Boycotts and BUYCOTTS

This week, we want to take a break from the serious, often hard work of fighting fascism --and bring a bit of joy, or at least levity, to the endeavor.

Our Economic Call to Action this week is NOT about denying yourself your favorite music or restaurant or shopping experience to punish a corporation for collaborating with the regime.

It is to go buy from the good guys!  And we have a couple of suggestions.

The opposite of a boycott is a “buycott.”  

And a “buycott” is not only a play on the original word (which is an interesting story in itself, originating like many of life’s best things in Ireland.  You can read more about that here Charles Boycott - Wikipedia  ).  At one time, it was the name of an early downloadable app that allowed you to scan the barcode of products in a store and learn more about the political and social/environmental policies of the companies that made them.  The Buycott app has largely been supplanted by more robust tools like GoodsUniteUs and ShopWhereYouVote, which we have discussed here in previous issues.  But the concept is still growing.

In fact, this blogger received an “All-Buycott” Christmas gift basket from his radical leftist daughter and son-in-law, full of products from companies and countries that are standing up to Trumpism.  It included a fleece sweater from Patagonia; Ben and Jerry’s ice cream in a Carhartt cooler; Bumblebee tuna; a case of sparkling water from Costco; and a supply of Canadian NA beer, potatoes, and poutine gravy. 

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Patagonia, the outdoor apparel brand long associated with environmental causes, famously sued the first Trump administration over its efforts to sell off the Bears Ears national monument in Utah. 

Ben and Jerry’s had a lengthy history of supporting progressive causes, before and after its acquisition by Unilever.  Despite some recent headlines about internal dissension, it is still considered a legacy mission-driven brand.  

Carhartt, known for its heavy-duty work clothes (and blue collar appeal) became the object of a right-wing boycott in 2021 and 2022, for adopting workplace-safety measures during the Covid pandemic.  Conservative commentators urged their followers to burn their Carhartt apparel in protest; but sales figures suggest that the company’s position actually gained them customers.

Bumblebee and Costco have both sued the current Trump regime. Bumblebee’s history goes back to the first Trump administration, when they spoke out against his tariffs on imported Chinese tuna, and he responded by repeatedly insisting that Antifa and Black Lives Matter protestors were assaulting law enforcement officers by using cans of Bumblebee as projectiles.   Costco is currently suing to recover its 2025 expenditures on tariffs it has called illegal; and of course, Costco is famous for maintaining its commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion this year, while its competitor Target has seen its stock value plummet after abandoning such principles to curry favor with the regime. 

Canada, of course, has seen its entire economy disrupted by a series of irrational punitive tariffs announced for no discernible reason by its erstwhile ally and best trading partner, accompanied by threats to annex them.  Canadians have responded by boycotting American products ranging from Disneyworld to bourbon, but the damage to the Canadian workforce is real.  If you buy a Canadian product in the United States, you are paying a premium for it.  You might want to do it anyway, as an act of solidarity. 

So, the Christmas/holiday gift buying season is over.  But everyone you know has a birthday in 2026, right?

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So where do you start, in buycotting as well as boycotting?

You may have heard this before … you can’t believe everything you see on the internet!  So the following image, downloaded from a Facebook post, needs to be consumed with a grain or two of salt (preferably not Morton). 

Indivisible Central Indiana has not independently verified every brand on this list, although each of the companies whose policies we ARE aware of, appear to be listed correctly.  We wouldn’t recommend automatically following every recommendation that you see. 

We do recommend making informed buying part of your daily thinking in 2026.  Download the GoodsUniteUs or ShopWhereYouVote apps.  Do a quick Google (or, better yet, Duck Duck Go) search. 

Flexing our economic muscle is not just a matter of depriving or inconveniencing ourselves.  It is more a matter of redirecting our dollars to firms that share our values.  And making a conscious decision, day after day, to do a little research to keep getting better at it.