"Shop Somewhere Else"

Once upon a time, my small home town was offered the opportunity to host a WalMart. It would have been built right next to the city's bypass highway, behind the two major fast food franchises, easily accessible to all. It would have cost the city little to let them in – the corporation indicated they would refit all the necessary infrastructure to accommodate their needs. They didn't ask for much beyond a brief tax forgiveness, to be renegotiated after a certain amount of time.

The city council voted against the store.

Why did they do this?

Part of the argument was simple: competition. We have few stores in town, any more. The remaining handful of mom-and-pop places, here, have a hard enough time surviving against state and federal regulations regarding minimum wage, insurance costs, and such. Letting in a giant which can offset those costs via other states' lower tax rates and via sheer scale of trade? Well, that's just a guaranteed kiss of death to Tchotchky's Boutique and Corner Grocer, isn't it?

So, Walmart installed a newer, bigger superstore in the town that's our nearest competitor. It's close enough to us, we can easily drive there and back for the convenient bargains. They also, now, offer free delivery for many of their basic goods. They can do this, unlike Tchotchky's. They're giants, after all.

Tchotchky's is failing. Nearly all the Tchotchky's stores are failing. When the last of them is gone, we will have no choice but to shop at Walmart and other such superstore chains.

Now let us imagine that someone "upstairs" at Walmart decides a certain very popular, very widespread church is spreading dangerous beliefs through cult-like practices, and he must do something to stop this. He and his colleagues discuss this concern with the heads of Target, Aldi, and the other major supply chains of the region, and, in unison, they announce they will no longer do any business with this church's leadership, and with anybody who chooses to support this church. If it is known that you have a cleaning/maintenance contract with the church, you, also, are persona non grata at the superstores. If you are a remaining Tchotchky's owner/manager, and you sell to the church and its supporters, Walmart et al. inform your distributors that, until they stop deliveries to said Tchotchky's, the giants will no longer do business with those suppliers.

Pretty soon, every business is forced into a lockstep against the members and supporters of that church, if they want to keep afloat.

If you don't like their policies, you can "vote with your feet," right? Shop somewhere else. Simple as that.

The world's tech oligarchs today are telling people on social media, "if you don't like our hypocrisy, go somewhere else," as they do their best to brick up the gateways to every other "somewhere else."

Simple as that.

Try it yourself, sometime.