If you are a conservative consumer in America right now, shopping is getting weird. You’re not supposed to drink Bud Light or shop at Target or eat at Chick-fil-A or watch Fox News. It’s Pride month, meaning all the companies have gone gay again, despite you trying to make clear that you’d really rather they not. Maybe you’ve signed up for alerts to start getting warnings about allegedly “woke” businesses, and the list of brands there is getting long — Nike, Adidas, Speedo, Lululemon, the LA Dodgers. The alerts also say Bank of America is bad, and some guy on Twitter has included Citi in a list of companies you’re supposed to avoid for the month of June, meaning you need to … I guess change your bank account?
Boycotting companies that don’t align with your politics is exhausting, which is why most people don’t, at least not for a sustained amount of time. It’s hard enough to exist in the world without worrying whether every purchase you make matches up with your personal views and values. But in recent months, the push for conservative consumers to vote with their dollars — or, rather, downvote by withholding their dollars — has been rampant.
“The number of boycotts is vast, and we’re talking about inconveniencing people at a level that doesn’t make any sense,” said Maurice Schweitzer, a Wharton professor who focuses on behavioral decision research, emotion, and negotiations.
If you do want to avoid certain companies, or, in the current context, a lot of companies, it can also be tough to find alternatives. Say you did give up Bud Light. You might not realize the beer you swapped for is also owned by Anheuser-Busch, or you…
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