boycotting blackmail? Why or why not?

You've done a great job arguing your stance, doG. You deserve a reputation bone. As you can see, you've argued me off the Walmart boycott stance. I can see where ParanoiA's coming from but Walmart, in this instance, isn't really eligible for the kind of boycott I'd like to see. The horrors of the US healthcare system aren't all Walmart's fault. I truly hope Walmart and the lawyers recognize what an exception in this case would mean to Debbie Shanks and her family. And truth to tell, I'm really not looking for a boycott so much as a coming together of the American people to correct injustices in our daily lives by recognizing the power of our collective voice. We've been fragmented too long and I think there has been active efforts to keep us that way. We're a big country for a democracy and our numbers should be scarier than they are.

"Asps! Very dangerous. You go first." --Sallah, Raiders of the Lost Ark

If enough of us think their public image is ill-gotten, don't we have a duty as citizens of a free-market society, and as citizens of a country that holds free speech as an inalienable right, to speak out en masse about it? We're fractured on some things but on many issues we all want more accountability and representation. We don't band together enough as a country so minor and not-so-minor atrocities happen too often.

I can see where you're coming from on the Walmart deal. Boycotting may not be the best solution in this instance but I certainly don't see boycotting as blackmail. Does that mean I'm blackmailing the barber shop that made me wait for 40 minutes when they said it would be only 10 when I decide not to give them my business until they fix their policy? Blackmail would be taking something that belonged to them by threatening. No corporation has a right to my patronage, my thrift-store dollars don't belong to Walmart. They earn that right and they get good word-of-mouth when they do. And when they earn my displeasure through shoddy practices they earn bad word-of-mouth. If I can organize how that bad press is spread it still doesn't make it blackmail.

A tiny bit south of center. Seen from this distance, whatever it is doesn't have to be man made. It just fits a pattern you, KS42, associate with symmetry and you are leaping to the conclusion that that kind of symmetry doesn't happen in nature. I assure you it does.

We need a website, WeThePeople.org (may be taken) or WeThePeople.net (not taken), where you can sign up as members and discuss amoral business practices and form a national boycott to test the waters (if not Walmart maybe Chevron for sitting on the large format NiMH battery patent). The site could auto email its members daily or weekly to remind them to keep up the boycott. Bloggers would probably love the chance to be thought of as the Paul Reveres of the US "call to arms". Most bloggers attempt to wake us up to new perspectives so this should be ambrosia to them. I'm sure we could get Target or K-Mart* to pay for the website AND give former Walmart customers a discount for supporting the boycott. Come to think of it, in a way a boycott on Walmart would be like a boycott on China. We could flip two birds with one stoning**. * If it was found that they hadn't done something similar in the past ** Sorry

2:25 in the morning a few miles from Area 51? Hmmm, I got nothing. But now I have to add aliens to the list of people who are interested in my trash....

This is what we can't let you get away with. Why do you feel it's not a natural feature, because it *looks* designed? You are drawing a conclusion with which no scientist would feel comfortable, and stating it as fact. Tell us why you think the face was designed. No Arguments from Incredulity ("I can't believe you can't see it!") or circular logic ("It looks man-made, therefore it must be man-made") allowed.

So how would *you* go about starting a boycott? I'd take a page from Gladwell's The Tipping Point and talk to every Connector, Maven and Salesman I know. If I was using this Walmart example I'd work up a single page treatise on the cause and its goal. Start the rumblings and then turn it over to the bloggers after I've set up a website to link to. I think it would be a good idea to let everyone know that this is an experiment, and that if we're successful we'll use this constituency to affect how our representatives in government view the power of the people. I'd truly love to symbolically urinate on the phrase, "You can't fight City Hall".

But there was ample precedent there to make boycotting the Olympics futile. I still wouldn't mind seeing Americans come together for just about anything they feel passionate about, even if it was a boycott of the Olympics. I wouldn't be all that hopeful of its effect on China, but it would sure show some much needed solidarity over here. I think we're assuming that any boycott would be a national one. I agree its the hardest part but I think a true boycott, well-staged and organized, would scare the living crap out of not just Walmart, but every mega-corp with questionable practices. We might even show our reps that we're getting close to boiling on the healthcare issue as well. So how would you go about putting together an effective national boycott?

Walmart doesn't want to set a precedent but they'd better think about what this will do to their health plan as well as how their national image will suffer. They should take the Disney approach and keep this out of the courts, take care of the woman and move on. I would like to see a well-organized national boycott take off in the US, just to prove to ourselves that a) it's effective, b) we have a stern economic message for other corporate giants, and c) we can pull together as a country when it's important. We keep forgetting the power of "We, the people" because it's now a race, us vs them, and not about representative government and aware consumerism.

Scriptupuncture?! Believe me, if the Gideon Bible were capable of healing most motel rooms would look a lot better. Interesting that fancy bibles don't work. I can hear all those monks with their gold-leaf calligraphy saying, "Doh!"

Isn't that the Soylent Green slogan?

Over there by that table full of condoms and oven mitts. Once you've signed the non-compete, just put on 20 of the condoms and 3 pairs of oven mitts (no no, the mitts go on your hands) and you'll be ready for the sex-without-touch experiment.

Sucked you in with the passive posts, didn't he? The aggressive post earned him an infraction. Thanks for not stooping to the same level.

Coolness is a wave. If you do something that happens to be cool, it spreads to everyone. If you do something because you think it's cool, your observation makes the cool state collapse and you're left looking like you missed the point.

I think taste *is* important. It's what makes eating pleasurable, and it drives us toward variety. Eating without taste would be like sex without touch. I think it's more important than convenience, which we value so highly we often give up many benefits to get it.

Note to self: Fire cryptographer. Ground-Up Threads will explore many areas and treat each subject from the ground up. Don't panic, be patient. We're building anticipation. You'll go absolutely mental when the first interview shows up after you've clicked the link a few thousand times. Funny story, actually, but it has nothing to do with whatever it is you're on about here. My advice? I don't give advice but a links bar sounds perfectly decadent. Cheers! Not sure if I like this whole "thinking" trend, but I'm willing to go along with it temporarily.

I've never heard of this before and it's resonating with me this morning for some reason. What if the "cover" is a political and sociological one? I think most Western leaders would view bombing Mecca as an attack on *all* Islam, even if the enemy is only a small faction within the whole religion. Does the Quran also have provisions for what the faithful should do if Mecca is attacked, or is the "cover" so impenetrable that it's a moot point?

I see where Physia believes it would be relevant, but religions are amazingly flexible about interpretations of their holy writings when they are proven unsound. If Mecca were bombed I'm sure the Quran could produce a scripture which explained why it was suddenly possible (and why we were evil to do it in the first place). I agree with Cap'n though. I think bombing Mecca wouldn't make muslims question the validity of Islam, it would just give them a reason to hate if they hadn't already decided to travel that road. As evidence we have the Iraq invasion; we've created more Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq by invading than there were in the first place. I do agree with Physia that moderate Islam needs to be more outspoken in their denial of terrorism. Moderates *everywhere* need to be more vocal about *everything* they see as wrong. Part of the problem is that being loud about what you advocate is often seen as radical. Moderates need to be shown that passion isn't always extremism.

Worse. Critical examination and death by blog!

What a hoot! Obviously they couldn't see the forest for the trees. It probably never occurred to them that two of the people on their not-wanted list would be together. Thick-skulled, myopic creationists!