I think you mean Ben & Jerry's.
To an extent, you're both correct. Mixing political or religious views with business is probably bad business practice, but that doesn't mean people should be stopped from doing so if that's their choice. Freedom means the freedom to be stupid, if that's what floats one's boat.
SHOULD you avoid things simply because one aspect of it is offensive to you? Not if you don't want to. By the same token, there's no "should" about ignoring those aspects, either, if you don't want to.
I stop doing business with companies when their offensive behavior becomes too much for me to ignore. Maybe it's cumulative, or maybe it's just one big thing they do that's too much for me. Depends entirely on the business and what they do. I won't eat Ben & Jerry's or buy Starbucks because their self-righteous proselytizing through their products has just accumulated too much, to the point where it completely overshadows their actual product. I won't watch a movie with Jake Gyllenhaal or Alec Baldwin in it, to name two, because their behavior outside of their acting has become so pervasive in my consciousness that I simply can't forget who they are and see them as their characters any more. I think it's a serious mistake for actors to make the public too aware of them as regular people, because their careers depend on their ability to make us believe in them as their characters, at least for the length of time that the show lasts.
On the other hand, there are companies who do things I don't care for, but I still do business with, because they haven't shoved it into my face sufficiently to make me stay away. There are actors whose personal politics I find distasteful, but they're smart enough to mostly keep it personal and allow to largely ignore it.
Won't shop at Target, because I don't like shopping somewhere I don't feel comfortable using the bathroom.
Yeah, I did mean Ben and Jerry's. (I thought that didn't look right when I typed it, but. . .)
I pretty much allow people to be who and what they are unless their actions are physically or materially harming somebody. So I can honor and respect your choices who where to shop based on your personal code of ethics, right and wrong, etc. and will not criticize you for that. You are acting on your convictions in a way that harms nobody.
I personally take the point of view that if I value the right to be able to express my point of view, my values, my beliefs, my opinions without fear some gang of snowflakes will descend on me to prevent me for speaking at a venue, will try to get me fired from my job, or threaten my customers, suppliers, advertisers, etc. in my business. . .
. . .then it logically follows to me that I should allow them their point of view, their values, their beliefs, their opinions without fear that I will try to punish, or if possible destroy them.
It sort of follows the commandment to do unto others what you would have them do unto you. That is something the snowflakes among us neither embrace nor comprehend and certainly does not respect.
But don't we have the right to descend onto an event you are speaking at and boycott your sorry ass?
If you are a right wing nutjob and we don't like rwnj's and you are open about it, don't we have to right to write your boss and tell them we are boycotting his business because he employs you?
Is it illegal to fire someone for being a liberal or Democrat or Republican? I hope it is. But it's not illegal to boycott a conservatives business. Least not last I checked. And that's affecting his income or YOUR income. So keep your politics to yourself until you find out all your co-workers and customers are conservative because if I found out you were a con I'd look for a new supplier.
Do unto others as I would have them do unto you? Sorry pal. I'm an atheist. I would love it if theists didn't discriminate against atheists but the fact is they do. So, I keep my religious beliefs to myself. If not I would expect a lot of customers to stop buying from me. For one reason because I'm an atheist and for two I'm stupid to have let it become public. Same with your politics. Don't put that on facebook. You will lose friends. You don't care? Neither do I. But I do care if I lose customers.
You have every right to share as much or as little of your opinions and beliefs as you choose to do so. You have every right to run your business as you see fit for your own benefit.
You also have every right to boycott anybody you want to, to call people names, to insult their intelligence, or anything else you wish to do.
You even have the right to organize your buddies and picket my business, harass and threaten my customers, threaten my suppliers or advertisers or pretty much do anything you want to make my life miserable, punish me, and destroy me if you can because I don't agree with you.
That is pretty much legal. It shouldn't be, but it is.
But when you do that, you diminish us all, you weaken us as a society, and make us meaner, more coarse, more hateful, and more intolerant.
I think the message of Christ was that those who love God will do better. They will build people up, do good when all others are doing bad, and only those who have never sinned have any grounds to judge others as somehow morally inferior.
Thank God there are at least legal limits on how much you can harass and threaten other people and interfere with their lives. Now if we could only get the authorities to enforce those limits.
