Recently, I gave up on a local business (a musical instrument store) that I have dealt with for over a decade. I walked in and saw a 'Black Lives Matter' sign. I don't support BLM because their methods are uncivilized and their guiding ideology (Marxism) is anti-human.
I communicated my disapproval of the sign. My problem is not just the message contained in the sign, but with the notion that it is wise to alienate clientele. I communicated my consternation with the President of the company and in the end, he admitted the error and indicated that the sign will come down in keeping with the policy that his chain will endeavour to be apolitical.
To my delight, the competing business I went to had no signage of any kind and already had a policy affirming an apolitical stand.
I don't have the time here to articulate a full and nuanced argument about how problematic and ironic it is for a commercial entity to be unnecessarily political. It is problematic because it is anti-business, and it is ironic, because it the politics being expressed seems to always be on the Left. And among the suite of Leftist 'causes' is anti-capitalism. I have never seen a business express 'conservative' or 'libertarian' politics, probably because to do so would be...redundant.
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Now another local business, (this time an independent movie theatre) has done the same kind of thing. In the past it has been political with signage signalling its 'guilt' at being situated on land allegedly promised to a particular Indigenous tribe. Nevermind that the land is now in a city founded over 200 years ago. This was self-serving virtue-signaling as the choice to be in business was just that, a choice. They have been political in their e-mail subscription too. Today I had enough. Today they advertised a screening of the coverage of the upcoming American election, but it was all moaning about how the Americans made a bad choice in 2016, and the resulting 'damage', blah, blah, blah.
So I unsubscribed and sent the following in the 'Tell us why you want to unsubscribe'. To be sure, they wouldn't offer to have us come and see coverage of Canadians changing government from the collection of corrupt incompetents we have now.
"I'm tired of the politics. I'm all for free expression, I really am. But I just can't understand it when a commercial entity, especially one that must be having a hard time, feels that it can afford to alienate its clientele. Doing so demonstrates immaturity and a lack of understanding of capitalism. Each and every commercial entity is a testament to the wonder of capitalism. Why is it that every commercial entity that feels the need to be political is on the Left? Does the irony of hating the very system you choose to operate under bother you? It should. The remedy is to stop doing one or stop doing the other. Or, you can do one well enough and the other becomes impossible."
