Breibart News is the ultra-right wing outfit associated with Bannon. It espouses ultra-nationalism and hatred of Moslems, homosexuals, liberals etc etc. It now aims to subvert the elections of several European countries, and any advertising revenue paid to it helps in this effort. Several organisations have been campaigning to get advertisers to stop supporting Breibart News. So far some 900 companies have agreed to desist – quite a good effort.
But not all companies have CEOs with ethical outlooks. Shopify is a $1.9 billion dollar company with 325,000 online stores in 150 countries. It runs the online stores for a large number of companies and brands, including Budweiser, Red Bull, Tesla Motors, The Economist and Herschel. It also runs Breitbart’s online store — selling offensive clothing that tells migrant workers to “Get in line”, and boasts about building a border wall. Shopify’s CEO, Toby Lütke, maintains that the company and its software are “neutral” and that he has neither the right or the authority to decide what kinds of companies to do business with.
But when you are talking about misogyny, racism, xenophobia and homophobia there can be no neutrality. Epicureanism stands for toleration, respect and treating people the way you would like to be treated yourself. The world is the worse for the number of ruthless people who run their companies seeking profit alone, and paying no attention to the human needs and sentiments of employees, customers and the general good.
A reminder – this is why we have government and regulations – to try to get corporations to behave in a civilised way, even if the regulations irritate them. All the worse for those, including Shopify, who use weasel words to justify spreading slurs, slander, false news and hatred. We cannot, probably should not, ban Breibart, but We shouldn’t support it either. At least we can clip its wings by persuading people not to advertise with it.
This seems indicative of a wider trend: the radicalisation of the American right. It used to be that liberal TV hosts could have conservative guests on without much controversy. They would have a debate, which may get heated. But no one would question the right of the conservative to be there.
However, since the 2016 election, simply having a Trump supporter on is contentious. When Bill Maher had Milo Yiannopoulos on his show, many liberal commentators denounced Maher for giving a platform to an extremist. The trouble with Maher’s critics is that they want the Left to disengage from pro-Trump America. The country is already far too polarised. Not talking to your opponents will only make things worse.
So in this instance, Shopify may be wrong to sell bigoted merchandise. But where is the line drawn? Should newsagents stop selling National Review or Townhall Magazine? There is certainly homophobia (including transphobia) to be found in both. In the UK, should shops stop selling the Sun, the Daily Mail or the Express? To call those publications xenophobic is putting it mildly. And if so, should we boycott companies that advertise with them?
The point I’m trying to make is that we have to critically engage with our opponents, however objectionable their views may be. If the public discourse has become so toxic, even doing business for the other side is wrong, then democracy is broken. As a society, we can only achieve things if we come to some sort of common ground. In Trump’s America, that is far from a reality.